Revolut investor writes-up stake by 20 per cent as ‘commercial traction’ grows
One of Revolut’s top investors has written-up the value of its stake in the company by 20 per cent after delivering a bruising cut last year on the back of the fiasco over its annual accounts.
In its yearly portfolio update today, listed venture capital firm Molten Ventures, which invested £11m in Revolut in 2018, said it had written up the value of its holding by 20 per cent to £65.1m, up from £54.5m at the end of March last year.
Molten slashed the book value of its stake in Revolut by some forty per cent in 2023 amid questions over the status of its banking licence application and a furore over the veracity of its accounts.
Auditor BDO said it was unable to independently verify three quarters of the firm’s revenues in its 2021 accounts. The fintech firm has also been waiting for a banking licence after submitting an application to regulators in 2021.
Speaking with City A.M. last year, Molten chief Martin Davis said the company needed to provide more “visibility” to the market to settle the concerns of investors.
Revolut, run by Russian-British founder Nik Storonsky, bagged a $33bn valuation at the peak of the tech boom in 2021 when it won the backing of investment giants Tiger Global and Softbank.
However, tech firms globally have faced brutal cuts to their valuations as interest rates have climbed and companies have been forced to rein in expansive growth plans.
Speaking with City A.M. this morning, Molten Ventures’ chief financial officer Ben WIlkinson said the uptick in Revolut’s valuation reflected positive “commercial traction” for the firm and a “stabilising” in the value of tech firms across the market.
“That applies to all of the businesses [in our portfolio] and in the case of Revolut, you can therefore infer that we’re seeing good commercial traction,” Wilkinson said.
In its delayed accounts filed in Deccember, Revolut said it had hit £923m in revenue in 2022, a 45 per cent increase from the £638m the year prior. Net profits for the year were down 78 per cent from £26.3m in 2021, however.
The firm has been plagued by delays to its banking licence over the past two years and has hit out at regulators and government.
Speaking with Morning Wire in 2022, Strononsky attacked the FCA as moving too slowly in granting the licence.