The company is only 6 years old, barely balances its accounts and is now worth a third more than the market valuation of Société Générale. Revolut, a neobank created in the United Kingdom in 2015, announced, Thursday, July 15, to have raised 800 million additional dollars (more than 670 million euros), which values it at 33 billion dollars (28 billion euros). euros). In comparison, Société Générale is worth 21 billion euros on the stock market.
This stratospheric valuation is six times higher than that obtained by Revolut in February 2020, during the previous fundraising carried out just before the pandemic. Since then, the switch to digital has accelerated sharply, while money is flowing more than ever in new technology companies.
It offers savings accounts, offers brokerage services, advances of a few days on the payment of his salary …
Like many of these companies in the “Fintech” (“Financial technology”), Revolut started out in international money transfer, a sector where commissions were particularly high in traditional banks. Then, the company, which has no branch and is mainly used as a mobile phone application, gradually extended its services, getting closer and closer to a bank, without yet having all the regulatory constraints.
She offers savings accounts, offers brokerage services, advances of a few days on the payment of her salary… In Lithuania and Poland, she has started to make loans to individuals and credit cards. In France, it has been present since 2017 and has 1.5 million customers. The company specifies that the term “neobank” cannot be used for France or even for the United Kingdom, where it currently does not have a banking license. She owns one in Lithuania and has applied for one in the United Kingdom and the United States.
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As always with the valuation of new technology companies, the question of profitability seems almost secondary. In 2020, Revolut realized an operating loss of 200 million pounds (235 million euros). It nevertheless claims to have made great progress, approaching balance in the fourth quarter of 2020 and having reached it in the first quarter of 2021. But what interests investors is above all the spectacular growth of the group, which has gone from 10 million customers in 2019 to 16 million today.
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