Revolut, an online banking start-up based in the U.K., is planning to expand its operations into Indian market.
The London-based company announced that it had contacted Paroma Chatterjee, a former executive for Indian start-ups Flipkart, Via.com and LendingKart, to lead its operations in the country.
Revolut will make about $25 million in investment in the Indian market with the aim to launch its app there by 2022. The company, worth $5.5 billion in its most recent funding round, has acquired more than $900 million from investors to date.
“We’re looking forward to transforming the way people in India access and manage their money as we bring our products and services to more people around the world,” said Revolut CEO and co-founder Nik Storonsky.
“India is a core market in our expansion strategy with a huge supply of talent, and we’re excited to tap into that talent pool to help Revolut go from strength to strength.”
Revolut said that company would hire 300 employees in India. It’s so far recruited heads of operations and legal and aims to fill a multitude of other roles in human resources, marketing and compliance.
Worldwide expansion
With a population of 1.3 billion and growing acceptance of digital payments, India would be a huge market for Revolut.
Founded in 2015, the company started out with a travel-focused service for cheap currency exchange transactions and has since come out with further features including stock trading and cryptocurrencies.
It’s one of several digital banks in Europe targeting to take on large incumbents with branchless banking. Others in the game include U.K. peer Monzo, German rival N26 and U.S. start-up Chime. Revolut, which has already its footprint in Asia in countries like Japan and Singapore, is expecting to venture into India’s fast-growing remittances market. The company is in negotiations with the Reserve Bank of India and a number of local banks to secure the licenses and partnerships required to make the launch happen.
