Behind the online banking firm making all the noise in the tech industry at the moment stands Russian-born entrepreneurial mastermind Nikolay ‘Nik’ Storonsky.
Born in 1984 in Dolgoprudny, he set up the now-global FinTech in 2015 with business partner Vladislav Yatsenko.
The idea came from his own personal frustrations with traditional banking fees during his travels, so he set up the firm in order to offer the solution – a platform which provided seamless, low-cost financial services globally.
The London-based firm has now grown into a worldwide giant, with profits before tax now standing at over £1bn.
BusinessCloud looks at Storonsky’s rise to one of the richest figures in the world.
Storonsky was born in Russia to a Ukrainian father who worked at Gazprom Promgaz.
A state champion swimmer, he has completed two masters degrees in Moscow – one in physics at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, the other in economics at the New Economic School.
Following this, he began work as a trader at Lehman Brothers and Credit Suisse, one of Europe’s most valuable startups, before emigrating to the UK aged 20 and gaining British citizenship.
The billionaire’s FinTech idea Revolut started out in 2015 by offering multi-currency accounts and has since expanded to encompass a wide array of financial services, including stock trading, cryptocurrency exchange, and insurance.
Under Storonsky’s leadership, Revolut has experienced exponential growth.
In 2018, the firm gained a Challenger bank licence from the European Central Bank, facilitated by the Bank of Lithuania, before it signed a global deal with Visa the year after.
This powered its expansion into 24 new markets and the hiring of around 3,500 additional staff.
In 2020, another funding round tripled its value to £4.2bn, as it launched into the US market. This was the same year in which it became profitable – and it hasn’t looked back since.
2021 once again proved to be a major success for the London-based FinTech, as it saw Revolut apply for a UK banking licence and for a bank charter in the USA.
An additional $800m was raised from investors including SoftBank, which resulted in a $33bn valuation.
In 2022, it launched as a bank in 10 more countries across Europe and had onboarded 25 million customers.
At the end of FY2024, the firm had over 52 million customers worldwide and was generating £3.1bn in revenue.
The business also obtained a UK banking license last year and will prioritise its launch in 2025.
Revolut, however, is not Storonsky’s only business venture.
In 2022, he founded venture capital firm QuantumLight, which leverages AI to identify promising startups.
The company has recently backed fast-growing AI-focused businesses including Sipay and Robin AI.
It is bold moves like these that have placed Storonsky in such a powerful position financially.
The 40-year-old is the wealthiest FinTech entrepreneur in the UK, with a net worth of $7.9bn according to Forbes’ World Billionaires List for 2025.
He has also responded to geopolitical events regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In 2022, he condemned the invasion, renounced his Russian citizenship and pledged to match donations made to the Red Cross in support of humanitarian efforts.
A lot has also been made of the working culture at Revolut.
Storonsky has previously attributed the company’s rapid growth to the dedication of its employees, noting that many work 12 to 13 hours a day, including weekends.
In a 2017 interview with Business Insider, he highlighted the importance of “getting sh*t done”.
Despite a slightly unusual approach to work-life balance than most, there is no denying that the business mogul has managed to create a global phenomenon in Revolut.
As the firm continues to expand, reports suggest it is preparing for an IPO in the future after it was valued at a whopping $45bn.
Storonsky has previously made it clear that he would prefer to go public with his company in the US, as Britain’s stock market is ‘much worse’ than that of our transatlantic neighbours.