Nik Storonsky is co-founder and chief executive of Revolut, the London, England, financial app that reported 2025 revenue of $6.0B and profit before tax of $2.3B. He started the company in 2013 with his own savings after years as a derivatives trader in London. Read our review of Revolut.
Physics in Dolgoprudny and Moscow
He was born on July 21, 1984, in Dolgoprudny, a town near Moscow. In 2007 he completed a master's degree in general and applied physics at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and a master's in applied economics and finance at the New Economic School, according to Wikipedia.
Trading Derivatives in London
He moved to England in 2006 to trade equity derivatives at Lehman Brothers in London and later joined Credit Suisse, where he stayed until 2013.
Starting Revolut With His Own Savings
He founded Revolut Ltd in December 2013 and put in about $400,000 of his own savings. The idea came from the fees he paid while traveling, and the first concept was a multi-currency card with fair exchange rates. He brought in Vlad Yatsenko, a software engineer from Deutsche Bank, as chief technology officer, and the app launched in July 2015.
Revolut received its full UK banking license on March 11, 2026, after launching full banking operations in Mexico in January 2026. A share sale in November 2025 valued the company at $75B. When it closed, he said it reflected progress toward his vision of "building the first truly global bank."
QuantumLight and Life Outside Revolut
In 2023 he founded QuantumLight, a venture capital firm that uses its own AI platform to pick later-stage startups, and it had raised about $250M by 2025. He renounced his Russian citizenship in 2022 and was included in the TIME100 Next list in 2024.
