Revenue grew to £58.2m in 2018, from £12.8m in 2017, driven by the continuing development in the core product offering, user base and the activity of Revolut’s customers.

The principal direct costs of the business continue to be card scheme costs, acquiring costs and user acquisition costs. Cost of sales grew at 247%, improving the gross profit margin for the business as revenue growth exceeded cost of sales growth. Net losses for the year amounted to £32.8 million, but cost efficiencies have been achieved across the business due to the substantial increase in customer base and transaction volumes.

Revenue growth for 2019 is forecast to be around 3 times that of 2018. This is driven by customer growth, new product launches, optimisation of existing products, and market expansion. Over 800,000 new users joined Revolut in both August and September 2019, demonstrating the huge popularity of the company’s range of products.

Gross margin(1) for H2-19 is forecast to be 40-50%, up from less than 10% in H2-18. The company’s gross profit margin has expanded significantly as the business has built scale. This provides a critical foundation for continued future growth and profitability, which has been highlighted by Revolut topping the Sunday Times Tech Track 100, marking it as the fastest growing private tech company(2) in Britain.

Nik Storonsky, CEO, Revolut said “The end of 2018 feels like a long time ago, but these figures are an important stepping stone in our sustained growth as a business. The leap forward in revenue, and customer numbers, since the beginning of 2019, shows that the reason we started this business continues to be vindicated: to meet major untapped need to solve the problems so many of us have with money management. We are very proud of the uptake so far and it’s great to see so many of our customers using us for their everyday banking needs.

“2019 is set to be another year delivering record growth, but our work is not done and we are determined to reach all those who need us. This means maintaining our ambitious growth and expansion plans, which are now fuelled by substantial improvements to our profitability, and the key appointments we’ve been making.”

A step closer to mass adoption for a range of banking needs

To date, the total number of Revolut customers is now over 7 million across the UK and Europe, with over 800,000 new users joining Revolut in both August and September 2019. The company is now recording an average 3.7 million monthly active users and an average 1.1 million daily active users. Total transaction volumes since Revolut’s launch in 2015 are now more than $85 billion.

In the past year, Revolut has successfully launched and developed a range of services for this growing customer base, taking it significantly beyond its origins as a travel and FX product. In addition, the number of customers paying for subscription packages (Premium and Metal) to get the full benefit of this multifaceted offering has increased 550% since January 2018.

The roll out of Trading is disrupting the traditional stock brokerage market by giving all Revolut customers commission-free access to the stock market, with unlimited free trades for metal users; Revolut Vaults has enabled over 1.7 million users to use individual or group savings pots; the charitable giving feature Donations has raised over €440,000 for WWF, Save The Children, ILGA Europe and the Rainforest Alliance since launching less than three months ago; while upgraded members can now receive dedicated concierge, airport lounge access, global travel insurance and device insurance.

A financial services revolution on a global scale

Revolut’s scale of customer uptake is evidence of the vast need across the globe for better financial services. Following the launch of Revolut’s public beta in Australia in June, Revolut is in the process of a phased roll out of services to USA, Canada and Singapore in the coming months (subject to regulatory approval where applicable). 230,000 people are currently on waiting lists around the world, including over 120,000 in the USA.

Growth underpinned by strong business governance

Since Revolut’s launch, building robust governance procedures to cope with customer demand has been a primary focus. The total number of employees is now over 1,400, with further investment recently announced for a new tech hub in Berlin, new office in Krakow and an additional compliance and customer services hub in Porto.

A wide range of appointments at Executive level have been made in the past few months to strengthen the management team, including: Richard Davies has joined as Chief Operating Officer, formerly of HSBC and OakNorth; David MacLean will join as Chief Financial Officer, formerly of Metro Bank; Philip Doyle, former Head of Financial Crime at ClearBank, will join as Director of Financial Crime Risk; Stefan Wille, ex Senior Vice President of Finance at N26, has joined as Deputy CFO; and Wolfgang Bardorf, previous Head of Global Liquidity Models at Deutsche Bank, will join as Treasurer. Revolut has also appointed leadership teams for Ireland and Lithuania [link to press release].

New appointments at Board level in 2019 include ex Silicon Valley Bank Global COO Bruce Wallace, and ex Deloitte partner Caroline Britton, with further appointments in progress subject to regulatory approvals.

Alongside appointing key hires, since the end of 2018 Revolut has implemented a range of governance enhancements as part of its risk management framework. This includes a Board Risk and Compliance Committee, Board Audit Committee, and Executive Risk Committee. Further governance enhancements are planned to be made before the end of 2019 to match the growing scale of the business.

Commenting on the year ahead, Nik Storonsky said “Alongside expansion, our focus for the next year is to continue working hard to reinforce the team and governance structures needed to support a business growing at this scale.”