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Revolut has secured a valuation of $45 billion through a share sale by employees, defying a general downturn in the fintech industry and cementing its status as Europe’s most valuable start-up.
The British fintech company said on Friday that Coatue, D1 Capital Partners and Tiger Global were among the institutional investors that bought shares from employees.
“We are pleased to give our employees the opportunity to benefit from the company’s shared success,” said Managing Director Nikolay Storonsky.
The valuation is higher than the $33 billion Revolut raised in a 2021 capital raise led by SoftBank and Tiger Global.
The latest figures will make Revolut’s IPO on global stock exchanges even more interesting. The UK Treasury has scheduled talks with the company this autumn to persuade it to choose a London listing rather than New York.
According to a person with direct knowledge of the assessment, the fintech company continues to support a possible IPO on the Nasdaq.
Revolut co-founders Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko told the media last year, when the fintech company was still in regulatory limbo, that they preferred to keep the company private but would likely choose New York if it went public.
The London Stock Exchange “is much less liquid, so I just don’t see the point in it,” Storonsky said at the time.
The share sale comes after Revolut was granted a UK banking license last month, ending more than three years of wrangling with regulators and paving the way for the company to expand in its home market.
Despite the long wait for a British license, Revolut already has more than 45 million customers worldwide. In the UK, where the company was founded in 2015, it has around 9 million customers.
Revolut already has a European banking license from the Lithuanian authorities and also received a license from the Mexican government this year.
However, obtaining the coveted UK license is seen as a vote of confidence that increases Revolut’s chances of being regulated as a bank in other markets such as the US.
