More than 3,000 companies have signed up to hot fintech Revolut’s new business service

By Oscar Williams Grut for Business Insider

More than 2,000 companies pre-registered interest in hot fintech startup Revolut’s soon-to-be-launched business offering in just 24 hours, according to its founder and CEO.

Revolut announced the service in an email to customers on Monday and CEO Nikolay Storonsky confirmed to Business Insider that more than 3,000 business have signed up in total since then.

Storonsky told BI: “Some of the subscribers are well known. I can’t disclose the names but there is a major airline, a food production company, a famous restaurant chain etc.”

London-based Revolut launched to consumers a little over a year ago. It offers a prepaid foreign exchange card linked to an app. Users load money onto the card using the app and then can spend it around the world, getting the best rate available, directly from MasterCard. Revolut charges some “fair usage” fees but only for ATM withdrawals of over £500 a month and spending of over £5,000 a month.

The service has proved hugely popular with consumers, with more than 330,000 people signing up and a billion dollars spent on its cards.
Earlier this year Revolut raised £7.75 million at a £42 million valuation, investment that included a £1 million crowdfund. Storonsky told BI at the time that expanding into business accounts was part of Revolut’s plans.

The business accounts, set to launch in November, puts Revolut in contention with TransferWise, the $1.1 billion London online money transfer service. TransferWise began as a consumer-only offering but has increasingly found growth moving money for businesses.

Revolut employs a lot of the same anti-bank language used by TransferWise in its early days. In the email announcing the new business account, Revolut says: “Banks and undeserving and overcharging businesses. There’s a lack of transparency, poor utility and high costs for international business payments.”

First appeared at BI