Revolut pitched a potential expansion into China to investors last year, a move which would put Europe’s top fintech in direct competition with local heavyweights AliPay and WeChat.
According to a pitch deck shared with investors for Revolut’s secondary share sale last year seen by Sifted, the company was assessing “hiring, licensing [and] scoping” opportunities in China.
Revolut was also assessing such opportunities in a number of countries across the Middle East and Asia, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Indonesia and Turkey.
Founded in 2015, the UK-headquartered Revolut has more than 50m users across 40 countries, having procured licences in the UK, Europe and other territories in its bid to become a global financial superapp.
As the company begins preparations for a long-awaited IPO, Revolut has continued to expand rapidly, launching a blitz of new products while aiming to almost double customers to around 100m globally by the end of next year.
In another slide in the investor deck, the company describes the Asian Pacific (APAC) regulatory environment as “neutral” and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region as “friendly”. In comparison, regulators in the European Economic Area and the UK are branded “aggressive”.
Revolut obtained its UK banking licence last year after a prolonged three-year process, which was plagued by delays and questions over the company’s accounts and operations. More than a year later, the company remains in the mobilisation stage, limiting the types of product it can offer.
While the company may view regulators in Asia as friendlier than those in its home region, it remains unclear how exactly Revolut would operate in China.
As part of the country’s “Great Firewall” censorship system, most apps widely used in the West such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram are banned. Revolut would also compete with superapps Alipay and WeChat, which already have billions of users between them and offer a broad suite of financial services.
Revolut has made some inroads into the second most populous country globally. Earlier this month, Revolut partnered with Ant International, a subsidiary of the company behind Alipay, to enable its users to send money to China.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/revolut-china-expansion/
