Revolut says it’s gross profitable in Singapore for 2nd year running

Photo credit: Revolut

UK-headquartered fintech firm Revolut more than doubled its revenue in Singapore between 2022 and 2023. This makes the company gross profitable in the city-state for the second year running.

E-money balances held in customer wallets in Singapore also increased by more than 50% year on year.

Apart from travel and remittances, Revolut now lets users trade crypto, precious metals, and stocks, while also offering budgeting tools, cashbacks, and joint savings features.

In an interview with Tech in Asia, Revolut Singapore CEO Raymond Ng said the growth was driven by the post-pandemic travel rebound. That added to the large number of expatriates and domestic workers needing remittance services – with expats making up 25% of Revolut’s users in Singapore – as well as digitally savvy users.

For now, Asia still accounts for a small percentage of Revolut’s overall revenues. The firm’s annual report from 2022 shows that Europe – including the UK – contributed 98% of Revolut’s fee income. The company earns that income from payment processing, foreign exchange fees, investments, as well as its subscription product.

In 2022, its latest available financials, Revolut reported a pre-tax loss of £25 million (US$31.5 million), even as revenues jumped 45% to £923 million (US$1.2 billion). The company had increased spending on sales and marketing, new products, and expansion into new markets.

A rising tide lifting all boats

A post-pandemic recovery in travel has been a boon for multicurrency platforms. Instarem, the cross-border payments arm of fintech firm Nium, said its revenue doubled between 2022 and 2023, while spending on its consumer travel card almost doubled.

“In 2023, we saw a 2x increase in the overall volume of remittances processed worldwide,” Yogesh Sangle, head of Instarem, told Tech in Asia. This was driven by a surge in money flows from Singapore to Asia-Pacific corridors like India and Malaysia, he added.

Last year, revenue from its SME business nearly tripled year on year.

In October 2023, YouTrip CEO and co-founder Caecilia Chu said that it had tripled its user base in the last two years. The firm was processing close to US$10 billion in annualized payment volume.

Becoming a financial super app

But despite travel’s popularity, it’s not enough to rely on it to drive app usage year-round. As Ng noted, companies like Revolut must also offer a range of financial services to maintain an active user base.

This year, the company plans to bring Revolut Business – an enterprise spend management tool already available in its other markets – to Singapore, Ng said.

Indeed, Revolut’s peers in the multicurrency digital payments space have also broadened their offerings. YouTrip, for instance, launched a corporate card and spend management platform for SMEs in 2022, while UK-based Wise supports international payments for companies via Wise Business.