Digital bank Revolut valued at $33bn as investor demand for fintechs soars

Digital bank Revolut raised $800m from investors including SoftBank Group’s Vision Fund 2 and Tiger Global Management at a $33bn valuation, the latest sign of investor demand for fintechs.

The new money will be used to fund London-based Revolut’s expansion into new products and markets including the US and India, according to a statement Thursday.

The funding increases Revolut’s valuation sixfold from a fundraising round in 2020 and makes Revolut the UK’s most valuable start-up, surpassing Checkout.com’s $15bn mark. It is also makes it more valuable than retail lender NatWest Group Plc, which now has a market value of $32.7bn.

Such valuation spikes have become a common theme in fintechs in 2021 as demand grows for their offerings. Swedish start-up Klarna Bank, which lets online customers pay for their shopping in instalments, raised cash at a $45.6bn valuation in June after a series of funding rounds that more than quadrupled its valuation in less than a year.

Money-transfer company Wise carried out a direct listing on the London Stock Exchange in July, more than doubling its value in about a year.

And German digital bank N26 is holding discussions with investors to raise several hundred million dollars in a fundraising that could value it at about $10bn, people familiar with the matter have said.

Revolut has about 15-million personal customers and 500,000 businesses using its products, which include bank accounts, international money transfers, cryptocurrency and stock trading as well as bill paying and budgeting tools.

Sky News reported the fundraising earlier. In June, Bloomberg News reported that Revolut was in the early stages of a funding round that could value the British company at $20bn.

Revolut saw its operating losses double to £201m ($278m) in 2020 as rapid growth around the globe caused staff costs to surge.

Bloomberg News. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com