British fintech company Revolut, which has launched in India, says cross-border payments remain one of the most underserved financial services in India. The group estimates that Indians spend about $30 billion abroad each year and lose about $600 million in bank fees, which India’s representatives call “criminal.”
“This was the exclusive domain of banks,” Revolut India CEO Paloma Chatterjee told TechCrunch. “Whether it’s going to a bank and withdrawing currency or foreign currency, or taking a bank-issued travel card with you when you travel abroad… there have been huge fees charged for this.”
Revolut has been working towards starting operations in India since 2021 with the aim of bridging the gap between the country’s foreign exchange and traditional payments space. The London-headquartered fintech company acquired Arvog Forex in 2022 to obtain a license in India and provide remittance and multi-currency account services. In April this year, it also secured a Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPI) license from the Reserve Bank of India, allowing it to issue prepaid cards, support digital wallets, and integrate with the government-backed Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
With these regulatory approvals, Revolut aims to challenge traditional banks in India and compete with established fintech companies. The British startup is targeting more than 150 million “globally-minded and digitally native” Indians between the ages of 25 and 45, and plans to sign up about 20 million users and process at least $7 billion worth of transactions by 2030.
Chatterjee said such regulatory approvals, including PPI licenses, will allow fintechs to offer a more differentiated experience than players relying on banking partnerships. “We can provide the kind of customer experience that we want to provide,” she said.
Revolut offers Indian consumers a domestic Visa card and an international multi-currency Visa card, as well as a prepaid wallet with UPI support and a privately branded UPI handle. It will also introduce dedicated accounts for children and youth linked to their parents’ profiles, a subscription-based model, and budgeting and analytics tools that provide insights into their spending habits.
Notably, the startup has received regulatory permission to enable domestic and international payments and remittances through its platform. We also have approval to enable same-day remittances from India through our local banking partners.
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Unlike many fintech companies in India that use minimal Know Your Customer (KYC) checks to quickly onboard users for limited, low-value transactions, Revolut only offers a full KYC wallet. The fintech will also verify new users against global sanctions lists, including those maintained by the Office of Foreign Assets Control and the United Nations. Chatterjee said this approach is aimed at attracting “high-motivation customers” who are willing to complete a more detailed onboarding process, including Aadhaar and video verification.
“Some people will only do that if they are interested in using the product, so this full KYC customer onboarding will be my customer metric,” she said.
“In a country like India, when you put your name on the App Store, pure curiosity drives downloads,” she said. “That’s not our measure of success.”
The fintech aims not just to grow its user base, but also to measure its success in India by the depth of user engagement and profitability.
“Some people say they have 300 million to 400 million customers,” Chatterjee told TechCrunch. “Revolut has 65 million customers in 39 countries around the world and is valued at $75 billion. That’s because out of these 65 million customers, Revolut processes over $4 billion in transactions and generates over $1 billion in profits. And that’s because out of those 65 million customers, over 25 million customers are active in any given month.”
She is referring to the new valuation Revolut announced last month on the back of a secondary stake sale, up from $45 billion last summer.
She also said Revolut already has a waiting list of more than 350,000 people in India and plans to sign up by the second half of this year before opening the app to new users. However, the exact launch schedule will depend on how quickly companies clear waiting lists and customers complete KYC and anti-money laundering (AML) checks.
The company is also exploring partners beyond Visa, including the Indian government’s RuPay, as it strengthens its offering to offer customers more network choices.
Revolut has already launched operations in India with a $45 million infusion to localize its entire technology stack to comply with the country’s data sovereignty regulations. Chatterjee said he plans to invest more when starting the business.
Of Revolut’s 10,000 employees worldwide, around 3,500 are already based in India, making it the company’s largest workforce globally and even larger than its home UK market. Some of these employees also work on products and features available in markets outside India.
But as important as Revolut’s plans are, it will still face competition if its plans come to fruition. Although foreign exchange is dominated by banks in India, fintech companies such as Niyo, Scapia, Fi and BookMyForex are already active in India’s cross-border remittance market.
