Revolut bets on Australian SMEs as it pushes beyond travel cards

Revolut is sharpening its Australian strategy around small and medium-sized enterprises as the UK-founded fintech seeks to shed its travel-card reputation and position itself as a broader financial platform. The company says it now counts around one million Australian users.

Leadership says the global transition beyond payments into lending, investing and other core banking products is already under way, with the goal of embedding more deeply into customers’ financial lives. “We’ve been used a lot, especially in places like the UK, as more of a travel card,” said Antoine Le Nel, Revolut’s chief growth and marketing officer.

“We really want to move away from that… how do we build more products and build more credibility into being really the primary bank for our users?” That shift, he added, requires a broader product suite — particularly credit — and a longer-term effort to build trust in markets where legacy banks still dominate.

To bolster its profile, Revolut has leaned on high-profile partnerships, including its name sponsorship of Audi’s Formula 1 team and local deals such as backing the Hawthorn Football Club in the AFL. It has also ramped up advertising in Australia, with prominent airport placements, as it works to shift perceptions beyond its early positioning as a travel-focused product.

SMEs are central to the company’s next phase in Australia. Revolut is rapidly expanding its business banking offering, which it says is growing faster than its consumer product and has already become a significant revenue driver globally. The business arm has surpassed $1 billion in annual revenue, supported by clients ranging from startups to large enterprises, including major travel and airline brands.

Australia’s SME-heavy economy and the international footprint of many local businesses make the market particularly attractive, the company says. “Part of the reason Australia was so attractive from the business point of view is it’s an economy built on small businesses,” said Matt Baxby, CEO of Revolut Australia and New Zealand.

Describing many customers as “global citizens, constantly travelling,” he added that “underserved competition hasn’t been there.” Revolut is also building out its own payments ecosystem, allowing merchants to accept payments directly from Revolut users — a model it says can reduce fees and improve margins by streamlining the transaction chain, though such approaches rely on scale to be effective.

While it competes with fintech players such as Airwallex, the company sees traditional banks as its primary rival in Australia’s SME market. “The competitors are the major banks… they’re the ones we can go after. They’re not getting a good deal with major banks,” Baxby said, pointing to fragmented systems, high fees and a lack of integration across products, particularly for businesses operating across borders.

“There’s so much friction in the way the major banks tend to serve the products up. They’re not well integrated… and the more you can make that seamless and easy, the adoption will just continue to grow.” Revolut says it aims to differentiate through pricing and user experience, alongside a broader platform that connects consumer and business accounts within a single ecosystem.

The company’s push in Australia forms part of its wider effort to move beyond travel cards and build credibility as a primary financial platform.