Revolut reveals Mastercard tie-up for US debit card launch
Fintech giant Revolut has today revealed a tie-up with Mastercard ahead of its imminent US launch, its second major partnership in a month.
Revolut said its Mastercard-supported debit cards will be available Stateside before the end of this year, following a long-awaited launch that was first promised to arrive in early 2018.
The two will also partner on a minimum of 50 per cent of all Revolut cards issued in Europe. The deal follows an agreement announced by Revolut with Visa at the end of September, in which the rival supplier will support at least 75 per cent of Revolut cards issued in countries across South America, Asia, parts of Africa, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and Russia.
Read more: Fintech star Revolut’s losses double to £33m as it splashes cash to expand
Revolut is said to be chasing a $1.5bn fundraise this year, in a mix of equity investment and a convertible bond loan, at a valuation of up to $10bn. Visa and Mastercard have been known in the past to often take stakes in the startups they support.
Revolut said last month it will expand its headcount from 1,500 staff to 5,000 employees worldwide as a result of the agreement with Visa by the end of next year. It was not clear how its new partnership with Mastercard may affect those numbers.
Read more: Revolut to hire 3,500 staff in global Visa expansion deal
“Launching in the US will be a huge milestone for us, and we are delighted Mastercard will be our go-to-market partner,” said Revolut chief executive and co-founder Nikolay Storonsky.
Revolut was a member of Mastercard’s accelerator programme Startpath in 2016. The banking scaleup said it will also levy some of Mastercard’s technology as part of the deal, including Mastercard’s Send payments platform.
Image credit: Revolut