"We have built a strong momentum," the 31-year-old executive said in an interview at Revolut's headquarters in London. The company has just signed off on the 2021 annual accounts after months of delays as it replaced its internal accounting systems after the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), a U.K. body responsible for regulating auditors, found Revolut's audit "inadequate."
"Our accounting systems needed replacement," Salovaara said. "We were held to the highest possible accounting standards." Revolut will retain accounting firm BDO for the 2022 audit, it said.
Revenues from its crypto business shrank in 2022 as the crypto-downturn hit the firm. The crypto business accounted for about 5-10% of the total income last year, Salovaara said. The company swung to a profit of 26 million pounds in 2021 helped by boom in cryptocurrencies trading, its accounts show. Chief executive officer Nikolay Storonsky has previously said the firm was profitable in 2021. In 2020, it made a loss of 223 million pounds, according to Revolut's accounts.
Salovaara declined to say whether the company will be profitable in 2022.
The fintech company expects to publish its 2022 accounts by June, but it might take longer.
SELF-SUSTAINED Revolut was valued at around $33 billion in the last funding round in 2021, making it then Britain's most valuable start-up. Since its 2015 debut, it has raised about $1.7 billion from SoftBank and others. Salovaara, who joined Revolut in 2021 from investment firm 3G Capital, said that the company does not plan to fundraise soon.
"We are self-sustained," he said. The firm will "eventually be a public listed business, but it’s not a priority."
Publication of the accounts might pave the way for a U.K. banking license which Revolut applied for two years ago.
"We are at the very final stage of the process," the CFO said adding that the relationships with the U.K. regulators have been "reasonable".
Revolut is likely to opt for an "authorisation with restriction", a person close to the matter told Reuters in January. This imposes certain limits on the business.
Revolut’s total staff costs increased by 9% in 2021, the filings show. The number of employees doubled in 2022 to more than 6,000, the company said.
It aims to expand internationally, including in India where it acquired a foreign-exchange firm Arvog Forex, as well as in Brasil and Mexico. It will launch in New Zealand in the coming weeks. ($1 = 0.8288 pounds) (Reporting by Stefania Spezzati. Editing by Jane Merriman)
