Revolut Seeks $500M To Staff Global Expansion

Revolut, a British-based banking app, wants to raise $500 million to continue hiring and expanding into new markets, according to a report by Reuters.

The digital banking startup wants to expand more into the U.S. and into Japan, among other markets. Revolut has been successful in the U.K., and it’s forced traditional high street banks to add more digital services as more and more people discover it. The company offers money management services, as well as foreign exchange offers that are enticing when compared to traditional services.

“We want to raise at least $500 million in direct equity and potentially, maybe at a later stage, up to $1 billion in convertible (debt),” Revolut CEO and Co-Founder Nikolay Storonsky said. “We have done soft marketing with investors and we are continuing doing it, so hopefully in the next several months, we’ll get it done.”

The FinTech has over 8 million customers, and it was launched in 2015.

Just this year, the company launched in Singapore and the U.S., and it has brokered partnerships with large legacy payment companies such as Visa and Mastercard. The digital banking firm wants to up its staff to 5,000. It now has about 1,800 employees.

“Right now, I would say 60 percent of my time is just spent on hiring,” Storonsky said.

Revolut is looking for data scientists, support staff, technology developers, compliance experts and high-level executives to work in management positions.

The digital banking company said it’s talking to private equity investors and growth funds about investments between $50 million and $100 million. Storonsky said investors are becoming more cautious about funding large startups, adding that Revolut has large revenues and high growth margins compared to other startups in its field.

“There’s still demand for good healthy businesses but investors are now much more focused on profitability and unit economics compared to a year or two years ago when it was all about growth and market domination,” Storonsky said.