Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Financial technology, financial services |
Founded | 2015 |
Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
Area served | European Economic Area |
Key people | Norris Koppel, founder & CEO |
Products | Current accounts, remittance, debit cards |
Revenue | 20,908,409 Euro (2021) |
Number of employees | 370 (2019) |
Website | www |
Monese is a British company that offers current accounts and money transfer services as an alternative to traditional banks. The mobile-only service provides accounts in Pounds sterling, Euros and Romanian leu, and is available in 31 countries across the European Economic Area. As of January 2020, it has over 2 million customers. [1]
Monese was founded by Norris Koppel, an entrepreneur from Estonia. 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. [2] 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. [3]
The company completed its seed round in May 2015, raising $1.8 million from Seedcamp, early Spotify investor Shakil Khan and several other angel investors. [4]
Monese launched its first product, an instant-to-open mobile current account in the UK, on 21 September 2015. [5]
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. [6] 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. [7]
Monese closed its Series A round in January 2017, announcing a $10 million raise from Outward VC, Anthemis Exponential Ventures, STE capital, and Korea Investment Partners, Smartcap and Seedcamp. [8] Later that year it launched European accounts. [9]
Its next funding round, $60 million as part of Series B, was announced on 6 September 2018, and was led by Swedish investment company Kinnevik AB, with participation from PayPal, Augmentum Fintech, British Airways owner International Airlines Group and Investec backed Outward VC. [10]
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. [11] 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. [12]
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. [13]
To open and manage a Monese current account, customers must install the company's mobile app on their Android or iOS smartphone. The Android app has been available since Monese's public launch on 21 September 2015, [14] and the iOS app launched on 28 July 2016. [15]
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