A Revolut shareholder has written billions off the company’s valuation as the wait for Britain’s most valuable fintech to gain a UK banking licence drags into its fourth year.
US tech investor TriplePoint Venture Growth slashed the value of its stake by 18pc at the end of last year, accounts show. The reduction implies the company is worth $23bn, down from $28bn a year ago.
It marks the second time TriplePoint has slashed its internal valuation of Revolut, which was worth $33bn at its peak. TriplePoint was among the first investors to question that valuation, which Revolut secured in 2021, when it wrote down the value of its stake by 15pc last year.
The combined reductions amount to a 30pc decline in Revolut’s value since it was crowned Europe’s most valuable fintech company after an $800m investment from backers including SoftBank.
Last year, fellow investors Schroders and Molten Ventures wrote down the values of their stakes, cutting them by 46pc and 54pc respectively.
Although TriplePoint’s writedown is less severe, it comes despite a broad rebound in tech valuations that this week saw rival fintech Monzo secure a £4bn valuation. That was higher than the £3.5bn it was valued at in 2021.
Sajal Srivastava, TriplePoint’s chief investment officer, told Wall Street analysts that the downgrades of Revolut and other fintech companies were because several years had elapsed since they last raised money.
He said the most recent financing rounds had come “at peak periods for valuation multiples for financial technology companies, compared with the current range of valuation multiples for publicly traded financial technology companies”.
However, he said: “We believe they all have the potential for meaningful upside when they ultimately experience an exit event where they potentially raise future rounds of finance.”
Revolut applied to the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority for a banking licence in January 2021 but is yet to secure one, an unusually long wait for regulatory approval.
The Telegraph revealed last year that the Bank had told The Treasury it was planning to reject the company’s application, after auditors gave its accounts a qualified opinion a year ago.
However, no warning notice has been served and it is believed the company has been given the opportunity to work towards a licence by simplifying its shareholder structure and publishing clean accounts.
In December, auditors said the company had resolved the issues. SoftBank, its largest shareholder, has reportedly agreed to changes to Revolut’s shareholding structure.
TriplePoint invested in Revolut in 2017 and now values its 25,920 shares at $7.02m.
Revolut’s delays in securing a banking licence have led founder and chief executive Nikolay Storonsky to hit out at “extreme bureaucracy” in Britain and claim that the company would choose Wall Street over London when it decides to go public.
This week its new UK boss, Francesca Carlesi, said London remained an option but that “something has shifted in the last two or three years” when it comes to the UK leading on fintech.
She told Bloomberg: “We are determined to do the hard work to get there [to a banking licence]. We’re taking it one step at the time and we’re moving in the right direction.”
Revolut reported a 45pc increase in revenues to £922.5m in 2022, the most recent year accounts are available for. It fell to a £25.4m loss.
A Revolut spokesman said the company did not comment on investors’ valuations and that the licence application remains ongoing.
