UK-based Revolut has been looking into expanding its operations into China, pitching the move to investors in 2024.
If Revolut moves forward with its plans, the company would place itself in direct competition with local firms like Alipay and WeChat.
Expanding operations across key markets
As detailed in a pitch deck shared with investors for Revolut’s secondary share sale in 2024, seen by Sifted, the company was evaluating hiring, licensing, and scoping opportunities in China. Additionally, Revolut was looking into similar opportunities in several countries across the Middle East and Asia, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Indonesia, and Turkey.
According to the same sources, Revolut has also labelled the Asia-Pacific (APAC) regulatory landscape as neutral and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region as friendly. On the other hand, regulators in the European Economic Area and the UK are described differently, with the company seeing them as hostile.
Since its launch in 2015, Revolut has substantially scaled its operations, currently serving over 50 million users across 40 countries and obtaining licenses in the UK, Europe, and other regions, with the aim of positioning itself as a global financial superapp. Securing the UK banking licence was a lengthy process, during which the company experienced delays and investigations into its accounts and operations. Revolut obtained the authorisation in July 2024, entering the mobilisation stage to finalise its UK banking operations before launching in full. One year later, Revolut remains in the same position, which limits the types of products it can provide to customers.
Furthermore, even if the company sees Asia’s regulatory landscape as more approachable compared to other markets, it is still uncertain how it would operate in China. The country’s ‘Great Firewall’ censorship system bans apps utilised in the West, including WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram. At the same time, Revolut would have to compete with apps like Alipay and WeChat, which already hold a substantial user base and facilitate an extensive offering of financial services.
However, Revolut made progress in the region earlier in July 2025 by starting a collaboration with Ant International to enable secure money transfers to China in the Chinese yuan through Alipay. Through this move, Revolut aimed to offer efficient, more secure, and cost-effective cross-border payments.
At the time of writing, Revolut did not provide any comment on the potential move.
