As per a report by Reuters, the deal with Visa expands an existing agreement between the two firms, leading Revolut to expand from its current markets of Europe and Australia to open in the United States and Singapore by the end of this year, with Canada and Japan to follow.

The British-based digital banking firm will also launch in other Latin American and Asian markets next year.

As part of its expansion plan, Revolut looks to hire 3,500 new employees, bringing its total headcount up to 5,000. However, the expansion into new markets is subject to regulatory approvals.

One of the emerging digital-only account providers, Revolut has seen immense growth since 2015 and boasts more than 8 million customers. Further, its average customer holds around 1000 euros in their account, giving a total deposit balance of around 8 Bn euros ($8.74 Bn). It has present tough competition to incumbent banks who are trying to keep up with technology and innovations with apps, money management tools and attractive offers on foreign exchange.

But besides this immense growth, Revolut has also been in the news for the wrong reasons. It faced media reports about a cutthroat work culture and questions from Britain’s financial watchdog earlier this year about its sanctions-checking systems.

However, Chief Executive and Founder of Revolut Nikolay Storonsky shared that they have learned from their past mistakes are more hopeful about the future. 

“We are a different company than we were two to three years ago, we’ve learned lessons,” said Storonsky. 

Almost 80 percent of financial institutions have entered into fintech partnerships, as per McKinsey Panorama and global venture capital (VC) fintech investment in 2018 touched $30.8 Bn. 

Another report by Business Insider highlights that besides the US and UK, there are plenty of other countries like Australia, Switzerland, and China, which have managed to leverage their stable financial centers of Sydney, Zurich, and Shanghai, respectively. These regions have been able to spur fintech development and attract funding. Further, other countries like Brazil, Israel, and Canada are also emerging and expected to play a big part in the global fintech ecosystem in the future. 

Considering the expected growth of the fintech market and the potential of these growing markets, Revolut’s expansion plan seems to be on track. However, it needs the support of the right talent in all of these regions to achieve all of its business goals and growth plans. The focus for the British-based digital banking firm hence has to now be on attracting the right skills and investing in people who help drive its growth agenda. 

Image source: financial times.com