{"id":844457,"date":"2025-11-25T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=844457"},"modified":"2025-11-25T09:33:42","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T07:33:42","slug":"top-international-bank-taking-on-capitec-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/844457\/top-international-bank-taking-on-capitec-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Top international bank taking on Capitec in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Britain’s Revolut, which offers free and subscription-based digital banking services through its mobile app, is set to launch in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revolut was founded in July 2025 by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko and is headquartered in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The financial technology company operates in over 48 countries and has 65 million customers. However, this is only the start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revolut’s long-term goal is to build a truly global bank that services customers worldwide via a single, seamless platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its features include domestic and international bank transfers, debit and credit cards, stock and crypto trading, as well as traditional savings accounts and loans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of its global expansion plans, Revolut is preparing to launch banking and other fintech services in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It first announced these plans on 23 September 2025 at the launch of its new global headquarters in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It recently submitted its Section 12 application with the Reserve Bank\u2019s Prudential Authority as part of establishing a licensed bank in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has also appointed former African Bank CEO Dr Gaby Magomola as the chairman of its South African bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magomola has held senior executive positions at Citibank, Barclays, FNB, and is a former CEO of African Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He recently stepped down as the deputy chairman of the Development Bank of Southern Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHis appointment marks an important milestone in Revolut\u2019s commitment to growth, innovation, and access in South Africa\u2019s evolving financial landscape,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revolut South Africa CEO Jacque Meyer said Magomola\u2019s experience is invaluable as they deepen their commitment to the South African market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecoming a licensed bank will allow us to bring a full suite of products to the market and ensure we become the go-to financial app for South Africans,\u201d Meyer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revolut will compete head-on with Capitec, which offers affordable banking services to millions of South Africans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revolut valued at $75 billion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Britain’s Revolut said on Monday, 24 November 2025, it had completed a secondary share sale valuing it at $75 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This represents a 66% increase from last year and underscores the rapid growth of Europe’s most valuable financial technology company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revolut said the sale was led by investors Coatue, Greenoaks, Dragoneer and Fidelity, while other participants included Andreessen Horowitz and Franklin Templeton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The valuation, albeit secured in private rather than public markets, makes the 10-year-old business worth more than many publicly listed banks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revolut\u2019s valuation is higher than the market cap of Britain’s Barclays, France’s Societe Generale, and Germany’s Deutsche Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is \u200cthe most successful of a handful of financial services apps, or “fintechs”, to have emerged across Europe in the last decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revolut’s valuation has soared. It was valued at $45 billion last year and $33 billion in 2021,\u200b minting a fortune for its early employees and investors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement, the company said this \u200cwas the fifth time it had offered employees the opportunity to sell shares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I\u2019d like to thank our team for their determination and energy, and for believing that it is possible to build a global financial and technology leader from Europe,” said Storonsky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that his number one priority is to get Revolut a full banking licence in the UK, which still eludes the company, even after a multi-year effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analysts say that Revolut’s financial technology and banking services have significant appeal to customers worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it still generates a substantial portion of its revenue from customers trading cryptocurrencies and from the income earned through higher interest rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The average customer deposits \u200dare much lower than at \u2060traditional banks, and executives acknowledge that too few customers use it as their primary account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revolut now aims to compete with major traditional lenders in offering consumer credit, mortgages, and eventually, business loans.\u2060<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Britain’s Revolut, which offers free and subscription-based digital banking services through its mobile app, is set to launch in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":838303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[4762,19849,1798,5200,5642,76,24240,24241,24238,2924,23678,24239],"class_list":["post-844457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-african-bank","tag-barclays-2","tag-capitec","tag-citibank","tag-development-bank-of-southern-africa","tag-fnb","tag-gaby-magomola","tag-jacque-meyer","tag-nikolay-storonsky","tag-reserve-bank","tag-revolut","tag-vlad-yatsenko"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844457"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":844463,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844457\/revisions\/844463"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/838303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}