Revolut is a global money app that includes a pre-paid debit card (MasterCard), currency exchange, and peer-to-peer payments. Revolut currently charges no fees for the majority of its services, and claims to use interbank rates for its currency exchange ).
The London-based startup was founded by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko and currently supports spending and ATM withdrawals in 90 currencies and sending in 23 currencies directly from the mobile app.
The company is based in Level39, a financial technology incubator in Canary Wharf, London.
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History
Revolut launched to the public in July 2015 with the aim of "building a fair and frictionless platform to use and manage money around the world" by removing hidden fees and offering interbank currency rates. Nikolay Storonsky, a former trader at Credit Suisse and Lehman Brothers, said in an interview with Forbes that:
I thought of the business three years ago. I was travelling a lot and wasting hundreds of pounds on foreign transaction fees and exchange rate commissions which just didn't feel right. As someone with a financial background I knew exactly the rates I should be getting. As a solution, I tried to find a multi-currency card and was later told it wasn't possible. But I was determined to make it work.
Alongside Vlad Yatsenko, former Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank developer, and Tom Reay, former developer at Expedia and Ocado, Storonsky set up Revolut and raised around $3.5 million.
On 8 February 2017, Revolut launched UK current accounts, enabling its customers to get a personal IBAN. In July 2017, users can get a personal EUR IBAN.
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Services
Revolut provides the following functionality via its mobile app:
- Add funds to Revolut account via a debit card payment
- Foreign exchange between US dollars, UK pounds sterling, Euros, New Zealand dollars, South African rand, Danish krone, Polish zloty, Swiss francs, Norwegian krona, Swedish Krona, Romanian leu, Singapore dollars, Hong Kong dollars, United Arab Emirates dirhams, Australian dollars, Turkish Lira, and Israeli new shekel
- Peer-to-peer payments to other users with a Revolut account and to those without a Revolut account via text, Whatsapp or email in 23 currencies
Revolut provides the following functionality via its debit card:
- ATM withdrawals
- Spend funds with merchants which accept MasterCard
- Spend in 90 currencies via the card, the user is automatically converted at the time of each transaction at the interbank exchange rate
Fees
Revolut claims to use the spot interbank exchange rate when markets are open. At weekends, when the markets are closed, a fixed rate is used with a small spread (0.5%) between the buy and sell rate.
In February 2016, Revolut introduced a Fair Usage policy, limiting free ATM withdrawals to the equivalent of GBP £200 per calendar month (currently a 2% fee above £200 on the standard plan), imposing a 3% fee for debit card top-ups in USD, and no longer providing the interbank rate for illiquid currencies such as the Russian Rouble or the Thai Baht.
in December 2016, the fair use policy was updated reducing the free ATM withdrawal limit to 200 Euros/GBP per month.
There is a postage charge for replacing a lost physical card.
Card availability
As of July 2017, Revolut is available to legal residents of EU member states and some of its members' dependency territories and in Switzerland. It aims to be available worldwide in the future.
Company funding
In July 2015, Revolut announced it had received £1.5 million in venture capital funding from a consortium which included Balderton Capital, Seedcamp, and Venrex Investment Management. In July 2017, it announced a new $66 millions raise
Press coverage and award
Revolut was awarded Best New Customer Facing Innovation at the 2016 Emerging Payments Awards, and named 1 of 3 favorites at TechCrunch London Disrupt Startup Alley by their editors.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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