Tennis champ Andy Murray is one of tens of thousands of investors to have pledged to join a multi-million pound crowdfunding round for digital banking outfit Revolut.
More than 40,000 Revolut customers from 55 countries clamoured to pre-register for the crowdfund, meaning that £17 million has been pledged, although the startup is only looking to raise £4 million to complete its £50 million Series B funding round.
World number one Murray has committed to invest in the firm as part of his long-term partnership with Seedrs, the London-based equity crowdfunding platform. The tennis ace joined the Seedrs Advisory Board in 2015 and has since regularly used it to make investments.
Revolut promises customers the ability to open an account in 60 seconds, make free international money transfers with 16 currencies in-app with the interbank exchange rate and spend fee-free globally with a contactless MasterCard.
Last week, the outfit launched personal IBAN accounts across Europe allowing customers to have their salary paid directly into their Revolut account. Also in the pipeline is cryptocurrency integration, allowing customers to hold, spend, exchange and transfer internally in Bitcoin, with Litecoin and Ethereum soon to follow.
For business customers Revolut recently launched business accounts across Europe, allowing companies to hold, exchange and transfer in 25 currencies with the interbank exchange rate, issuing employees corporate cards for global fee-free spending.
Nikolay Storonsky, CEO, Revolut, says: “We are incredibly excited to open our Series B round to as many members of our 750,000 strong community as possible through our crowdfund on Seedrs. Word of mouth by our loyal customer base is the reason that Revolut has achieved so much in just two years.
"As a token of our appreciation we are offering them the chance to play a longer term role in the fintech revolution by owning equity in a fast scaling fintech as we embark on our global mission."