Starling Bank Launches Multi-owner Accounts For Larger SMBs

U.K. challenger bank Starling Bank has introduced a new feature to let multiple business owners access a single account.

A press release Wednesday (July 24) said the financial institution is pursuing larger firms on the SMB spectrum with its multi-owner account support, enabling companies with multiple executives in-charge to gain access to and manage a single corporate account.

Starling noted that the feature is rolling out 16 months after it first launched its bank account for single-person businesses. Today, that service is nearing 60,000 users, the bank said.

“Opening up our business account to SMEs with more than one [person of significant control] PSC will give hundreds of thousands more companies access to our features, meaning they can manage their finances conveniently on their smartphone without having to worry about where their nearest bank branch is and when it will be open,” said Starling Bank Founder and CEO Anne Boden in a statement.

Last month Starling Bank announced a collaboration with Bottomline Technologies to connect corporate clients and banks to a Real Time Payments Express Service, allowing businesses to send and receive funds within the U.K. in real-time.

Earlier this year, the company raised about $77.15 million in a Series C round led by Merian Global Investors, At the time, Starling said it would use the funds to focus on further investments in its digital banking products in both retail and small business banking, while the bank is also exploring expansion beyond the U.K. throughout Europe.

“Our ambition is to use our technology to build a next-generation global, digital banking platform, starting with our launch across Europe this year,” Boden said in a statement at the time.

This year also saw the bank’s collaboration with FreeAgent in a deal that automates data submission from small businesses’ Starling accounts into the FreeAgent business accounting platform.