Monese is a British company that offers

current accounts A transaction account (also called a checking account, cheque account, chequing account, current account, demand deposit account, or share account at credit unions) is a deposit account or bank account held at a bank or other financial institutio ...

and money transfer services as an alternative to traditional banks. The mobile-only service provides accounts in

Pounds sterling Sterling (Currency symbol, symbol: Pound sign, £; ISO 4217, currency code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound is the main unit of account, unit of sterling, and the word ''Pound (cu ...

Euros The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

and

Romanian leu The Romanian leu (, plural lei ; ISO code: RON; numeric code: 946) is the currency of Romania. It is subdivided into 100 (, singular: ), a word that also means "money" in the Romanian language. Etymology The name of the currency means "lio ...

, and is available in 31 countries across the

European Economic Area The European Economic Area (EEA) was established via the ''Agreement on the European Economic Area'', an international agreement which enables the extension of the European Union's single market to member states of the European Free Trade Asso ...

. As of January 2020, it has over 2 million customers.

History

Monese was founded by Norris Koppel, an entrepreneur from

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

. Koppel moved to the United Kingdom and had his application for a current account at a major high-street bank declined because he could not provide local proof of address and did not yet have credit history in the UK. This experience led Koppel to vow that one day he would launch a banking service that did not exclude customers based on their residency or lack of credit history. The company completed its

seed round Seed money, also known as seed funding or seed capital, is a form of securities offering in which an investor puts capital in a startup company in exchange for an equity stake or convertible note stake in the company. The term ''seed'' suggest ...

in May 2015, raising $1.8 million from

Seedcamp Seedcamp is a European seed-stage venture capital fund, headquartered in London, launched in May 2007 by a group of 30 European investors. The fund's Managing Partners are Reshma Sohoni and Carlos Espinal. Seedcamp has a portfolio of over 250 ...

, early

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

investor

Shakil Khan Shakil Khan is a Bangladeshi actor who was active from 1997 to 2010. Starting his film career with success of ''Amar Ghor Amar Behest'', he continued to be a lead actor in genres like romance, social and action in movies such as ''Paharadar'', ...

and several other angel investors. Monese launched its first product, an instant-to-open mobile current account in the UK, on 21 September 2015. Prior to the launch of its current account, it was reported that over 56,000 customers pre-registered for service and joined a waiting list to be granted access. Monese is able to provide banking services to resident and non-resident customers, and has an account opening process that can be completed on a customer's smartphone in under three minutes. Monese closed its

Series A A series A is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. It can be followed by the word round, investment or financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exchan ...

round in January 2017, announcing a $10 million raise from Outward VC, Anthemis Exponential Ventures, STE capital, and Korea Investment Partners, Smartcap and Seedcamp. Later that year it launched European accounts. Its next funding round, $60 million as part of

Series B A venture round is a type of funding round used for venture capital financing, by which startup companies obtain investment, generally from venture capitalists and other institutional investors. The availability of venture funding is among the ...

, was announced on 6 September 2018, and was led by Swedish investment company

Kinnevik AB Kinnevik AB () is a Swedish investment company that was founded in 1936 by the Stenbeck, Klingspor and von Horn families. Kinnevik is an active and long-term owner investing primarily in digital consumer businesses. Current CEO, Georgi Ganev, w ...

, with participation from

PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support E-commerce payment system, online money transfers; it serves as an electronic alter ...

, Augmentum Fintech,

British Airways British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main Airline hub, hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and pass ...

owner

International Airlines Group International Consolidated Airlines Group S.A., Trade name, trading as International Airlines Group and usually shortened to IAG, is a British-Spanish Multinational corporation, multinational airline holding company with its registered office in ...

and Investec backed Outward VC. Monese initially provided all of its services free of charge, except international money transfer – but in 2016 it began charging a fixed fee of £4.95 per month for its current account product. It subsequently launched other plans and, as of November 2019, offers three different pricing plans: "Simple" with limited benefits but no fixed monthly fee, "Classic" for £4.95 per month, and "Premium" with no transaction charges for £14.95 per month. Towards the end of 2023 Monese began to charge UK customers £0.30 for virtual debit cards and £1 for domestic outgoing bank transfers. Transfers between Monese bank accounts remained unaffected. They aims to secure additional funding in 2024

Mobile apps

To open and manage a Monese current account, customers must install the company's

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...

on their

Android Android most commonly refers to: *Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), a mobile operating system primarily developed by Google * Android TV, a operating system developed ...

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

. The Android app has been available since Monese's public launch on 21 September 2015, and the iOS app launched on 28 July 2016.

References

{{reflist Financial services companies of the United Kingdom 2015 establishments in the United Kingdom Companies based in London Privately held companies based in London British companies established in 2015 Financial services companies established in 2015 Online payments Mobile payments Payment systems

History

Mobile apps

See also

References