Monzo

Monzo (previously Mondo) was founded in February 2015, and was one of the earliest 'challenger banks' in the UK. In August 2016 Monzo became a regulated bank, with a team of 300.

Via its mobile app, Monzo enables it users to see historical transactions and receive real-time push notifications of card activity. Users can also categorise their transactions (although when possible this is also automated), freeze their card, separate company expenses, and receive an overview of their spending habits. The app also enables users to split bills, send and request money, save money through an ISA or saving 'pots', apply for loans and more.

Monzo has approximately 3m Monzo account users, with 55,000 people opening a Monzo account every week.The company has a annual run-rate revenue of £40m (based on May 2019 revenue).

In February 2016, Monzo set the record for the quickest crowd-funding campaign in history, when it raised £1m in 96 seconds via Crowdcube.

In November 2017 Monzo announced it planned to build a marketplace for its users. It launched a beta in 2018 with savings accounts and energy switching. As of 2019, the marketplace is still in development, although some features, such as an Easy Access ISA Account, have been released. In the future Monzo plans to explore mortgages, as well as reward and loyalty schemes.

Monzo gained Unicorn status in October 2018, when it raised £85m in Series E funding at a pre-money valuation of £1bn.

In 2019 the company announced numerous plans for scaling. In May it launched Monzo Plus, which enabled users to access additional services such as travel insurance and travel money. A few months later, in September, the company introduced Bundles through Plus. The three Bundles - Traveller, Home and Supporter - are priced between £4.95 and £12 a month (with a 6 month minimum) and offer various additional services. The Traveller and Home bundles offer travel and home insurance from AXA and Urban Jungle respectively, as well as a number of other related benefits. The Supporter Bundle offers merchandise throughout the year and a number of offers and rewards to different products, such as a Tidal music subscription discount.

In June it confirmed plans to start rolling out Monzo in the USA. The move will see a US-version of the Monzo app and a connected card available for Americans to collect at in-person signups at various events soon. Although initially only a couple of thousand cards will be launched, a waitlist is in place for a larger launch later. Monzo plans to apply for its own US bank license, however has partnered with a US bank for the time being. The company also announced it was to began rolling out Monzo Business Accounts to some of the 15,000+ businesses on its waiting list.

In June 2019 Monzo raised a £113m Series F. The round was led by Y Combinator, and had participation from General Catalyst, Passion Capital, Strip, Latitude, Accel, Thrive Capital and more. The round gave the company a $2.5b (£2bn) post-money valuation, doubling the £1bn valuation it had earned less than a year earlier in October 2018.

In February 2020, Monzo announced it was planning to launch a free credit scoring service within its app from March. It will use TransUnion to provide the score.

In June 2020 Monzo announced it had raised $60m in funding. The company raised the fresh capital at a £1.25bn valuation, a 40% drop since its last raise. The company stated it planned to raise further funds in the next few months, and be cash-flow positive by 2021.

In October 2020 Monzo launched a new Premium package. The subscription, costing £15pm, offers phone and travel insurance as well as account aggregation, amongst other features. The new Premium card reportedly costs £50 a time to make.

In July 2023 Monzo entered a partnership with Qover to offer Monzo's premium users a new means to track and submit insurance claims via the Monzo app. This latest innovation uses Qover’s embedded insurance orchestration platform, that is underwritten by Zurich Insurance Company Ltd UK. 

Monzo has a team of over 800 people, and have offices in London, Cardiff and Las Vegas.