Digital banking firm Revolut has raised an impressive $250m (£179.55m) in Series C funding from Hong Kong-based DST Global.
Rumours of a possible funding round circled earlier this month.
The London-based FinTech startup’s valuation has risen fives time in less than a year – to $1.7bn – as a result of the investment.
Silicon Valley investors Index Ventures and Ribbit Capital also contributed to the raise, which brings Revolut’s total raised to date to $340m since it launched just three years ago.
This new funding will be used to take Revolut to the US, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia in 2018. The money will also go to try to grow its workforce from 350 to around 800 employees, focusing on engineers and designers.
Nik Storonsky, founder and cEO at Revolut spoke about the mission: “Our focus, since we launched, has been to do everything completely opposite to traditional banks. We build world class tech that puts people back in control of their finances, we speak to our customers like humans and we’re never afraid to challenge old thinking in order to innovate.
“To have DST Global on board is an incredible endorsement of our business strategy as we begin to expand Revolut around the world,” he added.
Revolut was launched in July 2015 as a alternative to mainstream banks. It claims that users can set up a current account on its app in 60 seconds, spend in over 150 currencies with no fees and hold and exchange 25 currencies ‘in-app’.
Revolut has also launched new features, such as allowing customers to buy and sell cryptocurrencies and track savings.
According to Revolut, it processes $1.8bn each month, from its nearly 2 million total customers. It aims to have 100 million customers in the next five years.
DST Global is a global investment group headquartered in Hong-Kong and founded by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner.
Tom Stafford, managing partner at DST Global commented on the news: “Revolut is developing and delivering technology that reduces the complexity and cost of financial services for consumers and small businesses.
“We are delighted to support Nik and the Revolut team as they continue to innovate, roll out new services and expand geographically.”
Check out our UK tech investment tracker for the latest industry deals.