Comparisons with first in class are often the death knell for new kids on the block. Young black politician, Chuka Umunna, was described in 2009 as Britain’s answer to President Barack Obama. He now works for a bank, having given up politics in favor of a far more stable career. Nik Storonsky has been described as the Jeff Bezos of finance. He will hope for a rather less obscure entry in the history books in ten years’ time.
Storonsky is the founder of Revolut, a trading and banking business that has already reached that holy grail of consumer penetration—verbification. In Ireland, to “revolut” simply means to transfer money, pay for something or split a bill on the bank’s app. To “Google” was recognized as a verb in America in 2002, four years after Larry Page and Sergei Brin officially incorporated the search company. To revolut became a verb in 2022, a matter of months after Storonsky’s company received its full banking license in Ireland. More than 80% of the country’s adult population uses the service.
