UK-based mobile banking service Monese has secured $60m in series B funding from investors including payment technology provider PayPal and Avios, the loyalty-focused arm of aviation group International Airlines Group.
Investment firm Kinnevik led the round, which also featured venture capital fund Augmentum Fintech and existing backers including financial services and asset management group Investec’s INVC Fund.
Founded in 2015, Monese has created a slimline mobile banking service aimed at customers who are newly arrived in a country. It has almost 600,000 users and the company said in a blog post it is currently tripling its new customers each month.
The series B cash will go to international growth and recruitment that will increase the size of Monese’s offices in London and Tallinn, Estonia, as well as the opening of a new office in Lisbon, Portugal.
The blog post said: “At the beginning of 2017 we were a team of 36. Since then, that team has quadrupled to a company that is now more than 140 people strong.
“Additional funding means we will be able to continue hiring the brightest and best – and expand our mission to make global banking accessible to everyone.”
Monese’s overall funding now stands at $75.8m according to TechCrunch, including $10m in a January 2017 series A round featuring Anthemis Exponential Ventures, a joint venture formed by VC fund Anthemis and financial services group MMI Holdings.
STE Capital, Korea Investment Partners, Smartcap and Seecamp also took part in the 2017 round, the latter two having joined angel investor Shakil Khan to supply $1.8m for Monese in 2015.