Startup Factories: Revolut
Meet the 70+ startups founded by former Revolut operators who have collectively raised over $920M
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By analyzing backgrounds, tracking talent movements, monitoring new filings, and keeping tabs on social media updates, Harmonic discovers startups 6-12 months ahead of the competition.
STARTUP FACTORIES
We recently launched a new series called Startup Factories—when a startup achieves success, it often blossoms with powerful network effects—former employees, or "operators," go on to launch their own ventures, invest in early-stage startups, or even establish their own venture funds.
This edition spotlights former Revolut operators who have gone on to become founders.
ABOUT REVOLUT
Revolut is a British financial technology company founded in 2015 by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko. It offers a range of digital banking services through its mobile app, including multi-currency accounts, debit cards, currency exchange, stock trading, and cryptocurrency exchange.
As of August 2024, Revolut is valued at $45 billion, making it Europe's most valuable fintech firm, with over 50 million customers worldwide.
What do we know so far about the former operators turned founders?
There are currently 35+ startups that have raised a minimum of $1M USD.
Over the past 12 months, more than 40 additional startups have been operating in stealth mode.
The former operators have collectively raised over $920M.
Over 50% of startups that have raised a minimum of $1M are FinTech focused.
We’ve seen a flurry of former operators launch startups since 2020.
Interestingly, the most common background among former operators is having held a Head of Function role.
Most of the startups are headquartered in the U.K. or U.S.
A few notes before we explore the characteristics of former Revolut operators who became founders.
Throughout this edition, we have used Harmonic as our startup data provider.
Our insights include only startups that have raised at least $1 million.
Let’s take a closer look!
WHEN THESE STARTUPS WERE FOUNDED
Since its launch, over 50 former Revolut employees have founded more than 35 startups—most within the past five years—with each raising at least $1 million.
CATEGORIES FOUNDERS ARE BUILDING IN
Over 50% of startups are operating within the financial services sector, highlighting a strong founder interest in FinTech. AI and Blockchain follow as the second and third most popular categories for founders to build in.
PREVIOUS ROLES HELD BEFORE FOUNDING
The typical founder previously held a ‘Head of Function’ role before starting their own company. Other common founder backgrounds include Product, Operations, Software Engineering, and Data Science.
CO-FOUNDERS PER STARTUP
Building a startup is hard, and finding the right co-founders can be even more challenging. However, we’ve observed that the most common founding teams tend to have either two or four co-founders. Interestingly, many of these co-founders first met while working together at the same company.
WHERE FOUNDERS ARE BUILDING
Given that Revolut was founded and is headquartered in the U.K., it’s no surprise that the U.K. is the most common location where former operators are launching their startups.
LATEST FUNDING STAGE
The featured startups show strong potential. Among those that have raised at least $1M to be included in this edition, many are advancing beyond the Pre-Seed stage to Seed and Series A, with some gradually reaching Series B, Series C, and even a few exits.
AVERAGE FUNDING ROUNDS
Former operators at Revolut have collectively raised over $920 million dollars. Based on their latest funding rounds, the average fundraising size is as follows:
Pre-Seed: $2.7M
Seed: $5M
Series A: $15.5M
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MOST ACTIVE INVESTORS
From the 35+ startups listed, 25% have raised from Y Combinator. The most frequent additional investors include: Kima Ventures, Balderton Capital, Seedcamp and Gradient.
*Y Combinator also appeared as the most active investor in our previous editions covering former NVIDIA, Palantir and LinkedIn operators.
STEALTH STARTUPS: EX REVOLUT EMPLOYEES
In addition to the 35+ startups that have raised at least $1M, discover the 40+ founders who have been operating in stealth since the beginning of 2024.
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