Digital bank startup Revolut valued at $33 billion after raising $800 million in new funding led by SoftBank and Tiger Global

UK fintech startup Revolut announced Thursday it has raised $800 million in a new funding round led by SoftBank and Tiger Global. Revolut is now valued at $33 billion, a sixfold increase on the $5.5 billion the company was worth last year.

The latest funding round also makes Revolut Europe’s second-largest fintech unicorn, behind buy-now-pay-later giant Klarna, according to data from CB Insights. The new funding will also provide Revolut the much-needed capital after the unicorn startup reported more than double losses this year due to risk control costs increase.

As we wrote back in June, Revolut reported a £32.8 million net loss on revenues of £58.2 million for 2018. The reported loss was more than double the £14.8 million loss the 6-year old British started posted a year earlier. A year later, raises $500 million at a $5.5 billion valuation, making it one of Europe’s most valuable startups along with e-commerce payments start-up Klarna.

The London-based Revolut provides a digital banking alternative that includes a pre-paid debit card, currency exchange, and peer-to-peer payments. Revolut is an app-based banking alternative designed for a global lifestyle.

The UK-based startup was founded in 2015 by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko. 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 is a former trader at Credit Suisse and Lehman Brothers. Vladyslav Yatsenko is a former Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank developer.

The Revolut mobile app supports spending and ATM withdrawals in 120 currencies and sending in 29 currencies directly from the app. It also provides customers access to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and XRP by exchanging to or from 25 fiat currencies.

In March 2019, an exposé of the company’s employment practices and culture was published by Wired. This found evidence of unpaid work, high staff turnover, and employees being ordered to work weekends to meet performance indicators. A more recent article suggests that the company has responded to the criticism.

Revolut became the UK’s most valuable financial technology startup in February 2020 after a funding round that more than tripled its value. This comes after the company announced it had raised $500 million from a group of investors led by the US fund Technology Crossover Ventures