Visa and Revolut have announced a new agreement that will help the financial services startup expand its business globally, extending its presence to five new regions and 23 markets.
Revolut, headquartered in Great Britain, will also hire around 3.500 employees to support this expansion. " We have around 1.500 employees now and by the summer of next year we plan to have around 5000 ," Revolut's CEO and founder, Nikolay Storonsky, told Reuters.
The UK startup already had expansion plans for four markets that are, in fact, a priority: the United States, Canada, Singapore, and Japan.
In Partnership with
The new partnership with Visa will help expand the business to other countries, "but they are not an immediate priority, nor are there any set deadlines for this," says a Revolut source. These are 23 additional markets: Australia, Brazil, Canada, United States, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, followed by South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Korea, Philippines, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine, and Vietnam.
The four new priority expansion markets will see at least 75% of all Revolut cards be Visa. In Europe, the ratio between Visa and MasterCard remains 50%-50%.
8 millions of customers
Revolut has grown at a breakneck pace since its launch in July 2015 and now has over 8 million customers.
The global push could see Revolut double or triple its customer base in the coming year, Storonsky said.
Storonsky told Reuters that the average Revolut customer has around 1000 euros in their account, giving a total deposit balance of around 8 billion euros, a "small fry" compared to global banking giants like HSBC and JPMorgan with total deposits of over one trillion euros.
But, along with its peers, Revolut has moved traditional banks to increase their digital capabilities, as customers show a preference for Fintechs with their simpler applications, money management tools, and attractive currency offerings.
