In brief Revolut raised $500 million in a Series D funding round.

The company is now valued at $5.5 billion.

Revolut has supported crypto trading within its banking app since 2017.

Revolut, a so-called “challenger” bank that operates out of London’s Canary Wharf, has raised $500 million in a Series D funding round, bringing its total valuation to $5.5 billion. This makes it the UK’s most valuable FinTech startup, based on data from Crunchbase. And because Revolut has a crypto offering, that makes it UK’s most valuable crypto startup, too.

Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) led the investment round. GP Bullhound also participated, according to Crunchbase, as did London Impact Ventures, according to a press release.

London’s challenger banks “disrupt” the traditional offerings by the UK’s high street banks by charging customers lower fees on cross-border transaction fees, and providing easy to use banking apps.

Some, like Revolut, as well as upcoming challenger bank Ziglu (founded by a former co-founder of Starling), let customers buy cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, within their apps. Revolut first added Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin to its platform in 2017. The company later added XRP and Bitcoin Cash the following year.

Revolut offers no hidden fees, and Ziglu’s plan is to copy-paste the formula from the first wave of challenger banks by becoming power users of crypto exchanges. Crypto exchanges charge lower fees to power users, so Ziglu plans to pass its discounts on to its customers.

Challenger banks are immensely successful: Revolut said it has increased daily active users by 380% in 2019, according to TechCrunch, though didn’t share specifics. But the $5.5 billion valuation makes it worth almost double that of its rival, Monzo, which was last year valued at around $2.6 billion based on its most recent funding round. Still, none of them turn a profit.

Concerning the funding round, Revolut founder Nikolas Storonsky said, “our focus is on rolling out banking operations in Europe, increasing the number of people who use Revolut as their daily account, and striving towards profitability.”