British startup Revolut wants to make it easier to spend and send money in all kinds of currencies around the world. It’s not TransferWise, it’s not Number26 — Revolut sits between all these things. And the company is raising a $10 million Series A (£7.75 million) with Balderton Capital leading the round.
Other investors include Ribbit Capital, Index Ventures, Point Nine Capital, Seedcamp and Venrex. But the company is also trying something different as Revolut customers will be able to participate in today’s round.
Out of the £7.75 million round, Revolut is offering £1 million in an equity crowdfunding round on Crowdcube. The good thing about this kind of process is that we get to learn more about some of the company’s metrics.
For instance, Revolut has 200,000 registered users and is currently adding 1,500 users per day. It has processed more than $500 million in transactions so far and is currently processing $4 million in transactions per day.
Crowdfunding investors will be able to view updated metrics directly within the Revolut app — quite neat.
After creating your account on Revolut, you get a sort of electronic wallet in three different currencies — USD, EUR and GBP. You can then top up your account in any of these currencies using a credit card or a bank transfer.
After that, you can either spend or send this money. Revolut lets you send money to other Revolut customers, but the company also lets you initiate a more traditional wire transfer for free.
The company tries to match the interbank rate as much as possible and is transparent about the exchange rates it is using. Revolut supports 23 currencies with this feature, making it a good TransferWise alternative.
But that’s not all, you can also order a good old plastic card and pay in 90 different currencies. Revolut also uses the interbank rate to debit your Revolut account. The company works with Paysafe to accept payments and issue MasterCards. While Revolut isn’t a full-fledged bank account, it is an interesting tool for people who travel a lot.
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