- U.K.-based digital bank Monzo has raised $430 million (£340 million) in a round led by Alphabet-owned CapitalG.
- The funds come about a year after Monzo achieved profitability, having reached nine million customers.
- Monzo’s post-money valuation is now $5 billion, up from $4.5 billion in 2022.
U.K.-based digital banking platform Monzo has raised $430 million (£340 million) in a round led by Alphabet-owned CapitalG.
Also participating in the round, which was first rumored last week, were new investors, Google Ventures and HongShan Capital, along with existing contributors Passion Capital and Tencent. The new round boosts Monzo’s post-money valuation to $5 billion (£4 billion), which is up from the $4.5 billion valuation it received in 2022. According to Crunchbase, Monzo’s total investment amount now stands at $1.5 billion.
“With backing from global investors, we have the rocket fuel to go after our ambitions harder and faster, building Monzo into the one app that sits at the centre of our customers’ financial lives,” said company CEO TS Anil. “Each milestone we’ve reached to this point has given us more strength and speed to make strides towards our mission – now we’ll scale to even greater heights and seize the huge opportunity ahead.”
Monzo plans to use the funds to fuel expansion and to help the company improve its product roadmap. The timing of the funds, combined with the company’s expansion ambitions, come at a good time. That’s because, since it was founded in 2015, Monzo has acquired nine million users– two million of which were brought on just last year. This growth, combined with higher interest rates, pushed Monzo to achieve profitability in March of last year.
Monzo originally launched in 2015, the early days of digital challenger banks. In the U.K., the company offers both personal and business accounts that feature current and savings accounts, unsecured personal loans, and investment funds powered by BlackRock. U.S. users are limited to personal and joint checking accounts, but have the option to aggregate data from other financial services providers in order to get a holistic picture of their overall financial standing.
According to Monzo’s public roadmap, the company is currently working on budgeting improvements, paying interest on savings balances, and a faster onboarding experience. For the future, the company plans to develop digital billpay, capabilities and the ability to send checks, and also has stretch goals to launch a check depositing feature, subscription management, and merchant spending rules.