FinTech ‘Unicorn’ Revolut Shows Positive Growth in 2019 Annual Fiscal Report

Revolut, a tech ‘unicorn,’ and one of the more promising FinTech platforms on the market today, has recently released its annual fiscal report.  The annual fiscal report touches on the various accomplishments, setbacks, and financial markers surrounding the company’s operations throughout the 2019 fiscal year.

By the Numbers

Revolut has various developments to share, and the numbers seem to be trending in a positive direction.

The following is one key metric provided, which demonstrates the direction that its decisions have resulted in – active users.

• 2018 : 3.5M
• 2019 : 10M
• 2020 : 13.5M and counting

As its user base increases, so do its cash holdings on the users' behalf, with this total jumping from £903M in 2018 to roughly £2,281M in 2019.

Furthermore, Revolut notes a substantial increase in 2019 revenue vs. 2018 (£162.7M vs £58.2).  Of course, larger operations also result in great operational costs.  Revolut witnessed a substantial jump in revenue as well as a tripling of operational costs over the same time frame, jumping to £107.4M in 2019 from £34.01M in 2018.

While expansion into new markets may be fuelling this jump in revenue, expansion has been made possible in the first place by a series of successful capital raises.  Revolut successfully raised £580M in investments in the first half of 2020 alone, and we expect to see additional funds raised.

Service Expansion

Undoubtedly, various platform features implemented over the course of 2019 are also responsible for a portion of Revolut's growth.  A few examples of these include:

• Support for Apple Pay
• Commission free trading of U.S. listed stocks
• Expansion to Singapore, Australia*, United States*, Japan*

*launched in beta

Looking Forward

Despite not turning a profit, 2019 was an overall positive year for Revolut, considering its ongoing desire for global growth.  Looking forward, the company has already established a game plan to ensure profits are one day realized.  The following is an excerpt from the fiscal report, touching on what these plans entail.

• Future investment in the technology infrastructure and development of the core product offering to Revolut customers,
• Continue to operationalize Revolut Bank UAB and the roll-out across other European markets,
• Obtain further regulatory authorizations required to expand our product offering across jurisdictions,
• Develop existing operations in international jurisdictions including North America and Asia Pacific whilst continuing to expand our operations across the UK and EEA,
• Further investment in the customer support, risk and compliance infrastructure

Canadian Expansion

Whether looking at the revenue or losses sustained in 2019, each can be largely attributed to a desire for global expansion.  Revolut has established a strong foothold in both the United Kingdom and Europe and has plans for expansion.

One example is the company’s anticipated entrance into Canada.  Although Revolut has not provided an anticipated launch date for Canadian services, interested users can currently join a waitlist for early access.

When this entrance inevitably occurs, Revolut can expect strong competition from various other FinTech outfits establishing themselves in Canada.  We recently touched on an example of this, as Canadian based, WealthSimple, launched a new crypto trading service.

As each of these companies develop and launch new services, the companies simultaneously become more comprehensive, and closely linked as competitors.  Whether looking for investment capabilities, savings accounts, crypto trading, pre-paid debit cards, etc. – Revolut and its competitors have you covered.

Looking beyond these two, and the increasing list of FinTech companies following suit, it would not be surprising to find truth in rumours that PayPal will soon join the fray.

Revolut

Founded in 2015, Revolut is a FinTech company, with operations based out of London, England.  In the time since launch, Revolut has developed a suite of services surrounding digital banking.  Adoption of these services has allowed the Revolut team to expand, totaling over 2000 employees, to date.

CEO, Nikolay Storonsky, currently oversees company operations.