Starling Bank raises £40 million, bringing 2020 total to £100 million

Starling Bank has raised £40 million (about $49 million) in its latest fundraiser as it steps up its support for small businesses, bringing its 2020 total to £100 million (about $123 million).

The latest fundraising came from existing investors JTC Group and Merian Chrysalis Investment Co. Ltd. and follows a £60 million (about $74 million) investment that was made in February by the same two firms. Since its launch in 2014, Starling Bank has raised over £363 million (about $448 million). JTC is part of the McPike Global Family Office, which was founded by Swiss-Austrian investor Harald McPike, who is also one of Starling’s largest individual investors, aside from the JTC investments.

“This additional funding from our existing investors demonstrates their commitment both to Starling and to our small business and personal customers who need our support now more than ever,” said Anne Boden, founder and chief executive office of Starling Bank, in a press release.

Investment firm Merian Chrysalis has made other notable investments in companies serving the financial services industry such as Klarna, Featurespace and Sorted Group, according to Crunchbase, a website that tracks investments in private companies.

Bloomberg News

Starling launched its banking app in May 2017 and currently has more than 1.4 million checking accounts, including 155,000 business accounts. Its deposit base has more than doubled in the last six months, and it now holds more than £2.4 billion (about $3 billion) on deposit. Starling claims to hold a 2.6% share of the U.K.’s small business banking market with almost £500 million (about $616 million) in small-business loans.

Starling has been moving heavily to support the small-business segment with products such as the bank’s business debit cards, which it launched last October, that support payments in either pounds or euros for clients who conduct business across Europe.

In April, Starling Bank reacted to changes being imposed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic by introducing a connected debit card for people shopping on behalf of a family member or friend. The challenger bank identified the need as more of its customers had begun to self-isolate for safety precautions.

The move came quickly on the heels of its launch of remote mobile check deposit feature, which was added to Starling mobile app just two days earlier. The service is available to consumer and small-business account holders and works for all checks of up to a value of £500. The postal system can still be used for checks over that limit.