At some point, almost every ambitious founder asks it. Usually after a strong year, sometimes after a funding round, or occasionally after a competitor makes the move first.
Should we go to the US?
It feels like the right question. It isn’t.
The right question is what kind of company you’re prepared to become to expand, and whether you’re honest enough with yourself to know the difference before you’re committed.
Monzo and Revolut just made that distinction very public. Same signals, same market, two completely different decisions. Monzo pulled out. Revolut is doubling down, pursuing a national bank charter and committing to a long-term build.
This isn’t a story about who’s right, but about what it actually takes to enter America, and the type of company you need to be if you’re serious about doing it long-term.
The Monzo Lesson Nobody Wants to Learn
Monzo never secured a US banking licence. It operated through a partnership with Lead Bank, meaning it couldn’t hold deposits directly or build a full lending book. Structurally limited, sharing revenue with a partner it could never outgrow, while carrying the full cost of customer acquisition.
Those costs aren’t trivial. The US runs at over $300 per customer acquired in banking, roughly three times the global average. Monzo was spending heavily to acquire users it couldn’t fully monetise.
Then Europe changed. When Monzo secured a full EU banking licence in late 2025, it unlocked access to a 450 million person single market under a single regulatory framework. The exit from the US wasn’t just about America being difficult — Europe had simply become the more economically rational bet.
Monzo isn’t alone in this. From traditional banks like HSBC and BBVA to digital challengers like N26, the pattern repeats. Entering the US without full structural control produces a ceiling,and most companies don’t see it until they’re already up against it.
So Why Is Revolut Still Going In?
Because Revolut is playing a different game.
With over 70 million customers globally and a model spanning banking, wealth, FX and crypto, it isn’t dependent on a single product line or margin stream. It has the capital and diversification to sustain a long build. More importantly, it’s pursuing a full US banking licence — owning the customer relationship end-to-end, from deposits and lending through to full product expansion, with no structural ceiling on what it can build.
That requires something most companies underestimate: patience. The businesses that struggle in the US are rarely lacking ambition. They’re lacking the willingness to treat it like what it actually is, which is building a second company with its own regulatory, operational and commercial complexity.
What This Means for You and Your Business
Most founders frame this as a timing decision. When is the right moment to go? The more honest question is whether you have what Revolut has: the capital base, the product depth, the runway to absorb years not quarters. And if not, are you genuinely prepared to build it?
You can enter through partnerships, move fast, and test demand. But as Kevin Fox, Chief Revenue Officer at Thredd, puts it: “Without a pivot to some differentiated credit product, prepaid and debit offerings often don’t generate enough revenue to warrant those costs.” Without a clear path to owning the full customer relationship — you will eventually hit the same constraints Monzo did: limited product control, shared economics, and a long-term value ceiling you can’t trade your way out of.
Or you commit to building properly, securing licences, localising your product, investing in infrastructure, and accepting that meaningful traction takes time.
Both paths are valid. But they are not interchangeable, and confusing one for the other is where most expansions quietly fail.
As Emmett Higdon, Director of Digital Banking at Javelin Strategy & Research, warns: “A one-size-fits-all global digital banking play will never prosper in the US. The landscape will remain littered with failures caused by a lack of appreciation for the unique needs and expectations of the US consumer.”
The Honest Conclusion
The US will demand more from you than any other market — not just more capital and time, but the kind of operational discipline and genuine localisation that most companies only discover they’re missing once they’re already committed.
Monzo made a rational call. So did Revolut. The difference was clarity about what each business was actually built for at that moment.
That’s the real lesson. Not which path is better, but which path is yours. Going in as Revolut when you’re structurally a Monzo doesn’t make you bold — it makes the mistake expensive, and occasionally very public.
The US remains the largest and most valuable fintech market globally, projected to exceed $70 billion in revenue by 2028, with tens of billions in capital continuing to flow into the sector — and nothing about that trajectory is slowing down.
The founders who get this right don’t necessarily have more resources. They have more honesty about where they actually stand before they commit.
So which are you, and are you certain enough to bet on it?
If you’re not, that’s worth resolving first. Book an initial strategy call here.
