Starling Bank secures £50m investment from Goldman Sachs
Digital lender Starling Bank has extended its latest funding round with a £50m investment from Goldman Sachs.
Last month it announced a £272m Series D funding round led by Fidelity Management & Research which valued it in excess of £1.1bn pre-money.
Starling Bank today said Goldman Sachs investment marked an extension of the oversubscribed round, taking the total raised to £322m.
It said the funding would be used to support its “continued rapid and now profitable growth”.
Since launching in 2017 Starling has attracted more than 2m customers and is one of the few challenger banks to have turned a profit in the past year.
BusinessGoldman Sachs invests $69 million in Britain s Starling Bank
Reuters
1 minute read
The Goldman Sachs company logo is seen in the company s space on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, (NYSE) in New York, U.S., April 17, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
British digital bank Starling said on Monday that Goldman Sachs (GS.N) had invested 50 million pounds ($69 million) in the UK lender.
The investment is an extension of Starling s oversubscribed 272 million pound funding round, valuing the bank in excess of 1.1 billion pounds, Starling said in a statement. Goldman Sachs will bring valuable insight as we continue with the expansion of lending in the UK, as well as our European expansion and anticipated M&A, Starling s founder and Chief Executive Anne Boden said.
British authorities are exploring the possibility of creating a new digital currency that Treasury chief Rishi Sunak touted as “Britcoin”.
The Bank of England and the Treasury said Monday that they will work together to assess the benefits of a central bank digital currency, at a time when cash payments are generally on the decline, partly as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The bank said the new currency, if it comes to pass, would be a new form of digital money for use by households and businesses and would exist alongside cash and bank deposits, rather than replacing them.
Securing the support of another global financial heavyweight demonstrates the strength of demand from investors and represents yet another vote of confidence in Starling, said Starling CEO and founder Anne Boden.
Starling is one of the U.K. s biggest neobanks, a term used to describe the wave of fintech start-ups founded in the last decade with the aim of taking on the incumbent banks with branchless banking. It has more than £6 billion in deposits up from £1 billion just over a year ago.
Starling has looked to differentiate from rivals like Revolut and Monzo with a focus on small business banking. Of its 2 million total users, around 350,000 are business clients. Starling says it now holds a 6% share of Britain s SME banking market.
AP
Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak speaks during a March 3 press conference in London.
TribLIVE s Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox.
LONDON British authorities are exploring the possibility of creating a new digital currency that Treasury chief Rishi Sunak indicated could become commonly known as “Britcoin.”
The Bank of England and the Treasury said Monday that they will work together to assess the benefits of a central bank digital currency, at a time when cash payments are generally on the decline, partly as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.