More Than Just a Bank: An Andreessen Horowitz Partner Suggested Revolut's Valuation Could Rise to $1 Trillion

Revolut’s $115 billion valuation, achieved by the fintech company during its latest share sale, has made it more valuable than any British bank except HSBC. This is far from the limit: the value of Nikolai Storonsky’s London-based startup could increase tenfold, Andreessen Horowitz partner Alex Immerman suggested in an interview with the Financial Times (FT); the venture capital firm participated in Revolut’s latest stock offering.

Experts interviewed by the FT warn that transforming the fintech startup into a full-fledged bank and expanding into 30 more markets will increase costs and require an expansion of the staff in risk management, internal control, and lending. Another challenge for Revolut is to earn the trust of depositors.

“I truly believe Revolut could be worth $1 trillion,” Immerman said. “It’s one of the most interesting companies in the world. When we see an opportunity on a truly global scale, we take notice,” he added. Revolut already has more than 80 million customers in 40 countries, the FT notes.

“The main thing that sets Revolut apart is a product that users truly love and talk about with each other,” Immerman noted. This sets the fintech apart from American neobanks, which still have to attract the majority of their customers through advertising.

The service’s ability to grow rapidly through user referrals convinced one of Revolut’s earliest investors—Bullhound Capital—to invest in the company, said Alon Cooperman, a partner at the firm.

In terms of its range of services, Revolut now resembles a traditional bank less and Chinese apps like Alipay and WeChat more—apps that integrate payments with a wide array of other services. “If they get everything right, Revolut has clear potential to become a one-stop app for financial services. This is exactly the scenario investors believe in,” says Igal El Harrar, head of the technology division at BNP Paribas.

Another advantage is revenue from several sources that are comparable in scale. In 2025, three-quarters of Revolut’s £4.5 billion in revenue came from cryptocurrency and foreign exchange transactions, card payments, and subscriptions to premium services. None of the key business segments accounted for significantly more than one-fifth of total revenue. Four investors cited this as a strength of the business: such a structure reduces dependence on interest rate fluctuations, according to the FT.

“Revolut’s ability to consistently execute on its plans, combined with its digital model, makes it a ‘serious contender to become a major player in the pan-European banking market,’” says Brendan O’Boyle, head of financial services at Coatue. “The company has many opportunities for success. In most European markets, the service’s penetration rate is still below 10%, and in terms of revenue per user, Revolut has barely begun to tap into its potential,” he added.

According to FT sources within Revolut itself, the company’s founder, Nikolai Storonsky, ultimately looks to Silicon Valley’s tech giants rather than traditional banks. “This is a tech company. Perhaps the closest analogy is with companies like Amazon,” said one of Revolut’s top executives.

In March 2026, Revolut received a full banking license in the United Kingdom. The license allows the company to accept deposits and use the funds raised to provide loans within the country. However, some observers question whether Revolut will be able to—and willing to—develop this line of business, according to the FT.

“If the company does not make a strategic acquisition, it will likely take several years to establish a borrower assessment process, build a lending infrastructure, and accumulate the capital required by regulators to expand lending,” the newspaper quotes a report by JPMorgan analysts as saying. In 2025, Revolut’s loan portfolio more than doubled to £2.2 billion, but remained small even by the standards of highly specialized lending institutions, the FT notes.

According to El Harrar of BNP Paribas, Revolut has been in an exceptionally advantageous position up to now. “The company was able to grow rapidly while assuming almost no credit risk. As the loan portfolio expands, the profitability of this business line could become particularly important,” he said. Revolut itself acknowledges that lending involves risk, the FT notes.

Another obstacle is a lack of trust among depositors. “It’s all about trust,” says independent banking analyst John Cronin. “People simply don’t trust Revolut enough to keep large sums of money there. If the company is serious about attracting more deposits, it will have to address this issue.”

An analysis conducted by Citibank in April 2026 showed that the average deposit balance at Revolut is significantly lower than at the four largest British banks. At the same time, only a small portion of customers use fintech accounts to receive their paychecks. As a result, Revolut’s revenue per user is significantly lower than that of its traditional competitors. The company itself expects that a full banking license and deposit protection of up to £120,000 will help strengthen customer confidence, according to the FT.

Revolut plans to spend £10 billion to expand into 30 additional markets by 2030. According to JPMorgan, these plans will “significantly complicate regulatory compliance and the company’s day-to-day operations, as well as increase costs, uncertainty, and risks.” Costs will rise in part because Revolut’s operations will be subject to oversight by more regulatory bodies.

“Any large traditional lending institution has entire armies of specialists in risk management, internal controls, and lending. Revolut has some of these specialists, but since the company hasn’t yet operated on a comparable scale, it will have to significantly expand its staff,” Cronin warned.

Cooperman of Bullhound Capital believes that stricter requirements will bring Revolut more benefits than risks. “It may become more difficult to maintain the current pace, but this drawback is offset by a very robust supervisory framework,” he told the FT. According to Cooperman, a British banking license will boost the confidence of regulatory authorities in other countries in Revolut and accelerate its international expansion.

One European investment banker believes that Revolut could transform the banking market. “If they succeed, it will accelerate integration,” he told the FT. According to the banker, traditional European banks envy Revolut’s unified global model: their own IT systems are poorly integrated, and their divisions operate in silos.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor