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Revolut was founded in London in 2015 with a very specific initial aim: to offer a multi-currency card that would solve currency exchange problems for overseas travellers. The company’s growth has been meteoric and today, in 2026, it operates as a global bank established in Lithuania, and with operations in more than 40 countries and 80 million customers. This growth has been accompanied by new products and services, from personal loans and mobile data to mortgages.

 

This year alone, Revolut has secured a licence to operate as a bank in Mexico, the United Kingdom, Colombia and France. In Spain, the company has recently reached seven million customers and now ranks fourth among the country’s banks, boasting a market penetration of 15%. With a technology hub in Barcelona serving southwest Europe, the Spanish branch has just appointed Santiago Pérez Olano as general manager.

 

     

 

What are your goals as the new general manager in Spain?

Our goals for Revolut rest on four pillars. The first is to maintain rapid growth, aiming to reach eight million users by early 2027, and which means attracting two million new customers in a year. The second is to deepen our customer relationships; we want to leverage our extensive customer base to increase cross-selling and get customers using our entire product ecosystem, rather than just individual services. The third pillar is localising and strengthening our subscription model, tailoring our offering to each market in order to drive further growth in premium plans that are already delivering excellent results. Finally, we remain unwavering in our commitment to constant innovation, continually developing new features that keep us at the forefront.

 

Has the Spanish branch lived up to the expectations it had when it opened in 2016?

Spain ranks third among Revolut’s markets, behind only France and the UK. With seven million customers and a market penetration of 15%, it has established itself as one of the company’s most important markets. At the same time, Spain is now Revolut’s major testing ground. It is where we have tested pioneering projects such as our ATM network, with our first physical store soon to follow. We have also found that our model, based on subscriptions that deliver real value, has proved a good fit. Our focus now is also  on scaling up Revolut Business. We want to meet the strong demand from SMEs, the self-employed and large companies, showing that we have the technological infrastructure and ambition needed to lead Spain’s financial sector in the long term.

 

In 2024, you opened a technology hub in Barcelona to serve southwest Europe. How has this initiative performed?

Establishing our innovation hub in Barcelona has been a resounding success, and the hub has become a cornerstone of Revolut’s expansion strategy for southern Europe. Ever since it opened this centre has become a testing ground, giving us tremendous flexibility in designing, testing and launching solutions tailored to usage and consumption patterns across the entire region. The response in terms of talent acquisition and operational development has been extraordinary. Having technical infrastructure and a team of this calibre in Barcelona enables us to operate with the accuracy of a Swiss watch, bringing together the scale of a global fintech with sensitivity to local markets and their technological needs. A clear example of the real impact it is having is that all the technological development and final testing of our own ATM network was led from the Barcelona office.

 

What other workplaces do you have in Spain?

Alongside our innovation centre in Barcelona, we have our Spanish head office in Madrid. From the capital, we lead corporate operations, business development and strategic decision-making on growth in Spain. Revolut’s structure also relies heavily on a flexible working model with a strong focus on talent. Beyond our physical presence in Madrid and Barcelona, we have professionals working on a hybrid or remote basis in different parts of the country, enabling us to maintain tremendous operational agility and attract the best talent without any geographical limits.

 

How many people work at Revolut’s Spanish branch?

Our workforce in Spain has grown very quickly. We currently have more than 1,800 employees, consolidating our position as one of the company’s markets with the strongest talent pools. Both our technology hub in Barcelona and our corporate headquarters in Madrid are driving this constant growth, and at the end of last year we announced that our aim was to create 800 new jobs by 2028. In terms of roles, the focus is firmly on engineering and operational security. In fact, Spain recorded the highest growth of any country in Revolut’s recruitment of engineers and data scientists between 2024 and 2025.

 

What other important projects have you carried out in our country?

We currently have several major projects under way, but the most significant for our country is probably the opening of our first physical store in Barcelona. Our aim for this space is to let users experience the Revolut ecosystem in a tangible way, adding a new dimension to how we interact with our users. We will open our doors in the coming months in the very heart of the city (Portal de l'Àngel 19-21), a strategic location where our innovation blends with the history of the Gothic Quarter and Plaça de Catalunya.

 

What is your customer profile in Spain?

Our customer profile in Spain has evolved over the past few years. We started out with a strong focus on young, digital native travellers, which is a profile closely associated with Gen Z and millennials. However, Spanish customers are far more digitally engaged than was once thought. Today, thanks to milestones such as the Spanish IBAN, Bizum and our savings accounts, that profile has become much more diverse, and we are no longer just a card for travelling or online shopping, but a genuine alternative for millions of people to use as their main bank for their day-to-day needs. As our product has matured, the average age has risen and is now at around 30 to 35 years old, although we are seeing an increasing number of older customers joining us to earn a return on their savings, professionals having their salaries paid in, attracted by the benefits of our subscription plans, and self-employed people, SMEs and large companies managing their entire business through Revolut Business. Our customers today are, in short, eminently practical, people who value speed, transparency and technological innovation. These are active users who seek full control over their finances in a single click and who, rather than settling for less, choose a financial ecosystem that really adds value and convenience to their lifestyle.

 

^{Photos: Revolut}