Online Bank Tandem Mulls IPO

Digital bank Tandem has revealed plans to go public within the next five years. The U.K. bank said an initial public offering (IPO) would “make sense,” and there was “clearly potential for multiple unicorn valuations in the digital banking space, as evidenced by recent capital raises,” according to The Telegraph.

The company’s Product and Marketing Director Matthew Ford added that an IPO was “probably one [path] that aligns closest to our mission.”

“We want to build this customer-centric business, and then an IPO makes perfect sense, having the public buy into that business and it grow further,” he said, adding while the move to go public would likely happen in the next three to five years, “you kind of read the market as you go.”

Tandem has reason to be confident. It officially launched its service last year, offering six new products, including a cash-back credit card and savings accounts. By the end of 2018, the bank had almost 500,000 customers, exceeding its expectations of 150,000 customers by the end of the year.

“We have grown incredibly quickly. I don’t think there’s any bank in the U.K. that has rolled out six financial products in a year. It’s been unbelievable, if you think about it,” said Ford.

Its success comes as investors are showing more interest in FinTech companies. In October, Monzo became the most recent in a string of U.K. banks that achieved unicorn status when it reached a valuation of $1.3 billion. Monzo CEO Tom Blomfield said at the time that Monzo has 1.1 million users, and that about 100,000 new Monzo accounts are opened monthly.

British peer-to-peer (P2P) lender Funding Circle also became a unicorn last year when it listed on the London Stock Exchange. That move came as the Funding Circle Income Fund (FCIF), the investment vehicle operated by Funding Circle, reduces its footprint in the U.S. and doubles down on local investment through new plans with the British Business Bank.