‘A catalyst’: Revolut’s CMO on marketing’s role in a ‘product-led’ business

Revolut didn’t invest in marketing until four years ago. Since then, the UK-founded fintech has followed a “clear and well established roadmap” to build its brand, explains chief growth and marketing officer Antoine Le Nel.  

Given the business defines itself as a “product-led company”, it is crucial marketing works hand in glove with product. Revolut has pushed out several new products in recent months, from offering eSims, and stocks and shares within its app, to its upcoming phone plans proposition, allowing users to text, call and use data through its product. 

This innovation comes from Revolut’s New Bets teams: small, concentrated squads of staff with a reported £2m-£3m budget to test and iterate. Launched in 2023, New Bets operates on a venture capital-inspired model, where teams explore multiple initiatives with limited upfront investment, allowing them to rapidly test, iterate and scale the most promising opportunities.

The idea behind the internal programme is to empower employees to act as “entrepreneurs”, identifying and developing novel products, capabilities and functionalities to drive long-term growth.
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Examples of initiatives that have gone through the New Bets framework include points scheme RevPoints, crypto exchange Revolut X, eSIMs, investment tool Robo-Advisor and investment product Flexible Cash Funds.

It’s not like we have one AI team. AI is spread across the board and everyone is using AI.

Antoine Le Nel, Revolut

What’s marketing’s role in this?  

“We are a product-led company, so we are not in a place where marketing says: ‘Hey, I see an opportunity here, build the product,’” says Le Nel.

“It doesn’t work like that. It comes from the product, it comes from this New Bets team that are trying things.”

The CMO describes eSIM, for example, as “a bet, a test and it worked incredibly well.”  

After experimenting, the team decided to try mobile plans, which are set to launch in three markets. 

“You can’t start from a marketing strategy, that doesn’t work. It’s got to be [that] marketing is a catalyst of a great product. If you don’t have the great product, there’s no point building marketing on it,” he argues. 

“You should never have marketing telling the product team what to build, it should always be the other way around,” he adds. “They innovate, they try to build something truly amazing and then once the experience is truly amazing, then you put the marketing on top of it.” 

If the product isn’t right, marketing can’t work “miracles”. That’s the message from Le Nel, who believes if something doesn’t grow “organically” and isn’t good enough to get people talking you shouldn’t even try “to put marketing on it.” 

“There’s no point. You’re going to waste resources and effort, and time into trying to put something out that you should not even have built in the first place,” he states. 

That said, the CMO emphasises the important role marketing plays at Revolut and in its growth.

“We try to innovate in marketing as much as we’re innovating in the product. So don’t wait for us [to be] where you expect us to be. We might be somewhere else,” he states. 

A bigger objective

One recent evolution is a move into sports partnerships. In the last 12 months, Revolut has invested in sports to “elevate the brand”, working with Manchester City Women and the NBA for the Paris Olympic Games.  

Next up is Formula 1. Revolut is partnering with Audi as the title sponsor of the car brand’s first F1 team for the 2026 Championship season and beyond. Partnering with F1 will allow Revolut to achieve its “bigger objective”, says Le Nel, which is to expand beyond Europe.  

Reflecting on the fintech’s work in sports so far, Le Nel says balancing local sponsorships, with collaborations with global organisations like F1, means Revolut can tap into expansion more effectively.

“The risk you have with sport is that if you’re very local and you go with a big IP, you’re going to dilute yourself quite significantly,” he says.

You should never have marketing telling the product team what to build, it should always be the other way around.

Antoine Le Nel, Revolut 

This isn’t the case with F1 given its global reach, says Le Nel, making it the “perfect match” for the brand. There’s a synergy between Audi and Revolut in terms of where the businesses are coming from. As Le Nel explains, the fintech is “competing against traditional banks” as a “newcomer”, while in F1 Audi is competing with the big teams like Ferrari and McLaren as it makes its debut. 

“The brand alignment was very strong, the mission alignment was very strong. And it was just an opportunity that we could not miss,” he adds. 

F1’s commerciality has exploded in recent years, with revenues surging 91.2% since 2017 and brands piling in to sponsor. For Revolut, the sport’s “high level of visibility” made the decision simple. 

To stand out in a crowded market, Le Nel explains that going in as naming partner with Audi will help Revolut hit its brand metrics. Plus, while many of the brands in the space are B2B focused, the fintech is “a lot more appealing and relatable as a brand” than other companies sponsoring F1 properties, Le Nel claims.  

Awareness for Revolut is “less of an objective”, he explains. Revolut hit 60 million users in July and has its sights set on the 100 million milestone.  

‘The idea is to elevate’: Revolut on why it’s no longer a challenger brand

When assessing its sports partnerships, the first question is how they will aid consideration and trust. The trust element is “very important” as the brand “wants to progress” into becoming its users’ primary banking app.

“We want to really change our customers’ habits,” says Le Nel.

Another factor in how Revolut measures its partnerships is the product usage factor, meaning the brand looks to integrate with partners, such as helping people access NBA tickets and payment solutions at festivals.  

Audi’s F1 team will be running its finances on Revolut, which he says will be an “amazing case study” demonstrating the value of the product.  

While Revolut wants to work more with sports in the next three years, it won’t be “putting a sticker” onto a football team without a joined up plan, says Le Nel.

“There has to be a strong narrative behind it,” he insists. 

‘Always on’

As brands tackle the use of AI in their marketing teams some are going all-in, while others are keeping a distance. At Revolut, AI is used across “many different verticals”.  

The designers and creative teams work with AI to generate a range of visual assets and concepts, with the brand stressing human expertise remains essential in shaping the final output and crafting the messaging. The idea is to explore new creative directions, while keeping the team at the heart of the process.

A recent brand campaign this summer was “fully AI-generated”, Le Nel explains, and fully developed in house.  

“A lot of our digital marketing, performance marketing is now AI-generated from the creative perspective, whether it’s the asset itself, whether it’s the copy or the localisation aspect of it,” he adds. “So it’s ramping up very quickly.”  

Equally, AI’s role within media buying is significant. Revolut has a “very small team” within media buying, managing what is a majority AI-led process.  

You can’t start from a marketing strategy, that doesn’t work. It’s got to be [that] marketing is a catalyst of a great product.

Antoine Le Nel, Revolut

Operating in 40 markets means Revolut’s marketing team is building its capability in compliance with AI assistance, because of the “level of complexities” involved. 

“It’s not like we have one AI team,” he adds. “AI is spread across the board and everyone is using AI.”   

Equally, Revolut’s approach to hiring marketers is “always on”. The teams are “very small”, which Le Nel explains is because he wants marketers to “have as much control as possible” over their work.  

“We need people who are very hands on, that can actually do things by themselves and that’s why we like to do things direct. As much as possible we like to do things ourselves,” he states. 

The Audi deal is an example of Revolut not using an intermediary. It was a four month long process between the two businesses.

Le Nel argues dealing direct “brings a lot of efficiency”, helping the brand gain “much better alignment” with partners. Autonomy over the work is a crucial part of Revolut’s team culture.

“Everyone is responsible for doing things. There are very few managers of managers. We have a very flat organisation where everyone is having a tremendous impact,” he states.