Revolut Raises $2.3M For Its Mobile Foreign Exchange Service
TechCrunch: British startup Revolut just raised $2.3M (£1.5M) from Balderton Capital to make you pay less exchange fees when you travel around the world. Also backed by Seedcamp, Revolut provides an app to seamlessly exchange or send money, and an optional debit card to pay around the world or online.
Here’s how it works. Creating a Revolut account is basically like creating a virtual bank accounts in 3 different currencies, USD, EUR and GBP. You can top up your account in any of these currencies using your credit or debit card, or a bank transfer. I tried topping up from my American bank account but my debit card was rejected and making a wire transfer to a UK-based bank account costs $35 – I blame my bank more than Revolut. Evidence of Revolut’s purpose also lies in this crazy $35 fee.
Once you have money on your Revolut account, you can exchange your pounds into euros (or any other combination) without any fee. The startup promises interbank rates, and this is exactly what I can see from the app. Exchanging money takes seconds as the startup probably holds money in all currencies at all times.
