Peer-to-peer lender Zopa has scooped £44 million in funding as it lays the groundwork for the launch of its new digital challenger bank.
The latest round comes in a breakout year for Zopa, which recently moved back into the black as revenue grew by 40% to £46.5 million.
Zopa has already begun building the executive team for the launch of the new challenger bank - which will offer FSCS-protected deposit accounts for savers, a range of peer-to-peer investment products for investors, and personal loans, car finance, and credit cards for people looking to borrow - appointing a CFO, chief risk officer and chief customer officer.
The latest investment round follows a £32 million raise in June last year to support the build-out of the putative bank’s technology infrastructure and the opening of a developer centre in Barcelona to work on coding for payment gateways, credit card processing, and deposit systems.
Jaidev Janardana, Zopa CEO, comments: “We aim to be the best place for money in the UK and we believe that launching our bank is a key next step. It allows us to offer a wider choice of products and to help our customers make smarter choices with their money. This further injection of capital takes us a step closer to that vision and we are delighted that our investors have supported us on this journey.”