UK-based mobile financial services provider Monzo raised £71m ($93m) in funding yesterday from investors including Orange Digital Ventures, a corporate venturing vehicle for telecommunications firm Orange.
Venture capital firm Goodwater Capital led the round, which also featured online payment processor Stripe, charitable foundation Crankstart Foundation and VC firms Passion Capital and Thrive Capital.
The round included £11m of secondary share purchases from early employees including Monzo’s founders, TechCrunch has subsequently reported.
Founded in 2015, Monzo allows users to open and manage current accounts entirely through a mobile app. The company initially launched a prepaid debit card but obtained a full banking licence from the UK regulator in April 2017.
Monzo currently serves approximately 500,000 users and will use the funding to drive additional growth. The company also hinted at ambitions to expand internationally and hopes to enable anyone to buy its shares at some point in 2018.
Passion Capital had already led a $5.9m bridge round for Monzo in October 2016, after providing approximately $3.1m in seed funding in 2015 and $7.2m in February 2016.
Orange Digital Ventures had previously contributed to a $24.5m funding round for Monzo in February 2017 that included Thrive Capital and Passion Capital. It was extended through a $3m equity crowdfunding campaign the following month.
Monzo has allocated £1.5m to an equity crowdfunding effort in order to allow individuals who backed the previous campaign to make follow-on investments.
The company also raised about $1.4m in a March 2016 equity crowdfunding campaign that was fully subscribed within 96 seconds.
– This article was amended on November 20, 2017 to reflect the secondary share element of the round.