App-only bank Monzo's crowdfunding is almost three times oversubscribed after less than 24 hours

March 01, 2017

App-only bank Monzo's crowdfunding is almost three times oversubscribed after less than 24 hours

Tom Blomfield, CEO (left), Jonas Hucklestein, CTO (right), Monzo

LONDON — App-only startup bank Monzo has attracted enough initial interest in its £2.5 million ($3.1 million) crowdfunding campaign to fill it close to three times over, after less than 24 hours of pre-registration.

Monzo opened pre-registrations for its crowdfunding at 10 a.m. GMT (5.00 a.m ET) on Tuesday, allowing users of its app to register interest in investing and pledge an amount to invest. Pledges hit Monzo's £2.5 million target within 4 hours and, just after 8 a.m. GMT (3.00 a.m. ET) on Wednesday, the startup bank has £6.78 million pledged.

CEO and cofounder Tom Blomfield says in an emailed statement:

"The response to our crowdfunding campaign has been mind-blowing. Our aim at Monzo is to delight our customers so it’s amazing to see how much our community believes in what we’re building. It also shows the enormous appetite for change amongst consumers - the public want a new kind of bank."

Monzo opted for a pre-registration system after its last crowdfunding campaign crashed the website of Crowdcube. Monzo, then known as Mondo, ended up raising £1 million in just 96 seconds.

Pre-registration for the current campaign are open until March 14, at which point Monzo will run a random ballot to select pre-registered people to complete their investment on Crowdcube.

Monzo is raising the £2.5 million alongside a £19.5 million "Series B" fundraising, already closed, which values the app-only bank at £65 million before the new cash is accounted for. That is up from £50 million in October.

Founded in 2015, Monzo is aiming to build an app-only bank that is data-centric and designed for mobile. The startup currently has around 100,000 users on its pre-paid cards, linked to its app, and plans to move them over to current accounts later this year after gaining a full banking licence.

Monzo is one of a number of new app-only banks — called "neobanks" — that have sprung up in the UK over the past 18 months. Others include Starling, Atom, Tandem, and Tide.

While Monzo is already well over-subscribed for its crowdfunding, pre-registration of interest is not always a completely accurate measure for final investment. Crowdcube attracted a huge £39 million-worth of pre-pledged interest in its campaign. While it exceeded its £5 million target with its final raise, interest topped out at £6.69 million.

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