Monzo's CEO talks about the digital bank's growing business in an interview with TechCrunch; the firm was recently granted a UK banking license with some restrictions; the digital bank has 100,000 users with activity driven by pre-paid Mastercards and mobile applications; Tom Blomfield gives his perspective on the fintech banking market and new PSD2 regulations; Blomfield also confirmed Monzo has already turned down an acquisition offer from a major bank. Source
Monzo has set a new Crowdcube record with fundraising from over 6,800 investors in its current fundraising campaign; firm has raised of 2.46 million British pounds ($3.06 million) and is targeting 2.47 million British pounds ($3.07 million); the crowdfunding campaign is part of a broader Series C funding round for 22 million British pounds ($27.37 million) which includes a 19.5 million British pounds ($24.26 million) investment from Thrive Capital, 5 million British pounds ($6.22 million) from Passion Capital and 1.5 million British pounds ($1.87 million) from Orange Digital Ventures; the firm has raised a total of 35 million British pounds ($43.54 million) in growth capital including a funding of 1 million British pounds ($1.24 million) in March of 2016 on Crowdcube. Source
Tom Blomfield of Monzo was recently interviewed on City A.M.’s Unregulated podcast; Blomfield said that he has been approached by big banks and tech companies and that the firm receives a takeover offer every month. Source
Though Monzo has seen a share of issues and outages recently the company says the third party marketplace is core to their vision; they also explained it was a key part of their revenue drive and will help to drive down costs per customers in the near future; Monzo have plans to expand product offerings, potentially launch in the US and build out partnerships in the near and mid term future. Source.
In looking for a new CFO the company posted an ad stating that the new officer would help to lead the company through an IPO in 3 to 4 years; Monzo has recently raised capital and talked about global expansion into Asia and the US; the UK based digital bank has also stated they are launching new products in 2018. Source.
UK digital bank startup Monzo has listed a new crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube and is seeking to raise 2.5 million British pounds ($3.09 million) as part of a broader fundraising for a total of 22 million British pounds ($27.18 million); Business Insider provides details on growth plans outlined in the crowdfunding campaign; Monzo is currently showing a seven year plan to an initial public offering which will include an estimated 75 million British pounds ($92.67 million) in new capital in the next five years; Monzo says it will raise capital again in May 2018 and it expects to report a profit after 2020; the firm has been granted a banking license and will begin offering deposit accounts as well as overdraft lending which it expects to help improve profitability. Source
Monzo has received a full banking license from the Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority; the licensing follows new fundraising that meets the banking capital requirements; it now plans to launch a current account and a current account overdraft product. Source
UK digital banks Monzo and Starling Bank announced payments integrations; Monzo plans to integrate Android Pay into the user interface for current account users; Starling Bank says it will be the first bank to partner with Fitbit Pay; while this is the first partnership of its kind for Monzo, Starling Bank integrated with Android pay a few months ago. Source.
UK based banking app Revolut has decided to build their own in-house processor after their provider experienced a number of outages; Revolut follows fellow banking app Monzo in making the move to an in-house processor because of outages; GPS, the processor, serves a number of fintech companies and digital banking apps. Source.
UK based Digital Bank Monzo is planning a crowdfunding round to give customers a greater share of ownership; the round will look to raise between $13mn and $40mn; while they will use the round for hiring it is meant to provide customers “a genuine sense of ownership”; the crowdfunding round follows the recent $94mn private equity backed fundraising. Source.