Cashplus To Raise $69 Million In First Outside Investment

Cashplus, which is newly in possession of a banking license, has rolled out a 50 million pound ($69 million) fundraising to help grow the company as well as meet loan demands, according to Reuters on Wednesday (Feb. 17).

Company CEO Rich Wagner said the fundraising had been approved by the end of last week. He said he had been seeking equity from growth investment firms.

This would mark the first outside investment to Cashplus, aside from the backing it received from its main shareholder Trident Capital. The California-based Trident has amassed 20 million pounds to date, Reuters writes.

According to Wagner, the company is looking at delivering 1 billion pounds of new lending within five years. So far, it’s lent 640 million pounds.

Despite a crowded market with rivals such as Starling Bank and Monzo rising to prominence, Wagner said he thought his company’s longevity and track record would set it apart.

“The credit profile of our customers is quite unique. We are seeing individual directors who are formulating business ideas as a contingency against losing their job,” he said, according to Reuters.

Cashplus, in business since 2005, is a financial technology firm offering digital current accounts and lending to small to midsized businesses (SMBs) and customers.

It became a bank earlier this month after receiving a license from the Bank of England.

Cashplus also recently updated its mobile app to add the Google Maps spend tracking feature, PYMNTS writes, which it said would help with using Google Maps to find out where and when payments were made. The transactions are easy to spot and come with each company’s logo. Also, fraud prevention capabilities are available, which let users immediately put their accounts on hold if something suspicious occurs.

In addition, the tool works to categorize payments, so users can track specifics like business payments or payments for a specific job or client.