Revolut’s UK CEO has warned that London faces the risk of losing its dominance in the fintech industry to New York.
Francesca Carlesi stated on April 15, that the threat of losing talent to US companies was “the biggest threat” for Britain’s fintech industry, which has seen a decline in investment over the past few years.
Ms Carlesi, speaking at the Innovate Finance Global Summit in London, said: “Right Now there is a threat posed by New York. It’s more than just listing. It’s also about talent.
New York is the only city with the same concentration in human capital as financial services. “That’s the area where I see the greatest threat.”
Her comments were made as Revolut shareholders increased their stakes in the company by 45pc. This is a sign of investors regaining faith in the fintech industry.
Schroders Capital Innovation Trust reported in its annual report for 2023 that its stake in Revolut is now valued at £7.8m (£5.4m) compared to £5.4m in 2020.
According to the report, Revolut’s overall value is $25.7bn. This is up from $17.7bn one year ago.
This figure is still lower than Revolut’s valuation of $33bn in 2021. That was reached after the company raised $800m through investors such as SoftBank.
Revolut refused to comment on valuation.
The markup is a sign of a recovery in a market that has seen its valuations fall in recent years.
The value of Klarna , a buy-now and pay-later company, fell by 85pc in 2022 from $45bn down to $6.7bn.
Stripe, an online payment company, saw its value plummet to $50bn by 2023 from $95bn just two years ago.
According to S&P, venture capital investments in the fintech industry fell 42 percent in 2023 from their high of 91 billion dollars in 2021.
The result was that many start-ups had to lay off large numbers of employees.
Schroders, however, said that it was “cautiously optimistic” about the “improvement of market conditions” in its portfolio of high growth investments such as Revolut.
Schroders stated that Revolut reported “solid progress” for 2023, and “continued to expand rapidly internationally” with a customer number of 35 million.
Revolut said it expected revenues of $2bn by 2023, an increase of 80pc over the previous year.