Revolut reflections and how they have outperformed…once again

When we first invested in Revolut in March 2015, we had no idea it would take off the way it did. If we’d known, we might’ve taken them somewhere a bit nicer than Nandos to celebrate…

At the time of investment, Revolut didn’t have a product or customer, and the product demo we were presented didn’t even work fully. While other VCs were (understandably) put off by this, we decided to take the gamble. We saw something special in Nik and Vlad, whose outsized global ambitions really stood out. At the time, everyone else building in the space was focused on the UK alone, but from the very start Revolut had its sights set on becoming a global category leader. We didn’t know if that would happen, but we figured if anyone could do it, it would be this team.

The initial product idea was really focused on the FX piece. Elsewhere in the market, Monzo was just getting started on trying to build a bank, and there were a few players doing well in FX (such as Wise) but they focused primarily on money transfers rather than actually spending money abroad. Revolut’s proposition required taking on 24/7 FX risk, and building that backbone with tech infrastructure was actually really hard to do. But Nik’s background in FX coupled with Vlad’s engineering skillset meant they were uniquely qualified. There was already a race going among companies looking at this, but Nik’s plan was to make the product so cheap and the UX so good that it would go viral (meaning basically zero marketing cost at the beginning).

That plan worked – almost too well. The company started growing faster than anyone could have anticipated. Revolut just did one thing exceptionally well and provided so much utility to its customers that word of mouth messaging was easy, and organic growth really took off. But alongside that astronomical growth came a constant deluge of new challenges as regulators, third party providers, and the industry-at-large tried to get their heads around this new platform. In those first few months and years, we spent a lot of late nights trying to ensure the product could keep up with demand, and that the appropriate AML, safety and security controls were in place, all the while negotiating with regulators and industry partners who, understandably, had a lot of reservations.

With such impressive traction and growth, it wasn’t long before other VCs started knocking on the door, and by the end of 2015 our friends including Index had joined us as co-investors.

In the ten years since, Revolut has become the world’s leading financial super app. They’ve added a host of new products and features, worked tirelessly with the regulators to implement sophisticated, bank-like governance practices, ultimately being awarded a banking licence last year, and built a world class team to continue delivering on their global ambitions. The company today has over 52.5M customers, across 38 countries, over $4bn in revenues, net profit (repeat net profit!) of $1bn and a $45bn valuation, and shows absolutely no sign of slowing down. It has been such a privilege to be along for the ride with Nik, Vlad and the whole team over the past 10 years and we know they are only getting started.

Read the full 2024 results: https://lnkd.in/eWVGzhJV