Revolut backers offload almost $1bn of stock

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Revolt staff and early investors have offloaded nearly $1 billion in stock since August, after the fintech secured backing from major financial institutions through its UK banking license and secured a $45 billion valuation.

The London-based group has twice extended its so-called secondary share sale, which previously only allowed current employees to sell stock, to let some of its early backers and former staff cash in on parts of their holdings. can be qualified

The sale, launched a month after the award of Revolt's long-awaited UK banking licence, attracted a crop of institutional investors, including Abu Dhabi's sovereign investor Mubadala which took a stake for the first time.

Founder and Chief Executive of the company Nick Stronsky The first round netted between $200mn and $300mn, the Financial Times previously reported.

Early venture capital investors sold about $500 million worth of stock in a second round of sales, people familiar with the matter said. Total share sales are now set to cross $1 billion, he said. Revolt declined to comment.

The size of the sale, which enables staff and early investors to crystallize some of their paper wealth, underscores Revolt's ascension from fintech upstart to serious banking challenger as well as the consequences of companies staying private for too long. underlines

Large secondary share sales have become a common way to monetize investments in companies and capitalize on the incremental value of successful start-ups.

stripeThe privately owned payments group in February allowed employees to cash out about $1 billion in stock at a $65 billion valuation by selling it to institutional investors including venture capital firm Sequoia Capital.

Sequoia has bought more shares in the Dublin and San Francisco-headquartered company through further secondary sales that have eroded Stripe's value by up to $70bn.

Revolt spent more than three years waiting for its UK banking license, and suffered a series of mishaps, including a qualified audit of its 2021 accounts that hampered its appeal to investors.

The approval of its license application this summer has paved the way for a flurry of new investors seeking to back the fast-growing financial app. Wealthy clients of Goldman Sachs' private bank were among those who joined its shareholder register in a second round of share sales this year.

Revolt took a cut of the proceeds from the sale of certain shares. Former staff have to pay a 2 percent transaction fee to sell, up from the 1.5 percent fee imposed in the 2021 fundraiser.

A person familiar with the matter said the fee was designed to cover the company's expenses for executing the share sale and that Revolt did not make a profit on the transaction.


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