In 2015, Nikolay Storonsky He used nearly $500,000 that he had earned as a derivatives trader in Lehman Brothers and Credit Suisse to launch a startup aimed at challenging the giants of global finance.
“We want to replace the benches, it’s that simple,” said the former competitive swimmer in a promotional video from that time.
At 41 years old, he has not yet achieved that goal. However, the company that emerged from that ambition, Revolut Ltd., has the potential to make him the owner of one of the largest fortunes in the financial industry: around $76 billion in shares if it manages to complete an initial public offering close to the $200 billion that the company intends to reach in the next two years. That would represent a return of more than 15 million percent on its initial investment.
Although more than doubling the current valuation of Revolutestimated at 75 billion dollars, seems an ambitious goal, the company has gone in just over a decade from being a marginal player to becoming a fintech giant with 75 million clients that seeks to become the most popular financial brand in the world.
What is known about Revolut?
The company offers traditional banking services and low-cost international transfers, as well as AI-powered wealth management and cryptocurrency-related products, all within an interface designed for Gen Z and millennials.
The executive director of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimonsummarized Revolut’s rise last month when referring to the company’s UK operations.
“I’m jealous, damn it,” he said. “You see these people and they move.”
A fortune inspired by Elon Musk’s compensation plans
The acceleration of Storonsky wealth reminiscent of the multimillion-dollar performance-linked compensation packages that made Elon Musk famous.
This is a scheme that would allow the founder to maintain dominant control over the company as long as it achieves unusual growth.
“I don’t spend all this money,” Storonsky said in an interview this year with David Rubenstein for Bloomberg. “I’m just continuing to do what I need to do to build the first global bank.”
Documents reviewed by Bloomberg detail the valuation thresholds that unlock additional holdings for Storonsky.
When the company reaches the maximum goal – close to $200 billion – it will have received more than 12 million special incentive shares, in addition to the 10.5 million common shares it already owns.
According to a person familiar with the matter, talks on a new compensation package could begin this year.
The additional shares have already raised his fortune to approximately $20.4 billion, making him the richest person in the United Kingdom, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
If the expected valuations are achieved, Storonsky could climb to the top positions among the greatest fortunes in finance, even surpassing the current assets of Ken Griffinfounder of Citadel, or Steve SchwarzmanCEO of Blackstone.
Revolut’s bet: Becoming a global bank
Storonsky’s fortune depends on Revolut’s valuation, which in turn is tied to performance targets that few financial institutions can match.
The company has practically no direct competitors. Fintechs rarely offer such a wide range of services, while banks operate with different balance sheet structures and face higher regulatory and capital demands.
The Revolut goal is to reach 100 million daily active users in 100 countries. Analysts of Bloomberg Intelligence They believe that this objective could be achieved in the coming years.
“We view Revolut’s business as an all-in-one global software platform for financial services,” said Brendan O’Boyle, head of finance and fintech at Coatue Management, the company’s investment firm.
According to O’Boyle, as Revolut By obtaining licenses in more markets and building on the recent momentum of your UK operations, you will be able to launch new products, strengthen customer confidence and build competitive advantages that are difficult to replicate.
The regulatory challenge
Trust is precisely one of the assets that traditional banks have learned to gain—and also lose.
Revolut’s future growth increasingly depends on users adopting it as their primary bank and regulators in dozens of countries supporting that transition.
However, the domain of Storonsky over the company and the strong influence of his leadership style make Revolut an unconventional entity within the banking sector.
Regulators, who typically require independent boards of directors, clearly defined management roles and evidence of a responsible corporate culture, have found themselves with a company that resembles a technology startup more than a large financial institution.
This situation has generated concern in some supervisory bodies and has placed the company under scrutiny for possible weaknesses in internal controls and prevention of money laundering.
Therefore, Revolut has had to demonstrate—and will need to continue to demonstrate—that it has a corporate governance structure capable of meeting regulatory expectations.
The Revolut UK banking license It took five years to be finally approved, a process that concluded in March of this year. Its expansion in India faced a similar timeline and the company only began adding clients last December.
The risk of growing too much
For investors, the main risk is that Revolut ends up becoming a difficult-to-manage global giant, trapped in a bureaucratic and regulatory tangle.
It would be exactly the opposite of the agile and disruptive institution that is promoted as an alternative to traditional banking.
For this report, Bloomberg spoke with more than two dozen investors, regulators, executives and people familiar with the company.
Storonsky did not give interviews and Revolut declined to comment on its compensation scheme.
