Monzo's Funding Soars to $610M with $190M Boost, Catapulting Towards a $5.2B Valuation: A Landmark Milestone in European FinTech

At the heart of it we are a mission-oriented company that’s looking to build the single place where people can meet all of their financial needs.

British neobank Monzo announced on Wednesday that it has raised an additional $190 million, bringing the total raised this year to $610 million. The funding came from new investors including Hedosophia and CapitalG, with participation from Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC. This latest round values Monzo at around $5.2 billion, marking it as the largest funding round for a European FinTech in the past year.

“At the heart of it we are a mission-oriented company that’s looking to build the single place where people can meet all of their financial needs,” TS Anil, CEO of Monzo, told CNBC in an exclusive interview.

“What’s exciting to me is that, as we pursue that mission of changing people’s relationship with money, we’ve built a business model that is congruent with that as well, with this model that is built entirely around the customer.”

Monzo plans to use the funds to develop new products and speed up its international expansion. Mr. Anil emphasized their mission to provide comprehensive financial services and highlighted the company's recent profitability, achieved through diversification into lending and savings. Monzo aims to launch its first pensions product in the next six to nine months, stepping into competition with traditional lenders.

The neobank, which boasts over nine million retail customers in the UK and more than 400,000 business customers, has also made strides in investments and is eyeing global expansion. Monzo has restarted its U.S. expansion efforts, focusing on product quality to compete with established players like JPMorgan and Citibank.

“The necessary conditions for the U.S. for us is getting the product right. That’s what we’re spending our time and effort on there.”

European expansion is also in the pipeline, along with plans to launch mortgage products, though an initial public offering is not on the immediate horizon. CEO Anil believes Monzo will become a "great public company" in the future, but growth at scale remains the priority for now.

The comments used in this piece were sourced from CNBC.