Revolut: Inside Nik Storonsky’s $75bn fintech empire still waiting for its crown
In Revolut’s shiny new Canary Wharf headquarters, the command ‘Get Sh*t Done’ is bolted onto the walls.
The unconventional office mantra is a stark reminder of co-founder Nik Storonsky’s acerbic, straight-talking manner that has kept the gas pumping at the UK’s most valuable fintech since it opened for business in 2015.
“Whenever a target is set, you should expect to be challenged,” says one former insider.
“Not just why isn’t this two times higher, but ten times higher.”
“People would laugh and see it as a throwaway comment” the former staffer recalls, “and it would just hang in the air”.
But for Storonsky, his ambition of creating a $100bn powerhouse was never a laughing matter.
In just over a decade, the Russian-born billionaire turned Revolut into a sprawling financial empire spanning dozens of countries and multiple continents, throwing its plodding, centuries-old British banking rivals on the defensive.
Storonsky sealed the $75bn price tag for his digital bank last November – a major milestone that was bound to leave top bank bosses even more skittish on Revolut’s rise.
Paul Thwaite, chief of Natwest, which traces its roots back to 1727, reacted to the news saying Revolut had “raised the bar”, while Barclays boss CS Venkatkrishnan said the firm had “laid down the gauntlet”.
But quite how did Revolt leave such established rivals in the dust?
Revolut’s radical candour
One ex-employee recalls an episode with an executive: “Unless you can give me an intellectually compelling reason, I’m not going to accept the bar being set.”
“They always speak about radical candour,” another insider adds, “People are brutally honest with one another, a lot of those niceties and corporate dogma is lost”.
The figures stand in Revolut’s favour. Just five years after Storonsky founded the digital bank with chief technology officer Vlad Yatsenko, Revolut closed a Series D funding round with a $500m injection that valued the business at $5.5bn.
Fast-forward another five years, in 2025 the neobank’s price tag rocketed to $75bn with a fresh raise that included investment from chipmaker Nvidia, cementing the firm that “gets sh*t done” as leaps and bounds above its fintech peers and side by side the City giants.
The last 12 months also saw Revolut’s revenue climb 72 per cent to £3.1bn as it diversified its revenue streams across crypto, hotel bookings and mobile plans.
But in its rapid march to the top, the fintech has become no stranger to questions over its corporate culture.
One former employee says Storonsky and Yatsenko are “very close to all the products” with a “very hands on” approach beyond some of their peers at rival firms.
The Revolut mafia
Just a few years ago the neobank was reported to be assembling a team to track whether staff were being “approachable” and “respectful” in a bid to combat a perception around its aggressive corporate culture.
In its annual report released last year – where it revealed profit had more than doubled to £1bn – the company said it had adopted a points-based system to track employee compliance, aptly dubbed ‘Karma.’
The system, which some might view as dystopian, is said to “evaluate engagement with risk and compliance processes, resulting in employees gaining and losing points that will ultimately affect bonuses”.
But the revelation did little to quell Revolut’s ruthless image, though it’s an atmosphere many employees are quick to defend.
“I don’t think too many people are particularly negative on it,” one former employee reflects.
“Given that most of them are millionaires.”
Indeed, it is this fortune many Revoluters have revelled in. Analysis of Companies House records shows over 200 individuals were positioned to become millionaires if they chose to sell their stakes in Revolut’s secondary share sale last year that priced employee’s stock value at $1,381.06 per share.
These well-heeled fintech pros who helped the Revolut ship leave the dock aren’t just cashing their rewards at the bank and calling it a day, however. The rise of the ‘Revolut Mafia’ – a term coined to refer to the powerful network of former employees and executives – has paved the way for the next generation of fintech talent.
These include former group operating officer of Revolut Richard Davies’ small business lender Allica Bank, which was named the fastest-growing fintech ever by Deloitte, and Belvo headed up by the ex-General Manager of Revolut’s Spanish division Pablo Viguera.
One of the more dominant players in the club is Fuse, which struck a $5bn valuation after a $70m investment round in December.
Fuse is led by Alan Chang, who started as an operations analyst at Revolut in 2015 before clawing his way to chief revenue officer by 2021.
“Unusually, [Alan] played a very outsized role [at Revolut],” one former insider says.
