UK FinTech startup Revolut, which lets customers transfer, exchange and spend money using its multi-currency card, is reportedly close to raising more than £50m despite showing losses.
As a result, the company, which has raised $15.06m in equity funding to date and recently secured an undisclosed amount of debt financing, will see its valuation raised to £300m.
According to Sky News, Revolut is in the final stages of talks with investors and its upcoming round is expected to be led by existing backer Index Ventures. Sources cited also said Ribbit Capital was expected to take part in the fundraising.
The news comes after Business Insider reported that the company’s first year of full accounts reflected a loss of £7.1m on £2.3m of revenue.
As the publication quite rightly pointed out, it’s not rare for early-stage businesses to lose money, but what is perhaps most striking in this case is that the losses were put down to the “cost of sales” – essentially what it costs companies to produce a good or supply a service – which in this instance amounted to £7.8m.
To counteract this, former Credit Suisse trader Nikolay Storonsky, the founder and CEO of Revolut, told Business Insider that the company was on track to reach 1 million users by the end of this year.
If the numbers are to be believed, it’s fair to say Revolut has shown somewhat impressive growth since it first burst on the scene in the Summer of 2015, and this likely what has piqued the interest of investors and encouraged them to take part in follow-on rounds.
Revolut says it has over 600,000 users and has completed $28.4m worth of transactions to date.