Opinion: British digital bank Revolut now also wants to take a big bite out of the huge Brazilian market

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – (Opinion) The Brazilian market is top. More and more companies that turned up their noses at the country a few years ago now want a piece of the huge market in the second-largest economy of the Americas.

It is to be expected that even more suppliers from all possible industries will come to graze the consumers here.

Russia has been ‘canceled’ by the West, led by the Anglo-Saxons, and India with its patriotic government is relying on its own strength, so there is not much room for expansion left in the world. Brazil is the next best thing and should not be afraid to play it tough.

Just yesterday, Singapore-based eCommerce giant Shopee announced that it was dropping the Indian market to concentrate fully on Brazil. So tidy are the profits in this country.

No wonder British digital bank Revolut is now looking to pitch its tents here as well.

The group does not talk about the user base, but it is expected that Brazil will be one of the five largest markets for Revolut, which already operates in over 35 countries.

The operation is said to be starting with the offer of an international account and card with access to multiple currencies, and will gradually expand its scope. It is expected that the offer will be completed in the second half of the year.

With more than 18 million customers worldwide, the Brits are less than half the size of homegrown Nubank.

While Nubank and other Brazilian suppliers are investing their profits in talent, training and expertise here at home and making Brazil more competitive overall, the Brazilian consumer needs to know that every Real Revolut earned here will be sent back to their Atlantic island and is lost to Brazilian advancement – unless the British prove otherwise.

It’s also important to remember that Anglo-Saxon countries already have far too much power in the digital industry, which they are now increasingly leveraging against customers around the globe.

The social media companies from Silicon Valley and their almost relentless censorship activity are just one of many examples. They cancel and de-platform everyone about anything as it pleases them.

Would you like your account to be frozen tomorrow because of a decision taken in London and ordered by the British government to spite the Brazilian president?

It will be interesting to see what Revolut has to offer and whether it is really worth it for the Brazilian consumer to support London instead of São Paulo as a digital superhub.

“Will I have 50 million customers? Probably not. In the first year, we’ll be something of a hybrid of Avenue, Nomad and Wise. When we have the local account, credit, insurance and everything else, we will be more like the high-income C6,” says Glauber Mota, who is tasked with building Revolut Brazil.

C6 is the German Fintech, which entered Brazil last year.

Because it is a private company, there is no detailed information about Revolut’s financial performance. In its last funding round in July last year, the fintech company announced that it would achieve revenues of £261 million in 2020, an increase of 57%.

The company is said to still be in the red, but came very close to breaking even, they say.

More: Brazil news in English, every day from The Rio Times.

This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error

LatAm Markets: Live Signals → — real-time movers, turnover leaders and FX across Latin America.