Money Transfer Co Monese Raises $60M For Global Expansion

Monese, the U.K. bank challenger, announced on Wednesday (Sept. 6) that it has secured $60 million in venture funding.

According to a company blog post, Monese said the funding will be used to continue to develop the next generation of its mobile banking service and make it available to more people around the globe.

According to the company, the Series B round was led by Kinnevik, a global investor focused on digital businesses, with participation from PayPal, European investor Augmentum Fintech and International Airlines Group for its Avios Group. Existing investors also participated in the fundraising, including Investec’s INVC Fund. Monese said in the blog post that in the U.K., the adoption rate has exceeded expectations.

“Now, Europe is embracing the Monese product even faster than the U.K. market. We see this as a vindication of our original mission statement – and a validation of our approach in addressing the inefficiencies and limitations inherent to the current banking system,” the company wrote in the blog post, noting that its services have close to 600,000 users moving more than $2.5 billion a year. What’s more, Monese said the number of new monthly customers has been tripling since the end of last year, with strong growth continuing.

As a result of the growth and the funding, Monese said it is increasing the size of its business and accelerating expansion internationally. “At the beginning of 2017, we were a team of 36. Since then, that team has quadrupled to a company that’s now more than 140 people strong. Additional funding means we’ll be able to continue hiring the brightest and best, and expand our mission to make global banking accessible to everyone,” the company wrote.

Monese was launched to help immigrants and expats who would have a tough time opening a traditional bank account outside of their home country, but is now going after consumers who aren’t happy with the service they are receiving from traditional banks that offer so-called free banking accounts.