Yesterday we reported that Funding Circle will be the first UK FinTech company to be listed on the London Stock Exchange. We take a look at some of the leading UK FinTech companies at the moment – CrowdCube, Monzo and PayBase.
CrowdCube
CrowdCube is crowdfunding investment platform established in 2011. The company aims to increase the accessibility and affordability of investing. It enables everyday investors as well as professional and venture capital firms to invest in start ups.
Investing is made as easy. Being over 18 and being a resident in the UK (or a country where receiving financial promotions is legal) are some of the only requirements. Equally, you must be legally entitled to invest in the types of investments offered by CrowdCube. Other than that, anyone can register as a member, find a pitch and enter the amount they wish to invest.
Currently, there are 577,911 registered members with £504,507,399 invested in pitches, and 751 successful raises.
Success stories include BrewDog, CrowdCube’s first “unicorn”. It raised 13.13 million from 4,586 investors and was valued at £1 billion in 2017.
Monzo
Next is the UK-based mobile-bank, Monzo. It allows users to manage their money through spending targets and easy summaries. The prepaid Monzo Card can be used anywhere in the world. Up to £200 can be withdrawn abroad for free every 30 days and no fees are added.
Equally, Monzo users can pay people in as little as seconds, set up direct debits and even send money abroad. Additionally, users can include a flexible overdraft and an easy current account switch service.
In August, the Guardian reported that the bank is set to be yet another FinTech “unicorn”. Monzo has lined up new finance that values the company at £787 million in only three years.
In 2016, the company had its first crowdfunding round and raised a shocking £1 million in 96 seconds.
The bank is only available on smartphone and has over 900,000 customers.
PayBase
PayBase is a startup based in London. The platform is an end-to-end solution for payments, compliance and risk. Additionally, it allows companies to benefit from a sophisticated payments infrastructure by offering more than just processing inbound payments. Companies such as online marketplaces, sharing and gig economy platforms and charities would all benefit from this service.
In an interview, PayBase explained their commitment to delivering an accessible payment solution, unmatchable by anyone in the industry.
The PayBase platform was created after Payfriendz, a peer-to-peer payments app.
Interestingly, the startup received a grant of almost £700,000 from Innovate UK in 2017.
