Young people are abandoning Britain in search of sunnier climes in southern Europe, the billionaire co-founder of Revolut has said.
Vlad Yatsenko, the digital bank’s chief technology officer, said his employees are increasingly taking advantage of remote working to benefit from warm weather and tax cuts.
He said the government “must do better” to stop workers leaving Britain to work abroad, especially as rival countries “are struggling”. create environments to attract talent“.
“Now the UK is competing with southern Europe,” Mr Yatsenko said. “Before, young people who wanted a career went to London.
“But nowadays people are moving (to southern Europe) because they are attracted by better financial rewards, tax incentives and lifestyle.”
Countries like Portugal and Italy have recently introduces tax breaks for those under 35 as part of a campaign to attract foreign talent and retain young workers.
This has allowed Lisbon to become a key hub for start-ups, while Italy has recently benefited from a surge in startup technology funding, reaching $2bn (£1.8bn) up to ‘now this year.
The country is on track to have its second best funding year since 2021, according to Dealroom data, at a time when other countries have seen declines.
Mr Yatsenko, a German-born Ukrainian, worked in Poland before moving to London to work in banking and software development. He co-founded Revolut with Nik Storonsky, its chief executive, in 2015.
Over the summer, Revolut obtained a banking license to expand its offerings in Britain before launching a secondary share sale that valued the company at $45 billion. Mr. Yatsenko owns about 3% of the company, according to data provider Beauhurst, giving him a paper fortune of more than $6 billion.
Despite concerns about talent, Mr Yatsenko said the UK remained a competitive place to launch a fintech business.
His comments come amid concerns from start-up founders that Britain threatens to discourage entrepreneurship with capital gains tax increases announced in the October budget.
Headquartered in Canary Wharf, Revolut employs more than 10,000 people globally, enabling its staff to work entirely remotely or on a hybrid basis.
Mr Yatsenko said Revolut was able to stick to its hybrid model through rigorous monitoring of staff, with underperformers told they would have to leave immediately or improve within six weeks.
The startup is infamous for its “do it” motto and demanding culture.
While other bosses have fought to end working from home, he said: “I read it because managers don’t know what their team members are doing – our approach is different. Because there is this transparency in this way we can be distributed.