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Revolut

File:Revolut Logo.png
Type of site	Private
Available in	Multilingual
Founded	June 28, 2014; 10 years ago (2014-06-28)
Headquarters	London, England
Founder(s)	Nikolay Storonsky, Vlad Yatsenko
CEO	Nikolay Storonsky
Industry	FinTech
Products	Debit card
Services	Travel money, currency exchange, peer-to-peer payments
Employees	15+ (2016)
URL	Official website
Registration	Yes
Launched	July 1, 2015; 9 years ago (2015-07-01)

Revolut is a global money app that includes a debit card (MasterCard), currency exchange, and peer-to-peer payments. Revolut currently charges no fees for the majority of its services, and claims to use interbank rates for its currency exchange (except from week-end rates when markets are closed, where a 0.5% markup is added to the Friday rate).

The London-based startup was founded by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko and currently supports spending and ATM withdrawals in 90 currencies and sending in 23 currencies directly from the mobile app.

The company is based in Level39, a financial technology incubator in Canary Wharf, London.

History

Revolut launched to the public in July 2015 with the aim of "building a fair and frictionless platform to use and manage money around the world" by removing hidden fees and offering interbank currency rates. Nikolay Storonsky, a former trader at Credit Suisse and Lehman Brothers, said in an interview with Forbes that:

I thought of the business three years ago. I was travelling a lot and wasting hundreds of pounds on foreign transaction fees and exchange rate commissions which just didn’t feel right. As someone with a financial background I knew exactly the rates I should be getting. As a solution, I tried to find a multi-currency card and was later told it wasn’t possible. But I was determined to make it work.

Alongside Vlad Yatsenko, former Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank developer, and Tom Reay, former developer at Expedia and Ocado, Storonsky set up Revolut and raised around $3.5 million.

Services

Revolut provides the following functionality via its mobile app:

• Add funds to Revolut account via a debit card payment
• Foreign exchange between US dollars, UK pounds sterling, and Euros
• Peer-to-peer payments to other users with a Revolut account and to those without a Revolut account via text, Whatsapp or email in 23 currencies

Revolut provides the following functionality via its debit card:

• ATM withdrawals
• Spend funds with merchants which accept MasterCard
• Spend in 90 currencies via the card, the user is automatically converted at the time of each transaction at the interbank exchange rate

Fees

Revolut claims to use the spot interbank exchange rate when markets are open. At weekends, when the markets are closed, a fixed rate is used with a small spread (0.5%) between the buy and sell rate.

In February 2016, Revolut introduced a Fair Usage policy, limiting free ATM withdrawals to the equivalent of GBP £500 per calendar month (2% fee above £500), imposing a 3% fee for debit card top-ups in USD, and no longer providing the interbank rate for illiquid currencies such as the Russian Rouble or the Thai Baht.

in December 2016 the fair use policy was updated reducing the free ATM withdrawal limit to 200 euro/gbp per month (https://revolut.com/fairusage)

There is a postage charge for replacing a lost physical card.

Card Availability

As of December 2016, Revolut is available to legal residents of EU and some of its members' dependency territories. It aims to be available worldwide in the future.

Company Funding

In July 2015 Revolut announced it had received £1.5 million in venture capital funding from a consortium which included Balderton Capital, Seedcamp, and Venrex Investment Management.

Media Attention

Revolut is top of the charts for the best FX rates, as seen on Which and was recognized by industry leaders such as KPMG’s exclusive 2015 list naming Revolut as 1 of 50 FinTech companies to watch. Revolut was awarded Best Emerging Payments Startup and named 1 of 3 favorites at TechCrunch London Disrupt Startup Alley by their top editors.

See also

• List of foreign exchange companies
• Financial technology

References

1. "Revolut company timeline". Crunchbase. Retrieved 11 January 2016.
2. "Revolut company profile". AngelList. Retrieved 11 January 2016.
3. Dillet, Romain (20 July 2015). "Revolut Raises $2.3 Million For Its Mobile Foreign Exchange Service". TechCrunch. Retrieved 11 January 2016.
4. ^ "Revolut on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2016-06-19.
5. ^ "Revolut: Not necessarily cheaper than an(y) other Mastercard". Retrieved 13 March 2016.
6. "Revolut FAQ". Revolut. Retrieved 11 January 2016.
7. "About Revolut". Retrieved 2016-09-11.
8. "Revolut Deck". SlideShare. 2015-01-14. Retrieved 2016-09-11.
9. ^ Salter, Philip. "London Fintech Entrepreneur Talking About A Revolution". Forbes.
10. "Revolut Fair Usage Policy". Revolut. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
11. https://revolut.com/faq/gettingstarted.php?cat_id=1&cat_name=Getting%20Started
12. "Euro and Dollar prepaid cards reviewed". Which UK. Retrieved 12 January 2016.
13. "KPMG & H2 Ventures". KPMG & H2 Ventures FinTech Innovators. Retrieved 12 January 2016.
14. "And the winners are..." Emerging Payments Awards. Retrieved 12 January 2016.
15. Butcher, Mike; Biggs, John. "Startup Alley Showcase with John Biggs and Mike Butcher". TechCrunch.

External links

• Revolut website

• Foreign exchange companies