Revolut’s 2022 revenue grew 33% despite crypto winter

LONDON, March 1 (Reuters) – Fintech company Revolut made its first full-year profit in 2021 and recorded a 33% jump in revenue last year, its finance chief told Reuters.

Revenue at the company increased to more than 850 million pounds ($1.03 billion) in 2022 on the back of payments, subscriptions and business accounts, CFO Mikko Salovaara said, despite a decline in crypto, which is a key part of the group’s business.

“We’ve built strong momentum,” the 31-year-old executive said in an interview at Revolut’s headquarters in London.

The company has just signed off on its 2021 annual accounts after months of delays as it replaced its internal accounting systems after the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), a UK body responsible for regulating auditors, found Revolut’s audit “inadequate”.

“Our accounting system needed replacing,” Salovaara said. “We were held to the highest possible accounting standards.”

Revolut will retain accountancy firm BDO for the 2022 audit, it said.

Revenue from the crypto business shrank in 2022 as the crypto downturn hit the firm. The crypto business accounted for about 5-10% of total revenue last year, Salovaara said.

The company swung to a £26m profit in 2021 helped by the boom in cryptocurrency trading, the accounts show.

CEO Nikolay Storonsky has previously said the firm was profitable in 2021. In 2020, it made a loss of £223m, according to Revolut’s accounts.

Salovaara refused to say whether the company will be profitable in 2022.

The fintech company expects to publish its 2022 accounts by June, but it could take longer.

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Revolut was valued at around $33 billion in its latest funding round in 2021, making it the UK’s most valuable startup. Since its debut in 2015, it has raised about $1.7 billion from SoftBank and others.

Salovaara, who joined Revolut in 2021 from investment firm 3G Capital, said the company does not plan to raise money anytime soon.

“We are self-reliant,” he said. The firm will “eventually become a publicly traded business, but that is not a priority.”

Publication of the accounts could pave the way for a British banking license that Revolut applied for two years ago.

“We are in the very last stage of the process,” the finance director said, adding that the relationship with the UK regulators has been “reasonable”.

Revolut is likely to opt for a “restricted authorization,” a person close to the matter told Reuters in January. This places certain limitations on the business.

Revolut’s total staff costs increased by 9% in 2021, the records show. The number of employees will double by 2022 to more than 6,000, the company said.

It aims to expand internationally, including in India where it bought foreign exchange firm Arvog Forex, as well as in Brazil and Mexico. It will launch in New Zealand in the coming weeks.

($1 = 0.8288 pounds)

Reporting by Stefania Spezzati. Editing by Jane Merriman

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