Revolut Private Investors Were Able to Sell Shares with a 40,000 Percent Profit

Vyacheslav Dvornikov

Dec 11, 2024

Investors who invested in Revolut at an early stage during two crowdfunding rounds, were given the opportunity to sell their shares at a price 400 times the initial investment cost. An offer to buy back shares at a price of $865.42 per share was received by about 3.5 thousand users of the startup investment platform Republic and about 400 users of the similar platform Crowdcube. Up to $9.1 million and $10.2 million will be spent on the buyback, respectively.

The sale is coordinated by Morgan Stanley, which valued Revolut at $45 billion. For comparison, in the last funding round in 2021, Revolut received a valuation from SoftBank and Tiger Global of $33 billion. Moreover, the new valuation exceeds the capitalization of British banks Lloyds, Barclays, and Natwest; in the UK, the fintech is second in value only to Europe's largest bank HSBC (£121.1 billion).

In July, Revolut received an important banking license in the UK after three years of negotiations with the regulator. The license will allow Revolut to directly attract deposits and increase lending volumes in its main market, where the company has over 9 million clients. This increase in deposits and lending is the company's main goal, notes FT. It is expected that the UK license will also improve Revolut's chances of obtaining a license in the US.

Earlier in August, fintech company employees were given the opportunity to sell their shares for $500 million. The buyers at that time were funds Coatue, D1 Capital Partners, and Tiger Global. In November, FT reported that early investors in Revolut — venture funds Index Ventures, Balderton, and Seedcamp — were given the opportunity to sell their shares. This time, the buyer was Goldman Sachs, acting in the interests of its wealthy clients. The valuation was the same — $45 billion.

Crowdcube users could buy Revolut shares at a price of $2.14 during a crowdfunding round in 2016, when the company was just a year old. At that time, it was valued at £42 million. In 2017, Revolut placed 1.36% of its shares on the Republic platform, known at the time as Seedrs, with a company valuation of £276 million. It is not specified who became the buyer of the shares from private investors now (the company itself or other funds).

Why this matters

For private investors who have invested in non-public companies, the opportunity to sell their shares before going public, especially with such a profit, is extremely rare.