How did Revolut grow?

by Craig Cochrane July 30, 2024

How did Revolut Grow? Well, remember the days of terrible foreign exchange rates and extortionate non-domestic purchase fees? Our banks weren’t the kindest to us when we wanted to travel, but with issue comes opportunity. An opportunity that in 2015 Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko looked to capitalise on. In this article we try to understand how Revolut spotted this gap in the market. Growing to a company now valued in the £billions.

How it started

Frustrated with the high fees that epitomised the environment. The duo set about revolutionising the space and came up with their first product in 2015. The product was a simple idea, a prepaid debit card that allowed users to spend money in multiple currencies at the interbank exchange rate. They called it Revolut.

Revoluts carefully crafted and simple to use mobile app interface along with its significantly cheaper fees in comparison to traditional brick and mortar banks, meant that it quickly gained traction with a viable customer offer. A clever use of a referral program along with influencer marketing and social media marketing created the level of visibility it needed to accelerate growth and attract additional funding.

With the success routed in low cost currency exchange. Revolut now continues to expand its offering with a range spanning business accounts and savings accounts to stock trading and crypto.

With revenues of £850m in 2022 and over 25m customers worldwide it is safe to say that Revolut has come a long way since 2015.

How Did Revolut grow? Key Takeaways

Revolut found its bearings through a customer issue. Spending on traditional bank banks in other countries was somewhat frustratingly expensive. Revolut looked to change that and offered significant value to customers by allowing them to save big money on fees.
Even with an obvious value proposition a cost-effective and strategic marketing campaign is still required. Revolut understood their target audience and spelt out the value it was offering to them through channels they were familiar with
Word of mouth and recommendations always prove to be a big factor in organic growth. Revolut incentivised its growing customer base to spread the word.