Revolut announced Tuesday the round, led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm TCV, means the bank is now valued at over $5.5 billion. Although investors from previous rounds have also participated, the company has not disclosed any other names. Revolut looks to challenge existing traditional banks, for example by undercutting their prices on services.
Revolut, the London-based bank that allows users to purchase cryptocurrencies on its app, has raised more than $500 million in a Series D funding round.
Tuesday’s news means the company has now raised a total of $836 million in its funding rounds.
Launched in 2015, Revolut provides its 10 million users with easy access to a host of financial services. New users can open an account in minutes, and the company has expanded the number of supported features including adding an equity trading platform and insurance brokerage.
Revolut added bitcoin (BTC) to its platform in July 2017, soon after its $66 million Series B. Ether (ETH) and litecoin (LTC) followed later that year, with bitcoin cash (BCH) and XRP (XRP) support coming in May 2018. Revolut allows users to send cryptocurrencies to other users in the app but does not allow them to send to any external users or pay for goods and services in crypto using the Revolut card.
Revolut said funding will improve existing products and services as well as expand its outreach outside of its U.K. base. It also plans to begin offering loans to both its retail and business banking customers.
«Going forward, our focus is on rolling out banking operations in Europe, increasing the number of people who use Revolut as their daily account, and striving towards profitability,» Revolut CEO and co-founder Nik Storonsky said in a statement.
The company did not specify whether any funds would go towards improving its cryptocurrency offering.
Reginald Fowler Rejects Plea Deal in Crypto ‘Shadow Bank’ Case
Reginald Fowler, a former investor of the U.S. football team Minnesota Vikings, has rejected a plea deal with the U.S. government in an ongoing case that accuses him of operating «shadow bank» services tied to crypto exchanges.According to a letter submitted by the prosecutor of the case on Jan. 31, Fowler «rejected the current plea offer» on Jan. 30 and the U.S. government «has formally withdrawn that offer.» As such, the parties will move to trial as scheduled on April 28.
Fowler was indicted in April 2019, along with Israeli national Ravid Yosef, by the U.S. government for allegedly, among other charges, running «shadow bank» services that are tied to Crypto Capital.
Crypto Capital is a payment processing firm that has facilitated fiat currency onramps for several crypto exchanges including Bitfinex, Kraken, the now-defunct QuadrigaCX, among others.
The payments firm is also involved in another ongoing case filed by the New York Attorney General against Bitfinex and its sister company Tether, which accused the two of using a secret loan to cover a loss that Bitifnex alleged was caused by Crypto Capital.
It was reported in December that Fowler was initially expected to plead guilty to at least some of the charges. According to a Bloomberg report on Feb. 1, the plea deal was for Fowler to admit to one single felony if he would forfeit as much as $371 million.
