Revolut wants to grow beyond banking into a global tech company on the scale of the biggest US groups, but built in Europe, chief executive Nik Storonsky said. He spoke with Exor chief executive John Elkann at Wave by Vento in Turin, in a session titled “Global Champions, European roots”.
“Our American dream, I mean, in this case, European dream, would be to build a global tech company similar to Meta, Google or OpenAI, but out of Europe,” Storonsky said.
That would mean other technology services and products, not only banking, he said, though still related to finance. In August, TNW reported that a new share deal for Storonsky targets a $500bn valuation for Revolut.
Building its own models
Revolut already builds its own foundation models, trained on transaction data, and its own large language models, Storonsky said. It is also building its own data centres to train them. The goal is not to compete with American tech companies, he said, but to reach a similar scale.
At the same event, former Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Colao said Europe has less than 2 gigawatts of AI computing capacity.
AI agents will be able to shop for customers using Revolut’s secure card details, he said. Revolut also plans AI advice on spending, stocks and funds. It will open its platform so third-party agents can talk to its own agents through MCP, a standard way to connect AI tools, with every action authenticated by the customer.
AI also changes how he runs the company. He has always built systems around people’s strengths and weaknesses, he said. He is still working out how to build them around AI instead.
Fifty direct reports
Storonsky said he has about 50 direct reports and removes middle management where he can. He sometimes works directly with developers and designers. When something does not work, he goes straight to a manager’s own team to judge it himself.
He compared a company to an orchestra. A founder should be able to play almost every instrument, he said, so that he can tell who plays well.
Revolut hires for three things: ambition, raw brain power and skills. If he could pick only two, he would take brain power and drive, because skills can be learned, he said. Young people who think from first principles often beat experience, he said. Revolut gives them more responsibility until something breaks.
Trading, crypto and investors
Storonsky worked as a trader before founding Revolut. Trading taught him discipline about risk and to change his mind as new information arrives, he said. Too many people in business stick with an opinion because they chose it in the past. The first two or three years of Revolut were about survival, he said, because it was losing a lot of money.
Crypto is a great technology, he said, but its main use is speculation, because governments will not allow money to be free.
Difficult fundraising rounds led him to start QuantumLight, his venture firm, which picks investments with models rather than human judgment. Investors should leave a good team alone unless it asks for help, he said.