The $33 billion UK-based financial app Revolut announced this Tuesday the appointment of Glauber Mota as its CEO in Brazil, ahead of its official launch in Latin America’s largest market. According to the company, Mota will join Felipe Lachowski, head of strategy & operations and currently leading the company in Brazil. Europe’s second-most valuable fintech company, behind Klarna, is coming to fight over the Brazilian consumers. There is no date set for the launch yet since the fintech is waiting for some regulatory green lights, but its first product in the country will be a multi-currency digital account.
“Brazil is an important market in our expansion strategy with a huge talent supply, and we’re excited to tap into that talent pool to help Revolut go from strength to strength,” said Nik Storonsky, CEO and co-founder of Revolut, in a press statement.
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A former associate partner of the investment bank BTG Pactual, Mota will initially concentrate his efforts on building a solid team in Brazil. To Bloomberg Línea, Mota said that the fintech intends to reach a staff of 50 people in the country by the end of 2022; it currently has ten.
As it did in other markets – Revolut operates in over 35 countries –the neobank will start offering digital accounts and international cards which can be used in more than 150 countries and enable more accessible and cheaper access to over 25 global currencies. After that, Revolut will gradually complement the offering with investments, crypto, and insurance.
The Revolut app is already available for Brazilians who wish to subscribe to the waiting list to be among the first to open a Revolut account when the moment arrives – according to what Mota told Brazil Journal, this might happen between July and August.
“Brazilians are one of the most active digital populations worldwide, and the number of unique users of mobile devices in Brazil is already over 112 million people, with a rising number of people using digital banks as their primary account. However, when traveling abroad and shopping online, Brazilians still need to use credit cards and currency exchange brokers, incurring high fees. This represents an enormous opportunity, and the Revolut product offering is unbeatable for Brazilians who continue to embrace e-commerce and begin to travel abroad again. I am very excited to lead the team and bring Revolut’s super app complete offering to Brazil,” said Mota, also in the press statement.
Before Brazil, Revolut also landed in Singapore and Australia in 2019; and the US and Japan in 2020. The fintech was launched in 2015 in the UK, offering money transfers and exchanges. Today, more than 18 million customers worldwide use Revolut to make more than 150 million transactions a month.
