British Financial Technology Company Revolut Expands Operation Into Brazil

British-Lithuanian neo-bank and financial technology company that offers banking services, Revolut has expanded its operation into its first Latin American country Brazil, offering a multi-currency account and crypto investments in the country.

With over 10 million individual investors in Brazil, the fintech company will provide Bitcoin investments to consumers, citing a growing demand for access to cryptocurrencies in the region. Customers in the queue will be encouraged to sign up for the app in a gradual deployment.

Speaking on its expansion into the Latin American country, CEO of Revolut Nik Storonsky said,

“Our mission is to unlock a borderless economy with financial products that are accessible and easy to use and that allow products that are accessible and easy to use and that allow our customers to use their money efficiently. We will start with the global account and crypto investments, but this is just the beginning”.

With Brazil’s population of over 200 million people and a growing demand for crypto, the country is an exceedingly reasonable target for Revolut’s expansion plans. Also, with a customer base of approximately 29 million worldwide, Revolut is making a move to establish a stronghold in Brazil which is Latin America’s most populous country.

Revolut will however face stiff competition from several established digital banks in Brazil which include Nubank, Banco Inter, and Neon. Nubank is reportedly the largest digital bank in Brazil, with over 34 million customers. The bank’s recent introduction of crypto currency trading has been well received by the public, garnering over a million users in just one month. However, Revolut is seeking to stand out from the crowd by offering a wider range of financial services and features.

The company already has over 16 million customers worldwide, with a valuation of $33 billion. It plans to continue to expand its services and features to meet the needs of its growing customer base. In September last year, Revolut announced its expansion into Mexico and Brazil, with plans to hire 250 additional people in each country by 2025. The attempt to strengthen Revolut’s foothold in Latin America follows the release of its LiteApp in Ecuador and Chile. In India, the firm has built a team of 400+ employees for its forthcoming launch.

In January 2023, Revolut announced it would transfer its 2 million Irish customers to a new Irish branch and move these customers from Lithuanian IBANs to Irish IBANs, in a bid to compete with the remaining incumbent banks following the exit of RBSand KBC Bank from Ireland.

The company also says it is set to go live in New Zealand in the next few months, to complement its existing operations in Australia. It is interesting to note that Revolut’s mobile app supports spending and ATM withdrawals in 120 currencies and transfers in 29 currencies directly from the app. Payments at weekends incur an extra fee of 0.5% to 2%, protecting Revolut against exchange rate fluctuations.