Revolut CFO quits as auditor flags concern about revenues
Only a few weeks after Revolut’s auditor said it couldn’t authenticate 75% of the revenue in its 2021 accounts, the company’s CFO resigned from his position.
Mikko Salovaara, who joined the London-based fintech firm as Chief Financial Officer in April 2021, is leaving the company due to “personal reasons.” Revolut has not yet announced who will succeed the 31-year-old executive.
In a statement he said: “I am grateful for the opportunity to serve as group CFO at Revolut and remain confident in the firm’s future successes.”
Revolut co-founder Nik Storonsky added: “I thank Mikko for his contribution and wish him well on his next steps.”
The digital bank aims to put a turbulent period behind it. In March, Revolut faced new questions when its auditor revealed concerns over its long delayed 2021 accounts. BDO said it had been unable to fully verify £477 million of revenues, adding that “the risk of an undetected material misstatement was unacceptably high” due to the configuration of Revolut’s internal IT systems.
Shortly after, investment bank Schroders has written nearly 45 percent of its stake value in Revolut amid a downturn in financial technology shares and red flags waved by auditors BDO over its revenues.
Schroders cut its internal valuation of its Revolut shares to £5.4 million from £10.1 million in 2021. The markdown implies a valuation of $17.7 billion, down from $33 billion the company was valued at after its last funding round, marking another dramatic markdown by a high-profile fintech startup.
Schroders’s recent markdown is believed to be the second publicly announced decrease in Revolut’s valuation since its significant fundraising round in 2021, which included investments from SoftBank and Tiger Global.
Revolut reported its first full year of profit, with its delayed accounts showing that revenues tripled in 2021 as paid subscriptions and overall usage of its app grew sharply.
The challenger bank swung into a pre-tax profit of £39.8 million ($48 million) for the year compared to a loss of £220.7 million in 2021. The London-based business yielded revenues of £636.2 million ($767.1 million), three times the £220 million it booked in 2020.
For 2022, the company gave a trading update saying it continued to grow at a slower pace, with revenue rising 30 percent to £850 million. As a privately held firm, Revolut is not required to share frequent quarterly reports.
