Co-founder of British fintech startup Revolut Nikolay Storonsky has renounced his Russian citizenship, Revolut representative told Forbes.

“Nik has renounced his Russian citizenship a while ago,” the company’s representative said.

The company reminded that the position of the businessman on the Russian special military operation in Ukraine is well known: “He still strongly calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities.”

After the special operation started, Revolut offered relocation assistance to all employees in Ukraine, as well as closed offices in Russia, offering help to Russian employees with relocation, the company noted.

On October 19 his father, Nikolay Storonsky Snr, Director General of Gazprom Promgaz, was sanctioned by the Ukrainian government. According to the Ukrainian side, Storonsky Snr “is responsible for the material and financial support of actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.” Speaking to Forbes, Revolut representative said that Storonsky renounced his Russian citizenship before his father was sanctioned.

This April, Nikolay Storonsky (Nik Storonsky) asked Forbes magazine not to call him a Russian billionaire. “Nik is a U.K. citizen,” his representative stressed.



Storonsky, born in Dolgoprudny outside Moscow, graduated from the Physics and Mathematics School. In 2002, he applied for a master’s degree in physics at Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and in 2006 - for a separate masters in economics at Russian Economic School in Moscow. He Received both diplomas in 2007.

In 2006, Storonsky received an internship at Lehman Brothers in London, where he worked as a trader until the bank’s bankruptcy in 2008. After that, the team of traders was bought by the largest Japanese brokerage firm Nomura, but a month later Storonsky left Nomura for Credit Suisse, where he spent the next five years.

The idea to found Revolut was born in 2014. His first idea was a multi-currency bank card that would allow users to exchange money at a favorable rate while traveling. He was the first investor in the project with £300,000. A few months later, Storonsky invited former developer of Deutsche Bank, Ukrainian programmer Vlad Yatsenko, who became the co-founder and CTO of Revolut, to join the startup. The first prototype of Revolut was ready in early 2015, and in July the app was fully functional․

According to Storonsky, the decision to found a company in the U.K. had to do with the favorable environment in terms of laws and regulations. Moreover, it is a big market, and Revolut could “make a fintech product from London for the entire Europe, which means 350 million people with decent average annual income.”

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