- Digital banking app Revolut reported revenues of £636.2 million ($766.9 million) in 2021, three times what it made the previous year, and swung to a net profit of £59.1 million.
- For 2022, Revolut gave a trading update saying it expects revenues to have grown more than 30% to £850 million.
- Revolut was late in producing its accounts to the U.K. company register Companies House in time for a Dec. 31 deadline.
Financial technology giant Revolut reported its first-ever annual profit in 2021, according to financial accounts released Wednesday, as subscriptions to its paid packages and overall usage of its app grew sharply. The company reported revenues of £636.2 million ($767.1 million) for the year, three times what it made the previous year, and swung to a pre-tax profit of £59.1 million. In 2020, Revolut recorded a pre-tax loss of £205 million.
Mikko Salovaara, Revolut’s chief financial officer, told CNBC the results were the product of Revolut’s diversified business and diligent cost control. The worst possible scenario would be if Revolut wasn’t sustainable or if it were to require external funding,” Salovaara said. “The reality is we don’t require external funding. We continue to invest in our business providing products people can rely on.”
For 2022, Revolut gave a trading update saying it expects revenues to have grown more than 30% to £850 million. As a privately held firm, it is not required to share frequent quarterly reports. Revolut’s announcement is a rare positive piece of news in a fintech market that has been plagued by mass layoffs and huge valuation cuts as investors reassess the space amid worsening macroeconomic conditions.
Klarna, the Swedish buy now, pay later fintech, saw its valuation plunge 85% to $6.7 billion last year. On Tuesday, the firm posted a record $1 billion loss in its 2022 fiscal year. Asked about Revolut’s valuation Wednesday, Salovaara said he couldn’t say how much the firm was worth since it hasn’t raised cash since 2021, but he’d be “hard-pressed to believe investors wouldn’t continue to be pleased with our performance.”
However, Revolut was late in producing its accounts to the U.K. company register, Companies House, in time for a Dec. 31 deadline. They were finally signed off by BDO, Revolut’s auditors, last month.
Revolut reportedly faced concerns from U.K. regulators over the robustness of its internal financial controls. In September, BDO’s audit of Revolut’s 2021 accounts was deemed “inadequate” by the Financial Reporting Council, which said that “the risk of an undetected material misstatement was unacceptably high.”
The company, which has no physical branches, offers digital banking, money transfers, and cryptocurrency and stock trading through a single app. It competes with the likes of Wise, Monzo, and Starling.
Founded in 2015 by former Lehman Brothers trader Nikolay Storonsky and software developer Vlad Yatsenko, Revolut has quickly grown to become one of Europe’s largest fintech unicorns, with a valuation of $33 billion. Revolut has been pushing hard into overseas markets, in particular the U.S., where it currently has over 500,000 clients. The firm has also opened operations in Brazil, Mexico, and India. In November, Revolut announced it had 25 million users worldwide.
