Revolut Seeks to Sell $500 Million Worth of Shares at $40B Valuation

Potentially most valuable startup in Europe Revolut is looking to liquidate 4 billion worth of its existing equity as per the Financial Times report on Thursday, Jun 20. This move aligns with other private companies seeking alternative liquidity options for shareholders amid the sluggish IPO market.

As per the report, FinTech firm Revolut shall be working with banking giant Morgan Stanley for the stake sale. The move will also help it free up extra cash for early investors and existing staffers, said sources familiar with the matter.

The FT report also states that Revolut is doing the current stake sale at a valuation of $40 billion, up from its $33 billion valuation back in 2021. For years, FinTech firm Revolut has been seeking a banking license from the UK regulator with the goal of offering additional services in the home market. In the past few years, Revolut has added several new customers to its pool.

Revolut announced that its revenue for 2022 surged by 45% to £922.5 million ($1.17 billion). While the company has yet to report its results for the past year, it had earlier projected that revenue for 2023 would be around £2 billion.

dRevolut for long has been preparing for an Initial Public Offering (IPO), however, it awaits the right time for public listing amid the tepid equity market. However, holding on for a long time wasn’t an option as some early investors and employees were awaiting the stake sale to generate some liquidity.

Revolut’s Plans for Crypto Exchange

Digital bank Revolut has launched its crypto exchange, Revolut X, catering to professional cryptocurrency traders. London-based Revolut, with over 40 million customers globally, developed Revolut X to compete with top crypto exchanges. After enabling crypto buying and selling within its app for several years, Revolut announced in February that it would introduce a dedicated exchange.

With a standalone exchange in place, Revolut will be able to offer a seamless trading experience to users instead of indulging in buying and selling through the Revolut app. Also, the exchange will provide the trading facility at lower fees.

While some banks provide cryptocurrency trading services to their customers, Revolut is among the first to establish a dedicated standalone crypto exchange for this purpose.

As per the latest report, banking giant Standard Chartered is also working on building a trading desk for BTC and ETH. Thus, Revolut is likely to face strong competition from traditional market players.