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bne November 2020 Companies & Markets I 23
Fintech giant Revolut moves business customers to Lithuania ahead of Brexit
Linas Jegelevicius in Vilnius
Robust fintech startup Revolut is ratcheting up its efforts to move its core business customers in Central and Eastern Europe from its London entity to Lithuania, a result of Revolut’s preparation for Britain’s exit from the EU.
The move will ensure that Revolut can continue to serve its non-UK customers and hedge against a no trade-deal Brexit. The process should be completed before the end of the Brexit transition period in December 2020.
Revolut, a bullish fintech with reportedly more than 10mn customers in the UK and Europe, was launched in 2015 with
a vision to build a financial Super app, a single app where consumers can manage all aspects of their financial life. In just five years, the company has raised over $800mn in funding and now employs more than 2,000 people globally, including in New York and San Francisco.
US health and beauty online giant iHerb plans to invest $100mn in Russia
Adrien Henni in Paris for East West Digital News
iHerb, one of the most successful international e-commerce companies in Russia, is planning to invest some $100mn in the country in the next two years, reports East-West Digital News (EWDN).
These investments are aimed to “improve the Russian customer services, support and expand product export by Russian manufacturers, [develop] partnerships with Russian logistics companies, expand in-house technology development centre operations, and build robotic distribution centres,”
the company stated, as quoted by the TASS news agency.
Specific details were provided by Russia General Director Ilya Minin in a media interview earlier this week. iHerb will partici- pate in a customs bonded area experiment led by Russian Post in Tatarstan, a region 1,000 km east of Moscow. Minin expects this new logistics process to decrease average delivery time “from 8
The fintech has reportedly secured a Specialised Banking Licence from the Bank of Lithuania, which allows it to offer and passport a wider range of solutions to customers in Europe. Revolut, which counts more than 300,000 Lithuanian customers, allowed users to transfer their accounts from an e-money account to a fully-fledged bank account. It hired between 40 and 50 people this year as it beefs up its operations there.
The fintech unicorn further explained that due to some differences between local regulations, they will ask some users to reverify their ID or provide details about their business when their accounts are migrated.
Revolut said earlier this year that though its headquarters will remain in London and that UK payments will be managed from there, it will shift responsibility for its European payments to Ireland and Lithuania after Brexit.
to 2-3 days.” iHerb does not rule out creating its own distribution warehouse – managing not only import, but also export product flows. What is indeed new in these announcements is that iHerb, which so far focused on selling foreign products to Russian online consumers, is now planning to work the other way round as well. As an example of product, which iHerb could sell abroad, Minin cited R.O.C.S., one of the most popular toothpastes in Russia.
“iHerb, one of the most successful international e-commerce companies in Russia, is planning to invest some $100mn in the country in the next two years”
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