Revolut's revolutionary approach and rapid growth are making it a widely anticipated initial public offering (IPO). The company's products and growth potential might have you interested in investing in its stock. Here's a guide to everything you need to know about how to invest in stocks like Revolut and the company ahead of its eventual IPO.

Is it publicly traded?

Is Revolut publicly traded?

IPO

When will Revolut IPO?

Revolut didn't have an IPO on the calendar as of late 2023. The IPO market was still in a deep freeze, especially for technology-related companies. It will likely wait to complete its IPO until the market starts heating back up. Revolut also had yet to receive its U.K. banking license, another factor delaying its IPO.

How to invest

How to buy Revolut stock

You can't yet buy shares of Revolt in a brokerage account because it's not a publicly traded company. However, investors interested in the financial technology company do have options. Here are three Revolut investment alternatives:

1. Nu Holdings

Nu Holdings (NU 3.09%) is a digital financial service company. It offers savings, investing, borrowing, and insurance solutions to more than 85 million customers in its home country of Brazil, as well as Mexico and Columbia. The company's growth potential has caught the eye of well-known investor Warren Buffett. His company, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A 0.14%)(BRK.B 0.21%), was an early shareholder of Nu Holdings.

2. PayPal Holdings

PayPal Holdings (NYSE:PYPL) is a leader in digital payments. The company's technology serves as a backbone to enable people to make digital payments to merchants and other PayPal users. It had more than 431 million users as of late 2023. PayPal is a highly profitable company that generates significant free cash flow, most of which it returns to investors through share repurchases.

3. SoFi Technologies

SoFi Technologies (SOFI 4.36%) is a financial services company. It provides customers with bank accounts, credit cards, brokerage accounts, mortgages, student loans, and insurance. The company is expanding fast as more consumers sign up for its growing list of financial products and services. It had more than 6.2 million users as of mid-2023, up 44% from the previous year. While SoFi is growing fast, it wasn't yet profitable as of mid-2023.

• Step 1: Open a brokerage account: You'll have to open and fund a brokerage account before buying shares of any company. If you still need to open one, here are some of the best-rated brokers and trading platforms. Take your time to research the brokers to find the best one for you.
• Step 2: Figure out your budget: Before making your first trade, you'll need to determine a budget for how much money you want to invest. You'll then want to decide how to allocate that money. The Motley Fool's investing philosophy recommends building a diversified portfolio of 25 or more stocks you plan to hold for at least five years. You don't have to get there on the first day. For example, if you have $1,000 available to start investing, you might want to begin by allocating that money equally across at least 10 stocks and then grow from there.
• Step 3: Do your research: It's essential to thoroughly research a company before buying its shares. You should learn about how it makes money, its competitors, its balance sheet, and other factors to make sure you have a solid grasp on whether the company can grow value for its shareholders over the long term.
• Step 4: Place an order: Once you've opened and funded a brokerage account, set your investing budget, and researched the stock, it's time to buy shares. The process is relatively straightforward. Go to your brokerage account's order page and fill out all the relevant information, including:
  • The number of shares you want to buy or the amount you want to invest to purchase fractional shares.
  • The stock ticker (NU for Nu Holdings, PYPL for PayPal, or SOFI for SoFi Technologies).
  • Whether you want to place a limit order or a market order. The Motley Fool recommends using a market order since it guarantees you buy shares immediately at the market price.

Investors would follow a similar process to buy an IPO stock like Revolut when it goes public. Once shares become available, select Revolut's chosen stock ticker to buy shares through your brokerage account.

Profitability

Is Revolut profitable?

The last publicly available data on Revolut's finances came in its 2021 annual report, released in early 2023. According to its report, the company generated $769 million in revenue and $31 million in net income in 2021. Those numbers were vast improvements from 2020 when the company posted $266 million in revenue and recorded a $270 million net loss.

Should you invest?

Should I invest in Revolut?

• You're a fan of Revolut and use its products.
• You think Revolut can disrupt the traditional banking sector.
• You believe Revolut can continue growing its revenue brisky and deliver even faster earnings growth.
• You think Revolut deserves a high valuation, given its growth prospects.
• You understand the risks of investing in IPO stocks, including that the shares could be volatile and lose value.

• You don't use Revolut or prefer a competitor's platform.
• You're concerned about Revolut's competition, which could affect its ability to grow.
• You're more of a value-focused investor and think Revolut's valuation ($33 billion post-money value as of 2021) is high for a company generating about $1 billion in revenue and less than $100 million in annual earnings.

ETFs

ETFs with exposure to Revolut

Revolut is still a private company that hasn't completed an IPO, so investors can't get passive exposure to the fintech company through an exchange-traded fund (ETF).

• Ark Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF 2.18%): The Ark Fintech Innovation ETF is an actively managed fund by the well-known Cathie Wood. The fund typically holds 35 to 55 companies focused on the financial technology theme. Its largest holding in late 2023 was Coinbase (COIN 2.13%) at 10.3% of its holdings. The ETF has a reasonable ETF expense ratio of 0.75%.
• Global X FinTech ETF (NYSENKT:FINX). The Global X FinTech ETF is a passively managed fund that aims to track the Indxx Global FinTech Thematic Index. It had 61 holdings as of late 2023, led by Intuit (NASDAQ:INDU) at 9% of its holdings. This fund had a reasonable ETF expense ratio of 0.68%.

Related investing topics

The bottom line on Revolut