Revolut has informed its employees that it is starting the sale of up to 500 million USD of existing shares at a valuation of 45 billion USD. This move would solidify Revolut as Europe's most valuable start-up. Employees who have been with the company for at least a year and are not on "gardening leave" can sell 20 percent of their vested stock options at a price of 865.42 USD per share, according to people familiar with the matter. Unlike previous sales, former employees are not eligible.

Revolut stated that it feels committed to enabling its employees to participate in the company's success by becoming shareholders and regularly giving them the opportunity to sell shares. The company, which employs around 7,000 people, announced that it is conducting a secondary sale of shares to support this goal and could not provide further details during the ongoing process. A person familiar with the deal said that the sale is expected to close within the next month.

The internal announcement comes shortly after Revolut received a banking license in the United Kingdom last week, where the fintech has 9 million customers. This regulatory decision ended a three-year wait during which the company was shaken by setbacks such as a limited audit of its delayed 2021 accounts.

Revolut is one of the few fintech companies that have increased in value since a decline in venture capital hit the sector over the past two years. The financial app was most recently valued at $33 billion in a funding round led by Japanese investor SoftBank and US fund Tiger Global. The new valuation would make it one of the most valuable banks in the United Kingdom, ahead of NatWest, Lloyds, and Barclays.

Assessing the conditions of the sale also values CEO Nik Storonsky's personal stake in the company at nearly 8 billion US dollars, based on a Financial Times analysis of public documents from last August. Storonsky, a former trader at Lehman Brothers and Credit Suisse, founded the company in 2015 in London alongside Chief Technology Officer Vlad Yatsenko.

Revolut pursues an aggressive expansion plan in the United Kingdom and beyond. The group, which has 45 million customers worldwide, is preparing to move its headquarters to a landmark in the financial district of Canary Wharf in London. Last month, the company announced that it achieved a pre-tax profit of £438 million in 2023, compared to a loss of £25 million the previous year, while revenues nearly doubled to £1.8 billion.