(19 December 2024 – United Kingdom) Revolut is on the cusp of launching a standalone trade and supply chain finance offering, marking the US$45 billion fintech’s initial step toward business lending.
Jacob Atkins reports for GTR that Revolut has advertised for a Head of Trade Finance, seeking an experienced professional to lay out “the vision for the trade finance business from scratch”. Revolut did not respond to an interview request and written questions from GTR about its plans for trade finance.
The fintech signed a worldwide agreement with Visa in September to launch Instant Card Transfers for Revolut Business customers, was granted an EU banking licence in 2021 and a restricted UK banking licence in July this year. Revolut staff and early investors have sold almost US$1 billion in shares since August after the fintech’s UK banking licence shored up support from major financial institutions (FIs).
Stripe in February allowed employees to cash out almost US$1 billion in shares at a US$65 billion valuation by selling to institutional investors including Sequoia Capital.
Revolut is reinforcing its focus to support large enterprise clients with Revolut Business 5, which provides an enhanced user experience across both mobile and desktop platforms to meet the evolving needs of industry leaders.
“Revolut’s interest in trade finance is an example of an exciting trend of fintechs filling a gap in the SME market created by banks’ focus on larger and more profitable clients. The mid-cap businesses using Revolut for payments represent a business development opportunity on the lending side” Casterman Advisory Managing Director, André Casterman quoted to GTR.
“The company may be eyeing using trade finance to help monetise data collected from its payments activity and increase the “stickiness” of current clients.”