British fintech giant Revolut announced on Friday that its subsidiary arm in India has acquired Arvog Forex, a local money transfers firm, to jump-start its product strategy in the nation. Although Revolut India did not disclose the transaction details, reports show that the acquisition was worth about $4.5 million.
The Mumbai forex company will help Revolut to secure a forex license and start providing forex and remittance services to Indian clients.
In April last year, Revolut made its entry into the Indian market to take advantage of the growing digital financial services in the region and to compete with other neo banks in offering cutting edge services
Paroma Chatterjee, CEO of Revolut India, talked about the acquisition and said: “This is the first step towards our aspiration to be a significant part of the digital financial revolution in India. Our significant investment plans, this acquisition and the quality of the team we are putting together reflect our intention to rapidly roll out these innovative products and services."
The CEO stated the firm expects to offer its products in the market by the second half of 2022. The company will begin providing cross-border remittances and then move to trading, investments, and lending services, Chatterjee mentioned.
In the future, Revolut India plans to serve as a full-fledged digital bank in the country. The firm has allocated an initial investment of over $45 million for the market and plans to hire 300 talents by the end of the year. The firm has already begun developing a product and engineering hub in India. The hub will serve the firm's markets around India, mainly in South East Asia. The company is developing a super app for the Indian market to offer all financial services under one roof. Currently, there is a waitlist of 30,000 Indians wanting to join the app.
Alternative Delivery Channels for Financial Inclusion
The entry into the Indian market is part of Revolut’s strategy to expand its services in overseas markets. Last month, Revolut expanded its offerings in the US by enabling commission-free stock trading services for its US customer base. Last month also, the digital bank obtained approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to provide commodities trading to its customers in Singapore.
In December last year, Revolut expanded its banking services to 10 more European countries in order to provide deposit protection of up to €100,000 to customers. The newly added countries were Sweden, Spain, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Lichtenstein, Iceland, Germany, Finland, Denmark, and Belgium.
In December 2021, the neo bank also expanded its presence in continental Europe by launching banking services in three more countries, France, Italy, and Portugal.
