Revolut Eyes Indian Market, Initiates with $25 Million Investment

Revolut, a 5.5 billion fintech firm which is also one of Europe’s largest start-ups has set its focus on the India market lately. Revolut offers everything from money transfer and exchange, to wealth management, stock trading, loans, peer-to-peer payments and even cryptocurrency trading that may not be offered in India.

However, the digital banking and financial services startup is planning to enter India with an initial investment of $20-25 million, states its co-founder Nikolay Storonsky in his statement. Being established in 2015, the London headquartered startup has built a strong presence across various countries and is also looking forward for a banking licence in the US. Furthermore the company claims that it has more than 13 million users. In 2019, the firm also reported of £162.7 million and its losses that stood at £107.4 million.

Nikolay says, “Revolut will soon apply for a payments and trade licence in India, and later will look at expanding to heavy weight operations like banking.”

The company is planning to launch in India by the end of 2021 and it would start with its free products and hopes to make good revenue from the same to launch subscription models as well.

In Europe, the company has four subscription plans that offers users a Revolut banking card, cashback on payments, enables international payments among other things.

Furthermore, the company is also all set to go through the acquisition way, if need be. Nikolay states, “There are multiple reasons why we would acquire a fintech player in India. First of the reasons is because of licence, when you enter a new market you always have a choice, you either partner with someone or you get your own licence. If you have a product that takes a long time to get a licence, in that case we may partner. We are still investigating all possibilities, but most likely will go through the organic route by applying for our own licenses.”

In India, the startup is expected to face competition from the rivals such as Razorpay, Paytm, PhonePe and even stock broking apps like Groww, IndMoney among others