Monzo is set to clinch another £350m in funding from investors, including a fund owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, signalling a vote of confidence in the UK digital bank that could push its valuation to £4bn.
The bank, known for its hot coral-coloured debit cards, was last valued at $4.5bn (£3.5bn), after a $600m fundraising in late 2021.
But interest from companies such as Alphabet’s investment fund CapitalG, which is leading the funding round, is expected to give it a further boost and ahead of a widely expected stock market listing.
The Guardian understands that the Chinese venture capital fund HongShan, the US fintech investor Ribbit and the American investor StepStone will be taking stakes in Monzo for the first time. The funding round is expected to be completed within the next two weeks, the Financial Times reported.
They will provide funding alongside existing investors including Juniper, the investment vehicle of the former Google boss Eric Schmidt, as well as the venture capital firms LocalGlobal, Passion Capital, and Avra.
Monzo has gone from a scrappy newcomer luring millennials with its sleek app to a fully licensed bank with more than 9 million customers and 3,500 staff. The lender is expected to report its first annual profit in the coming months, nearly a decade after it was founded, in 2015.
While its valuation has lagged significantly behind Revolut, which was last valued at $33bn (£26bn) in 2021, Monzo has focused most of its growth in the UK and clinched a coveted banking licence from British regulators in 2016, which its rival has so far failed to secure.
Sky News reported in October that Monzo had begun talks about the fundraising. Its close will fuel speculation about the timing of Monzo’s initial public offering, and whether it could choose London for its market debut.
If secured, it could be a boon for the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, who has repeatedly stated ambitions to make the UK the next Silicon Valley, and boost tech-focused stock market listings. He said this month that he wanted “the London Stock Exchange to become Europe’s Nasdaq”.
Monzo declined to comment. CapitalG did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
