The British company Revolut has recently registered a legal entity in Ukraine, and after that information about its full-fledged launch on the territory of the whole state immediately appeared. Nikita Izmailov, an investor and businessman, said a few words about it. In general, why the interest in the Ukrainian market and how it will develop further?
What is Revolut?
This is a "branchless" banking service. The main product is a mobile application and a plastic card that is immediately linked to certain accounts of different currencies. For example, when making a payment in euros, funds will be withdrawn from existing accounts. And if there is no money, it is possible to convert funds. In addition, there is the possibility of buying cryptocurrency or valuable assets, securities, etc. Currently, the company has about 16 million customers, more than 150 million transfers per month.
How will the development go in Ukraine?
In the middle of 2012 Revolut started to actively develop on the territory of the country and there are 25 new vacancies in the capital. This is due to early cooperation, i.e. foreign companies understand that there are a lot of highly qualified personnel in the country. Therefore, the search continues actively, although at a slow pace. But it is still an advantage.
What is of interest on the Ukrainian market?
In fact, there are several important reasons:
- The role of the co-founder. The co-founder has many useful connections that contribute to growth. Moreover, the competition is quite low, as such projects still do not look that way.
- Constant transfer of funds from Europe to Ukraine. Growth in the first half of 2021 was 108 percent. And even in a few months, the amount has increased by 7 percent and that's already a good result. Revolut is one of the most convenient systems for transactions.
- Attracting new budgets. At the beginning of the year, the company attracted quite a bit of investment, with the amount of investment reaching almost $600 million. And this approach allows us to occupy a new market, including the Ukrainian one.
What problems may arise?
Right now the company can match Mono's existing bank, especially its client base. But at the moment Revolut is less competitive because it does not have extensive lending opportunities. The reason is very simple, there is simply no earnings from the loan portfolio.
The situation is quite complicated because we don't have our own specialists yet. So we have to work with local financial companies. But Revolut requires partners with a crystal-clear reputation, and it's better to have 100 percent foreign capital. And there aren't many such options, and the existing ones, in most cases, are technologically passive.
Eleena Timmons