“He was essentially Nik’s number two”.
Yet it appears Chang – who counts himself as employee number three at Revolut – wasn’t able to shed corporate controversy after he kicked off his own firm.
At the beginning of the year, Fuse was battling off accusations of mistreating staff following a report in the Observer, which led to the firm issuing a statement that it maintains high standards but does not “exploit talent”.
Licences and listings
While the rate of Revolut’s growth has been explosive, it’s also brought with it complications.
In September, the fintech opened the door to its swanky new London HQ for a midday bash on the 13th floor of the YY building with fintech execs, journalists and even the Chancellor of the Exchequer making an appearance.
Storonsky used the occasion to once more double down on what he referred to as his “number one priority” of obtaining a full-fat UK banking licence.
The comments came alongside a speech from a beaming Rachel Reeves after Revolut had pledged a £3bn investment into the UK as part of its global strategy.
Despite the multi-billion pound vote of confidence Revolut still finds itself lacking a full banking licence – and taking jabs from industry veterans for it.
The digital bank received the greenlight for its provisional UK banking licence from the banking watchdog in 2024 after a three-year wait, which triggered what was widely expected to be a 12-month “mobilisation stage” before full authorisation is granted.
But ahead of the provisional 25 July deadline for mobilisation, insiders told CityAM the deadline was unlikely to be met.
In a response to CityAM at the time, Revolut said it was “looking forward to launching as a fully regulated UK bank… [in 2025]”.
Chair Martin Gilbert had also anticipated “formally starting” operations “during 2025”. Revolut points out that the mobilisation stage is the largest and most complex ever undertaken in the UK.
But the second half of the year only brought more tribulations for the neobank after a report from the Financial Times suggested Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey had blocked a meeting brokered by Rachel Reeves between Revolut and regulators.
The move put Revolut at the centre of a major political clash after Reeves had hoped the summit would help drive Revolut’s goal to become a fully fledged bank in the UK. Bailey was said to have poured cold water over any hopes of a meeting amid concerns of political interference in regulatory matters.
The FT has also reported worries over the fintech’s ability to keep at pace its risk controls with global expansion were holding up the regulator’s final stamp of approval.
Bosses of the incumbent banks pulled no punches as Revolut was set to enter the New Year without the one thing it spent 2025 seeking.
Barclays’ CS Venkatkrishnan told a London banking conference in November he takes financial controls imposed by a licence “very seriously”.
“That is the contract – if you don’t have that contract, then you will have the questions… about how to manage [a bank’s financial controls],” he said when asked about the threat of Revolut to the traditional banking landscape.
But the fintech swung back with speed, issuing a statement that it “abides by the same regulatory and consumer protection standards as any traditional bank”.
Revolut’s friction with regulators has spiked fears that the fintech was losing patience with London.
Last July, a Revolut source told CityAM international expansion was becoming a bigger focus amid a “general feeling of frustration” with the City.
The second-half of 2025 bore witness to an aggressive overseas expansion mission for the neobank including regulatory approvals in the Middle East and America. And this doesn’t look to be slowing down, with nearly a hundred job advertisements open for the UAE and 77 in Dubai, according to the latest posts on the company’s website.
It still hasn’t stopped chatter of a blockbuster London IPO – no matter how much cold water Storonsky continues to drown the notion in.
In a Russian-language interview in December, he said a listing was “not a priority” and would “most likely” come in “two or three years”.
He also added it would be “clearly more beneficial” to head to Wall Street due to the “greater liquidity” in a major blow to Reeves’ charm offensive on the firm.
The City may slowly be coming to terms with the brutal truth of this, too, after many had pinned hopes on Revolut as the ultimate turn-around listing for the London Stock Exchange.
Raise the prospect of a London listing to the experts today and the reaction is telling: one City analyst offered a mute, pitying shake of the head, while another didn’t bother hiding the laughter.
A spokesperson for Revolut said: “We are progressing through the final stages of mobilisation and continue to work constructively with the PRA.
“Given Revolut’s global scale, this is the largest and most complex mobilisation ever undertaken in the UK. A thorough review is an expected part of the process and getting this right is more important than rushing to meet a specific date.”
They added: “Our focus is not on if, when or where we IPO, but on continuing to expand the business, building new products, and providing better and cheaper services to serve our growing global customer base.”