Goldman Sachs backed British FinTech Starling Bank with £50 million in an oversubscribed Series D funding round that valued the startup in excess of £1.1 billion pre-money.
The Monday (April 19) investment by Goldman Sachs Growth Equity brings the total value raised in the £272 million March Series D to £322 million.
“Securing the support of another global financial heavyweight demonstrates the strength of demand from investors and represents yet another vote of confidence in Starling,” Anne Boden, founder and CEO of Starling Bank, said in a press release.
“Goldman Sachs will bring valuable insight as we continue with the expansion of lending in the U.K., as well as our European expansion and anticipated M&A,” Boden said.
Starling is the fastest-growing bank for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Europe and counts 350,000 business accounts among its two million-plus current accounts. The digital banking startup now holds a 6% share of the U.K.’s SME banking market.
The bank has also upped its deposit base from about £1 billion last year to over £6 billion to date and is on track to report its first profitable full year by the end of its next fiscal year-end.
James Hayward, managing director at Goldman Sachs, said Starling is the “most innovative” U.K. digital bank and has a “digital-first leadership team.”
He added that the investment will help the FinTech startup expand and grow and that Starling has “sustainable long-term earnings potential.”
Starling Bank offers personal, business, joint, children’s euro and dollar current accounts, according to the press release. It also extends a variety of consumer lending products. The startup offers B2B banking and payments services through its Banking-as-a-Service model.
Headquartered in London, the bank also has offices in Southampton, Cardiff and Dublin. Starling was founded by Anne Boden, former Allied Irish Banks COO, in 2014.
Starling said in November 2020 that it was setting its sights on a possible initial public offering. The Bank of England granted Starling a banking license in 2016. The bank went on to launch Britain’s first digital bank account for businesses in 2018.
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