Revolut achieves ‘unicorn’ status following latest funding round

Digital banking alternative Revolut, which has 100,000 Irish customers, has raised $250 million (€205 million) in funding in a Series C round that increases its valuation to $1.7 billion (€1.4 billion).

The new valuation means the London-based company joins the list of tech firms that achieved “unicorn” status – worth more than $1 billion (€820 million) – and is one of the fastest European companies to get there.

The funding round was led by Hong Kong-based DST Global, with new and existing investors including Index Ventures and Ribbit Capital also taking part. Draper Esprit said it had committed up to $16.5 million in the firm.

The money will see Revolut embark on a global expansion plan, starting with the United States, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia in 2018. It will also mean an increase in staff; the company currently employs about 300 people, but expects that to almost triple to about 800 by the end of the year. The company is focusing on attracting engineers and designers.

Google working on universal ‘iMessage for Android’ experience

---

Four things to watch in Facebook’s results

---

WhatsApp raises minimum age to 16 in Europe

---

Trade war worries Philips as it banks on China growth

---

World-class tech

“Our focus, since we launched, has been to do everything completely opposite to traditional banks. We build world-class tech that puts people back in control of their finances, we speak to our customers like humans and we’re never afraid to challenge old thinking in order to innovate,” said chief executive and founder Nik Storonsky.

“To have DST Global on board is an incredible endorsement of our business strategy as we begin to expand Revolut around the world. Banking has historically avoided disruptions by technology, but that is all about to change on a big scale.”

Revolut has raised $340 million (€279 million) in total since its launch three years ago. It processes $1.8 billion (€1.4 billion) through the platform each month, and has nearly two million customers. It has set a target of 100 million customers in the next five years.

Disposable virtual cards

The company has signed up 100,000 Irish users, with about 40 per cent of them using Revolut as their daily card. It is aiming to increase that to 150,000 this year.

The company last month said it was rolling out disposable virtual cards in a bid to tackle online fraud. The cards can be created in seconds, and the card details are destroyed after every transaction, while new ones are automatically regenerated.

Among the other new features it has rolled out are the the ability to instantly buy and sell cryptocurrencies, and a savings feature that lets customers round up their daily transactions and save their spare change in a digital vault.