DST leads $250m series-C for Revolut

Kenny Wastell
26 April 2018

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Hong Kong-based venture capital firm DST Global has led a $250m series-C funding round for UK-headquartered fintech business Revolut.

The deal gives the company a valuation of $1.7bn and takes the total amount raised by Revolut to $340m.

The fresh capital will be used to fund Revolut's international expansion strategy, starting with the US, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia this year. It also aims to increase its headcount from 350 to 800 by the end of the year, with the majority of the new recruits likely to be engineers and designers.

New and existing investors including Index Ventures, Draper Esprit and Ribbit Capital also took part in the round, with Draper Esprit contributing $16.5m towards the total.

The investment comes nine months after Revolut raised $66m in a series-B funding round led by Index. The business has since launched a platform that enables users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, and personal IBAN accounts across Europe, enabling customers to have their salaries paid into their accounts.

Since first receiving funding as a foreign exchange and international money transfer platform offering inter-bank rates, Revolut has expanded its services to include current accounts for consumers and businesses.

Previous funding
Balderton led a £1.5m round for Revolut in July 2015, with Seedcamp also taking part. The following February, Index led a £1.7m round for the company with Balderton, Seedcamp, Point Nine Capital, Venrex Investment Managers and other angel investors also participating.

Balderton then led a £7.75m funding round for the company in July 2016.

Index led a $66m series-B round for Revolut in July 2017, with Balderton and Ribbit also taking part.

Company
Founded in 2014 and headquartered in London, Revolut is an online banking platform. It allows users to open bank accounts, as well as make foreign exchange transactions and international transfers across 25 currencies at inter-bank rates.

Revolut currently has two million customers and is targeting 100 million in the next five years. It has 250,000 daily active users, according to a statement, and is currently signing up customers at a rate of 6,000-8,000 per day.

People
DST Global – Tom Stafford (managing partner).
Index Ventures – Martin Mignot (partner).
Draper Esprit – Simon Cook (CEO).
Revolut – Nikolay Storonsky (founder, CEO).