Wagniskapital: Revolut bietet Kunden jetzt Investments in junge Start-ups an

Britische Neobank Revolut is expanding its range of private market investments, offering customers the opportunity to invest in mature startups through its app. Revolut's platform, called Revolut Ventures, will allow eligible customers to build positions in private companies within their existing portfolios. The aim is to provide private investors with access to venture capital investments at an institutional level, which are significantly more illiquid and carry a higher risk of capital loss compared to stocks traded on exchanges.

Revolut warns that these investment opportunities come with a high risk, but they also offer significant growth potential. The new product will be structured as a European long-term investment fund, or ELTF, which will make it easier for retail investors to access private market investments that were previously only available to professional and institutional investors.

Revolut's venture fund will primarily invest in technology companies that have already passed the founder stage and are preparing for a potential IPO. These late-stage investments have a lower risk of insolvency compared to newly founded startups. The growth of technology companies is increasingly delayed before they go public, with the average age for an IPO rising from 6.9 to 11 years according to Revolut.

Examples include AI labs Anthropic and OpenAI. Carne Group, one of the largest management companies in Europe, will manage the fund, while Alter Domus will serve as the fund administrator and BNY as the custodian and depository. The venture capital fund is not Revolut's first private market investment offering; they launched a private equity product in July.

Other neobanks and brokers have been offering private market investments for some time already, such as Trade Republic offering funds from EQT and Apollo, and Scalable's BlackRock private equity ELTF. However, Revolut's venture product is the first of its kind. Their idea for the venture product comes from the company's "New Bets" initiative, an internal brainstorming session for developing new product lines.

The neobank announced the launch of its mobile service just a few days ago, which also originated from the initiative. Revolut plans to become the leading bank in Germany as quickly as possible.