The United Kingdom-based neobank Revolut has selected a new Canadian CEO to lead it back into the market it left behind in 2021.
“The Canadian market is one we are currently evaluating and see as attractive.”
Jan Pilbauer, the now-former CEO of Abu Dhabi, UAE-based FinTech firm Al Etihad Payments, has updated his LinkedIn profile to indicate he became CEO of Revolut Canada in October. This follows Revolut reportedly recruiting for a new Canadian CEO earlier this year.
A Revolut spokesperson confirmed to BetaKit that Pilbauer is Revolut Canada’s CEO, adding the company continues to “explore opportunities for growth in new markets.”
“The Canadian market is one we are currently evaluating and see as attractive, with the potential to offer a unique value proposition to customers in the future,” the spokesperson said. “However, we are quite early in the process and have no further updates to share at this stage.”
Pilbauer has extensive FinTech experience, including in Canada. On top of stints as CEO of Al Etihad and South Africa’s BankservAfrica (now known as PayInc), Pilbauer was formerly the chief information officer and executive director of modernization at Payments Canada, the organization that operates a payment clearing and settlement system in Canada. He was also the former director of application and data management services at the Bank of Canada, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Image courtesy LinkedIn.
Founded in 2015, Revolut is one of the world’s largest neobanks and one of Europe’s most valuable private tech companies, following a recent share sale that valued it at $75 billion USD ($105 billion CAD). The FinTech giant offers banking services that include prepaid debit cards, currency exchanges, stock trading, peer-to-peer payments, and cryptocurrency trading.
Revolut launched a beta version of its banking, as well as crypto and stock-trading offerings, in Canada in 2019, only to retreat in early 2021. At the time, it claimed that it was not able to offer the full range of services it had hoped to in Canada.
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The company promised to return to Canada when it could, and Revolut co-founder and CEO Nikolay Storonsky later told audience members at Collision that the company planned to come back to Canada in 2022. A Revolut spokesperson later tried to walk back those comments, telling BetaKit that the company “does not have any timeline for its re-entry to disclose at this time.”
When it was recruiting for the top Canadian job earlier this year, Revolut reportedly told prospective suitors that it was looking for a leader in Canada interested in building something “from the ground up.” This CEO was expected to be tasked with “scaling the business from 0 to 1, and beyond, within Canada,” ensuring the “smooth acquisition of all required regulatory licenses in a timely manner,” and working “with internal and external stakeholders to manage expectations.”
Feature image courtesy Revolut.