British online bank Monzo doubles valuation to $2.5b

Bloomberg

Online-only bank Monzo has closed a new funding round doubling the startup’s valuation to more than $2.5 billion, making it one of the UK’s most highly valued fintech companies.
Monzo last raised funding late last year at a valuation of $1.25 billion. In this new round, the company will bring in 113 million pounds ($143 million) of fresh capital, according to a statement on Tuesday.
Among the UK’s clutch of fintech companies, Monzo’s new valuation puts it squarely in the upper echelons, just behind a pair of SoftBank Group Corp.-backed startups that raised mo-ney this year. In May, SoftBank’s Vision Fund bet $800 million on financing company Greensill, valuing it at about $3.5 billion, while a February investment in OakNorth valued the company at a reported $2.8 billion.
Even with the uncertainty surrounding Brexit, and the possibility of a shifting landscape for financial firms, UK fintech companies continued to lead Europe in terms funding, taking in $645 million in the first quarter of this year, according to a recent report from CB Insights.
Monzo currently has over 2 million users in the UK, according to the company. It’s part of the growing universe of so-called “challenger banks,” a group that also includes Starling Bank and Revolut Ltd. in Europe and Chime in the US.