Founder of fintech firm Revolut Perestersky becomes Russia’s latest tech billionaire
Russia has a new tech billionaire after the fintech firm
Revolut raised $500mn this month, lifting the worth of the company’s founder
and CEO, Russian-born Nikolai Perestersky, to $1.65bn, RBC reported on February
16.
Founded in 2015 and based in London by Perestersky and
Ukrainian national Vlad Yatsenko, Revolut provides an online banking service
that focuses in particular on providing multicurrency services cheaply. The
company has just completed another round of financing and raised $500mn to fund
further expansion, bringing its overall valuation to $6bn.
Perestersky is believed to own 30% in the company, according
to two Forbes sources, which puts his personal fortune at $1.65bn. Revolut
declined to comment on the deal that was first reported by the Daily Telegraph.
Already providing its services to most of Europe, Revolut
plans to launch soon in Russia, the US, Japan and other markets where it is not
yet present.
PitchBook claims that the main investor in the latest fund
raising was Technology Crossover Ventures, which contributed $150mn to the
latest round of fundraising and has previously invested more than $13bn in
technology companies like Airbnb and Spotify.
Revolut COO Richard Davis told the Financial Times that the
$500mn raised will allow the startup to “double that amount of growth”. At the
end of September, the company announced a partnership with Visa to launch
operations in 24 new countries.
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