Revolut CEO Confirms IPO Pushed to 2028 as Company Targets $150 Billion Public Valuation

Revolut CEO Nikolay Storonsky has confirmed the London-based fintech will not pursue an initial public offering before 2028, extending the company's private-market runway by at least two years beyond earlier expectations and placing its debut alongside a projected valuation of at least $150 billion. The announcement came in a Bloomberg interview published around April 19-20, 2026, and formally closes the window on speculation that a listing could materialise in 2026 or 2027.[1][2]

Trust Over Timing

Storonsky was direct about the strategic reasoning. A public listing, he argued, carries a different weight for a bank than for a conventional technology company, and Revolut intends to arrive at its debut already carrying the regulatory credibility that status implies.

"A stock market listing is not only about liquidity, but also about building trust and standing as a more established financial institution. Trust is a core part of operating as a bank." - Nikolay Storonsky, Revolut CEO[2][3]

The statement reframes a delay that some observers might read as hesitancy. By Storonsky's framing, listing prematurely would mean stepping onto a public exchange still carrying the label of a fintech challenger, when the goal is to be compared with Deutsche Bank, Santander, or BNP Paribas, not with Monzo or N26. The two additional years are intended to close that perception gap with substance: licensed in the UK, licensed in the US, and generating profits at a scale that European banking peers cannot ignore.[1]

For the fiscal year 2025, Revolut posted revenues of approximately $6 billion and pre-tax profits of $2.3 billion, a 57 percent increase on the prior year, reflecting what Storonsky describes as a diversified business rather than a single-product app. More than 10 product lines each crossed $100 million in annual revenue during the year, and the company processed roughly $1.7 trillion in transaction volume.[2]

The UK Licence and What It Unlocks

The backdrop to the IPO delay is the regulatory transformation that Revolut has undergone over the past 12 months. On March 11, 2026, the Prudential Regulation Authority granted Revolut a full UK banking licence, ending a three-year application process that had drawn scrutiny over anti-money-laundering controls and risk governance. The licence places the company on equal footing with legacy UK retail banks in its home market and permits deposit-taking, lending, and participation in the formal payment infrastructure operated by the Bank of England.[3]

The grant followed an 18-month mobilisation phase during which Revolut operated under restricted conditions, building out the compliance architecture the PRA required before full authorisation. The timing matters for the IPO narrative: arriving at a listing already holding a UK banking licence, rather than aspiring to one, substantially changes how institutional investors will price the regulatory risk component of the equity.[1][2]

US Charter as the Next Milestone

In the same month the UK licence was awarded, Revolut filed applications for a US national bank charter with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Storonsky named the US licence as one of two explicit near-term priorities, alongside accelerated growth in the company's business-to-business segment.[2]

Approval of a US charter would grant Revolut direct access to Federal Reserve payment infrastructure and remove the dependency on partner banks for holding customer deposits or issuing credit products in the American market. The company has also strengthened its US leadership, appointing Cetin Duransoy, a former Visa executive and former CEO of Raisin US, to lead American operations. The US market is, in Storonsky's words, central to the next chapter rather than a peripheral opportunity.[3]

The regulatory path in the US is not frictionless. The OCC charter process is lengthy, and competition from established retail banks and digital challengers such as Chime is considerable. A failure to secure the licence on schedule would be the most significant risk to the premium valuation Revolut is constructing in the private market.

B2B Expansion Accelerates

Revolut Business, the company's corporate banking arm, already serves hundreds of thousands of business clients and generated more than $500 million in annual revenue during 2025, representing roughly 16 percent of group income. The unit recently launched Revolut BillPay, a supplier payment platform operating across 150 jurisdictions that extends the company's treasury management, cross-border payments, and foreign-exchange capabilities to corporate clients at scale.[2]

Storonsky has identified B2B expansion as a structural growth lever that differentiates Revolut from consumer-focused peers. Corporate clients generate stickier revenue, higher balances, and stronger product cross-sell than retail users, and the BillPay launch signals an intention to compete directly with established corporate banking providers rather than merely supplementing them.

Secondary Sales Bridge the Gap

With a public listing at least two years away, Revolut will continue to rely on secondary share sales to provide liquidity for early investors and employees. A secondary transaction completed in late 2025 valued the company at $75 billion, up sharply from the $45 billion mark reached a year earlier. Reports suggest that a further secondary sale is under consideration for 2026, which could push the private-market valuation closer to the $100 billion threshold before any public filing is made.[3]

Bloomberg reported that Revolut's internal IPO ambition is a public-market valuation of at least $150 billion, a figure that would place it ahead of several established European banking groups by market capitalisation. Whether public investors share that appetite will depend on how successfully the company converts its current growth trajectory into the kind of durable, regulated earnings stream that institutional funds underwriting a bank listing expect to see.

Revolut Milestones and IPO Trajectory

The decision to hold off reflects a calculation that the cost of listing too early, in terms of valuation discount and regulatory perception, exceeds the cost of waiting. For a company that has spent a decade being underestimated as a travel card, arriving at a stock exchange already resembling a bank is a more compelling argument than any roadshow presentation could make on its own.

References

[1] Yahoo Finance / Moby, "Revolut Is Delaying Its IPO Because It Wants More Than a Pop," April 20, 2026. https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/revolut-delaying-ipo-because-wants-152233125.html

[2] Finance Magnates, "Revolut Delays IPO to 2028 and Focuses on U.S. Banking License and B2B Expansion," April 19-20, 2026. https://www.financemagnates.com/institutional-forex/revolut-delays-ipo-to-2028-and-focuses-on-us-banking-license-and-b2b-expansion

[3] MEXC / BitcoinEthereumNews, "Revolut Delays IPO to 2028 After Securing UK Banking License," April 20-21, 2026. https://www.mexc.com/news/1041594