Billion Dollar Unicorns: Revolut Looks To Expand In The US

According to a 2017 Allied Market Research report, the global neobanking market is expected to grow 51% annually through to the year 2020. Neobanks are the new kinds of banking organizations that use technology to provide complete online banking solutions to its customers. They do not have physical offices and branches and allow customers to complete all transactions online without expecting them to visit a bank. UK-based Billion Dollar Unicorn Revolut is one such neobank that recently acquired the Unicorn status.

Revolut’s Offerings

Revolut was founded in July 2015 by finance industry veterans Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko. Prior to setting up Revolut, Nikolay was a trader with Credit Suisse where he witnessed the extremely high fees charged by traditional banks for cross-currency transactions. Vlad was a tech guru who had been building financial systems for a tier-1 investment company. Together, they decided to set up a financial organization that was geared towards today’s global economy, offering customers the ability to transact for free across currencies and geographies.

Today, Revolut offers four key products. Its Money Transfer service allows its customers to transfer money abroad for free, using the Interbank Exchange Rate that is used by banks to trade between themselves. The service is available for money transfer in up to 26 countries. To help its users achieve savings goals, Revolut offers a service called Vault. Users can digitally transfer money to the Vault as their savings fund and even use the account to buy Cryptocurrencies. Recently, the company added a digital budgeting tool that tracks spending and savings targets in real-time to help its users achieve their financial goals. Finally, its Cryptocurrency product allows users to buy, hold, and exchange Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ripple at the best available exchange rate. Revolut does not charge any deposit or subscription fee but charges a 1.5% markup on the exchange price as part of this offering.