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- Today's business and finance round up 16th July 2021
Today's business and finance round up 16th July 2021
🎊Revolut becomes most valuable UK start up ever
16th July 2021
Good morning Clippy, Microsoft’s infamous paperclip mascot who offered tips to users, is coming back from the dead in the form of an emoji. Clippy was retired with the launch of Office 2007 but Microsoft say the time is right for its return, ahead of World Emoji day tomorrow.
Today's stories
Revolut becomes most valuable UK start up ever
Private club goes public
Yesterday's market moves
FTSE 100 -1.1% 7,012 FTSE 250 -1.1% 22,501
UK markets continued to slide off the back of the dual fears of inflationary pressures and the ongoing spread of the Delta variant of Covid-19. On the data front, the latest domestic labour market health-check failed to stimulate the markets, an upbeat UK payrolls data release saw the number of payroll jobs rise by 356k in June.
FINTECHRevolut becomes most valuable UK start up ever
What’s going on?Yesterday British fintech app, Revolut announced that it had raised $800m taking its value to $33bn. This makes it the most valuable UK start up on record and is an astronomical increase on its last valuation of $5.5bn a year ago.
Why is this important?
Since launching in London in 2015 as an app-based foreign exchange card, Revolut has experienced rapid growth and now offers a range of services including share trading, bank accounts and energy switching to its 15 million customers in 35 countries.Most of its revenue comes from transaction fees that are taken from a business every time a customer uses their card to pay for their good or service.The $800m investment came from Japan's SoftBank and New York-based Tiger Global Management. The cash will be used to expand into new markets like the US and India.The deal is a major boost for the UK tech scene as it continues to compete with the US for funding. The news caught the attention of Chancellor Rishi Sunak who said Revolut was a "great British Fintech success".
TakeawayRevolut is now worth more than 75% of the companies in the FTSE 100 including established high street banks like Natwest. Pretty impressive for a company that reported a loss of £168m last year and is yet to make a profit. It’s surely has to be only a matter of time before it too becomes a public company.
LEISUREPrivate club goes public
The company behind the trendy private members club Soho House, has gone public, listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Membership Collective owns 28 Soho House clubs across the world and is now worth around $3bn.The first club started out in Soho London in 1995 as a place for creatives from the world of art and entertainment to wine and dine clients.Today the group has around 119,000 members, with nine workspaces in London, LA and New York and home-decor retailer Soho Home.The last year was tough for the business. It cut 1,000 jobs from its 8,000-strong workforce as well as asked landlords for rent holidays after lockdown restrictions forced the club to close its doors.Revenues fell 40% to $384m in the 12 months to January and it still hasn’t managed to turn a profit.The company plans to use the $400m it’s raised from the public listing towards paying down its debt pile of $826m and expanding to more locations.
Stat of the day
Last year the government spent £73,000 on wine for hospitality
Other stories to keep you in the loop
