Revolut launches a premium subscription and starts raising a new round

Fintech startup Revolut has been a free service and that’s not going to change. But the company is adding a premium tier with more features for £6.99/€8.50/$8.50 per month in 42 European countries.

If you sign up to the new “Premium Account,” you’ll receive a MasterCard with a new design. There are three different options and I love pink so I think they look quite good.

But the card is just the visible element. Premium accounts get unlimited interbank foreign exchange when you spend, transfer and exchange money with your Revolut account. Free users can send, spend and exchange up to £5,000/€6,000/$6,000 (or equivalent) per month. After that there’s a 0.5 percent fee.

Revolut is going after recurring Transferwise customers who transfer big amounts of money to another bank account. If you transfer or spend more than £6,400 per month, then it becomes more interesting to get a Premium account over a standard one. It’s not for everyone, but expats with a comfortable salary could be interested.

Premium users can also withdraw £400/€400 (or equivalent) per month for free instead of £200/€200. There’s a 2 percent fee on ATM withdrawals after those limits.

In addition to those better fees, premium users get global medical insurance, free card replacements and better support. The company promises that there will be more features in the future.

In other news, Revolut is going to raise $5 million (£4 million) on equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs. Those who sign up for a premium account will get early access to the funding round in case it’s oversubscribed.

The startup also plans to raise from VCs. The crowdfunding round is just going to be part of a bigger Series B round.

Revolut now has 550,000 users. After signing up, you receive a MasterCard that lets you spend money anywhere around the world without a fee. You can top up your Revolut account in USD, GBP and EUR using a credit card or bank transfer.

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