Revolut has acquired Swiftly, a Berlin-based start-up specialising in autonomous AI travel assistance, as the fintech giant continues to expand its digital platform beyond traditional banking services. The financial terms of the deal are undisclosed.
Swiftly’s AI technology leverages large language models and manages the complete travel booking experience through a conversational interface. The platform handles trip planning, reservations, payments, and invoicing processes, with the company stating it can complete travel bookings within two minutes.
The start-up was founded in 2023 by CEO Stanislav Bondarenko and CTO Tomasz Przedmojski after being incubated at Lufthansa Innovation Hub, the digital innovation division of Lufthansa Group.
Revolut says the acquisition enhances its existing lifestyle services, which include global eSIM offerings, while advancing the development of its AI financial assistant by “introducing a specialism in lifestyle automation”.
The deal includes both Swiftly’s proprietary technology and its founding team. Bondarenko has assumed the role of AI lead for loyalty products at Revolut, while lead software engineer Louis Laine joins as a senior software engineer. Przedmojski’s specific position within the organisation has yet to be revealed.
This acquisition represents another strategic move in Revolut’s expansion strategy. Earlier this year, the company purchased Banco Cetelem from BNP Paribas to enter the Argentine financial market, and committed $1.1 billion to bolster its presence in Western Europe.
The UK challenger, recognised as Europe’s most valuable private technology company with 65 million customers worldwide, recently declared plans to launch operations in India within the coming months. Announcing the move on LinkedIn, Revolut says: “We’ll kick things off by onboarding the 350,000+ people from our waitlist, with a full public release to follow. Our aim is 20 million customers in India by 2030.”
Source: https://www.fintechfutures.com/
