Drip of the Week: Before the IPO — What Revolut Shareholders Should Know

Welcome to the Drip of the Week — your quick hit on companies we like, what’s changing across the Unicorn economy, and how those changes impact employees and founders shaping the future. 

Spotlight: Spark — Drip 3. Tax Optimization

We’re excited to continue our 4-part Spark series. Spark is our solution built specifically for employees and companies that have publicly filed an S-1.

Drip 1: Higher Advance Rate
Drip 2: Lower Cost of Capital
Drip 3: Tax Optimization
Drip 4: Liquidity & Diversification

Year of the … Tax Optimization!

2026 is shaping up to potentially become the first year to match 2021’s reported $11B of “avoidable taxes” paid by employees who net exercised upon IPO instead of pre-IPO. Solving this problem at scale mandated that we increase our advance rate (up to 50% of the value of your shares) and lower our cost of capital to address option exercise and liquidity at a time of more certainty for employees and shareholders. 

Why Spark Matters for Shareholders

Lower pricing enables shareholders to begin tax optimization strategies earlier, including tax harvesting strategies. In addition to the tax optimizations embedded into the Liquid solution, shareholders can meaningfully enhance their ending net worth by careful planning. 

Why Spark Matters for Option Holders

Spark enables ISOs, NSOs, and single-trigger RSUs/PSUs to exercise based on today’s 409A, rather than waiting to net exercise at the IPO price.

That likely means:

• Preserving more shares
  • Avoiding forced net exercises that cut your ownership
  • Shifting future appreciation from ordinary income to capital gains
  • Unlocking tax planning strategies such as moving to lower capital gains tax jurisdictions
  
  

Company of the Week: Revolut

If PayPal/Venmo, Robinhood, Chime, Wise, and Coinbase merged into one seamless platform, and won both digital-native and traditional banking customers across Europe, you’d get something close to Revolut. Founded in the U.K. in 2015, Revolut has grown into a financial super-app with more than 40 million customers globally, with dominant penetration across the U.K. and continental Europe. In multiple European markets, it is not just a challenger bank, it is becoming the primary banking relationship for a generation of consumers.

For American investors used to thinking about fintech through the lens of PayPal, Robinhood, Chime, or SoFi, Revolut looks different. Its product breadth is wider, its geographic footprint is broader, and its engagement metrics are more like a platform company than a single-product financial app. Day-to-day money exchanges, checking, FX, global transfers, crypto, equities, travel insurance, subscriptions, all inside one interface. In Europe, that level of product integration and cross-sell has created staying power.

What all of that adds up to is a generational type of company that option holders and shareholders may consider holding for generations. Exercise strategy, tax planning, and diversification should not wait for the IPO announcement, as liquidity and tax planning could materially alter the ending net worth. If you know or work with Revolut employees or shareholders, this is the moment to start the conversation.