Revolut grows beyond expectations in Romania

British fintech company Revolut has seen its number of users in Romania growing beyond expectations, according to Irina Scarlat, the platform’s director for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), quoted by Profit.ro.

Revolut has about 850,000 customers in Romania at the moment and could reach one million users by the end of this year - twice as much as the initial estimate, says Scarlat. Revolut made a major impact in the banking industry even if the banks avoid admitting it, she commented.

“When I came to the company a year and a half ago, we had 20,000 users. Now we are approaching 1 million. The goal was to reach 500,000 by the end of this year,” Scarlat said at a conference organized by the Competition Council and Romania’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIR).

She added that Revolut started from the idea of offering an attractive exchange rate for people traveling, given that banks had 2-10% commissions on foreign exchange transactions, and then it developed.

“What has Revolut's entry into the market brought? Banks have accelerated their digitization efforts. Even if they don’t officially consider us competitors, they have launched digital products and tried to digitize the banking experience,” explains Scarlat, who previously worked as a marketing manager for Uber in Romania.

(Photo courtesy of the company)