Revolut, a British- Lithuanian financial technology company, was founded in 2015 by two young entrepreneurs, Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko. Revolut Bank UAB is licensed as a bank by the European Central Bank and regulated by the Bank of Lithuania. Its headquarters are located in London.
The company has quickly established itself as a leader in the fintech space and has disrupted the traditional banking industry with its innovative approach to banking services.
Revolut offers accounts featuring currency exchange, debit cards, Apple Pay, interest-bearing “vaults,” crypto, commission-free stock trading, and other services. Revolut has expanded its market all over the world and expanded its staff from 1500 to around 6000 members. As of 2022, the company’s valuation stood at US $33 billion, making it the most valuable UK tech startup at the time.
So how did two young entrepreneurs build a billion-dollar financial technology company? Let’s take a look.
History behind Revolut
Revolut was founded on July 1, 2015, by Nikolay Storonsky from Russia and Vlad Yatsenko from Ukraine. The company was originally based at Level39, a financial technology incubator in Canary Wharf, London.
Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko were motivated to start Revolut because they saw an opportunity to improve the way people manage their finances. They recognized that traditional banks were failing to meet the needs of modern customers and were not making the most of technological advancements to enhance the customer experience. They decided to create a company that would use technology to make it easier for customers to access and manage their finances, and that would provide a wide range of financial services at a lower cost than traditional banks.
Since being launched in 2015, Revolut has grown quickly from strength to strength amid multiple funding rounds and has seen a complete rise of the company and has raised billions of dollars in investment capital. Its mid-July funding round brought in another US $800 million, increasing the company’s valuation sixfold from 5.5 billion US Dollars in 2020 to US $ 33 Billion last year.
The fintech startup started to get noticed in the US market when it launched commission-free stock trading on the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, before announcing several hires with traditional banking experience that helped it secure a global agreement with Visa, which opened doors to 24 new markets and thousands of new staff. The company began to double and triple in value during the following funding round, and by 2020, it had become the UK’s most valuable fintech startup. Revolut’s fintech app was officially launched in major international markets like the US, Japan, and Singapore and began to show a profit by the end of that year.
In 2021, Revolut focused on growing its footprint as a challenger bank, leveraging its specialized banking license to become a bank in Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, and many more.
Revolut has now enlarged its portfolio of services to become a true financial “super app” by offering an array of banking services alongside its fee-free currency exchanges, including stock trading debit cards, P2P payments, and cryptocurrency exchanges.
Factors behind the success of Revolut
One of the key factors in Revolut’s success has been the vision and leadership of its founders. The company’s culture and strategic direction have been significantly shaped by Storonsky and Yatsenko. They have a thorough understanding of the financial technology market and have been successful in assembling a talented and committed team of professionals to support the development and expansion of the business.
Additionally, Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko have been successful in building a sizable and expanding customer base, and their business has built a solid reputation for offering a seamless and convenient customer experience as well as a broad range of financial services at a lower price point than traditional banks. This has helped in attracting a large and growing customer base of individuals and businesses and has established Revolut as a provider of high-quality financial services.
In conclusion, Revolut is a financial technology company that was founded by two young entrepreneurs, Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko, with dreams and ambitions. The vision and leadership of the founders combined with their commitment to using technology to enhance the customer experience and provide a wide range of financial services at a lower cost than a traditional bank, have helped to establish the company as a leader in the fintech space and a provider of high-quality financial services. The success of Revolut is a testament to the entrepreneurial spirit and the vision of its founders.