The CEO of Europe’s most valuable startup gave his clearest IPO timeline yet in a Bloomberg interview, narrowing his December ‘two to three years’ estimate to ‘two years.’

It came as Revolut marked the biggest regulatory milestone in its history and filed for a US bank charter, both developments that make an eventual listing meaningfully more credible.

Revolut CEO Nik Storonsky told Bloomberg on Monday that the digital bank’s IPO is approximately two years away, in what represents a slight but notable tightening of his previous public guidance.

In December 2025, speaking in a Russian-language interview, Storonsky had described a listing as “most likely” two to three years out and “not a priority.”

The new two-year framing edges the timeline toward 2028. A US listing remains the stated preference.

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In March 2026, the company received its full UK banking licence from the Prudential Regulation Authority after an 18-month mobilisation phase, the longest such process in recent memory, delayed by regulatory concerns over the company’s global risk controls and anti-money laundering compliance.

The licence, which brings UK customers under Financial Services Compensation Scheme protection up to £120,000 and enables consumer credit products including loans and overdrafts, removes the most significant structural gap in Revolut’s position as a credible IPO candidate.

A company seeking a public listing while still operating on a restricted licence would face pointed questions from institutional investors; that concern is now resolved.

Also in March, Revolut filed a national bank charter application with the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), alongside appointing Cetin Duransoy, a former senior executive at Visa and ex-CEO of Raisin US, as its US chief executive.

Storonsky has been explicit about why the US licence matters for Revolut’s product ambitions: the American market is credit-card driven, and without a banking licence the company cannot offer competitive credit products or earn interchange fees at scale.

A US banking licence would fundamentally change what Revolut can sell to its American users.

Revolut’s financial trajectory makes the two-year window plausible. The company generated $4 billion in revenue and $1.4 billion in pre-tax profit in 2024, up 72% and 149% respectively year-on-year.

For 2026, management has projected $9 billion in revenue and $3.5 billion in net profit, figures that would make it one of the most profitable fintechs in the world.

The company serves more than 70 million customers across over 100 countries, and holds banking licences in multiple jurisdictions including Lithuania (its EU banking hub), the UK, and Mexico, where it launched full banking operations in January 2026.

The question of where Revolut lists has become an ongoing embarrassment for UK financial markets. Storonsky has repeatedly signalled preference for a US listing, citing greater liquidity, higher valuation multiples for technology companies, and the 0.5% stamp duty reserve tax on UK share dealings.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has personally tried to court a London listing, she opened Revolut’s Canary Wharf headquarters and has held meetings with fintech leaders, but Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey reportedly declined to join one such meeting over concerns about political interference in regulatory decisions.

The UK government has introduced a three-year stamp duty exemption for newly listed companies, but City analysts have largely written off the prospect of a primary London listing.

Revolut’s valuation trajectory complicates the conventional IPO logic. A November 2025 secondary share sale, led by Coatue, Greenoaks, Dragoneer, and Fidelity, with Andreessen Horowitz, Franklin Templeton, T. Rowe Price, and Nvidia’s NVentures also participating, valued the company at $75 billion.

Bloomberg has reported the company is weighing another secondary in the second half of 2026 that could push the valuation above $100 billion.

People familiar with the company’s thinking have told Bloomberg the target for an eventual IPO is at least $150 billion, a figure that would make Revolut more valuable than Barclays, Deutsche Bank, and Société Générale combined.

Storonsky’s incentive package, modelled on Elon Musk’s Tesla deal, gives him additional share grants if the company reaches $200 billion in valuation. He currently holds approximately 29% of the company.