Revolut leads $500m fintech push into Formula 1
Revolut, Airwallex and OKX are among global fintech giants turning to Formula 1 in a major advertising push.
Fintech firms piled over $500m (£370m) into F1 sponsorship deals for the 2025 season in a bid to ramp up their promotions.
It comes as the average value of an F1 sponsorship deal climbed to over $6m for the period – up from an average $3.3m in 2019, according to figures from SponsorUnited.
UK fintech juggernaut Revolut announced its title partnership with Audi’s F1 team last month, which founder Nik Storonsky hailed as a “monumental” deal.
The deal is set to incorporate Revolut’s digital banking and e-commerce solutions for Audi’s retailing merchandise arm.
McLaren has partnered with crypto exchange and OKX and Swedish fintech unicorn Airwallex, with the firms’s logos featuring across race cars and drivers’ uniforms.
Morning Wire previously revealed Airwallex was set to “aggressively” expand its UK workforce ahead of doubling its office footprint – the firm’s new office, which sits in Fitzrovia, will include a 3D-printed sculpture of McLaren driver Lando Norris.
Crypto and fintech swing into sport
Sponsorship spending across F1 is projected to jump 20 per cent in 2025 touching $3bn.
Crypto exchanges have become a major force in the field, injecting $174m into teams annually, according to a report from Fintech Branding Studio.
Beyond F1, sponsorship deals of sport organisations by crypto brands increased by 20 per cent to over £400m in the last year closing in on an all-time high of £420m.
A report from SportQuake showed Crypto.com topped the table for biggest spender with over $210m in live deals across the season.
Meanwhile, Coinbase, OKX and Gate.io all topped $50m.
The Formula 1 season is currently in its mid-season break, with teammates Oscar Piastri and Norris fighting it out to win their first world championship.
Their McLaren team are comfortably ahead in the team standings with the next grand prix taking place in the Netherlands at the end of the month.