Moneyhub Raises $39M, Plans International Expansion

U.K.-based payments platform Moneyhub has raised $39.5 million as it looks to expand its offerings amid the region’s continued embrace of open finance.

According to a Monday (Oct. 24) news release, lead investors Legal & General and Lloyds Banking Group will take minority stakes in the business, the company said, and will “each look to enhance their commercial propositions with Moneyhub’s services, using its Open Data technology to support strategic goals.”

Moneyhub says the funding will help speed the development of its products, particularly in the areas of pensions and wealth, payments, distribution, affordability and Data-as-a-Service. In addition, the funds will help the company bring its technology to new countries.

Based in Bristol, Moneyhub works with more than 100 clients, including Aon, KPMG, Mercer, Nationwide Building Society, Samsung and Vodafone.

In August, the U.K.’s Nationwide Building Society announced it was deploying Moneyhub to let its customers open savings accounts and fund them right away. Prior to this collaboration, Nationwide customers would need to wait days before transferring the funds they needed to meet account funding requirements.

The building society stated that this led to around 8% of accounts being closed “as members would simply forget to credit the account.”

Read more: Open Banking’s Way Forward Involves More Data Sharing, Not Less

Earlier this year, PYMNTS spoke with Pinar Ozcan, professor of entrepreneurship and innovation at Saïd Business School, Oxford University, who said the use of open banking in the UK and Europe would soon ramp up. She noted that while open banking struggled initially, the region has since embraced the concept.

“We are starting to see that open banking is being used by important entities … be it government or large institutions are starting to realize that open banking has a lot to offer … I expect usage will keep going up,” Ozcan said. “However, we are not there yet, and we need another few years for open banking … for the frictions to go away. Slowly, we’re going to open up the data.”