Student-focused UK digital banking startup Loot has gone in to administration after a sale to the Royal Bank of Scotland fell through, according to TechCrunch.
Loot has declined to comment but, citing sources, TechCrunch says that the company's 60-odd employees were told the news today.
Launched in 2014, with more than 175,000 sign-ups, Loot is a digital current account targeting students and young people. Customers get a prepaid debit card and personal insights into spending patterns, allowing them to set daily or weekly budgets.
In January, Bó, a digital-only bank being developed by RBS's NatWest division, revealed that it had topped up a previously undisclosed £3 million investment in Loot with another £2 million.
Yet just months later Loot has run out of cash and hopes that RBS would save the business by buying it up have been dashed, says TechCrunch.
Loot's website is still prominently advertising a Crowdfunding effort on the Seedrs platform, although the link appears to have been taken down and Seedrs has used Twitter to emphasise that the process was still in the pre-registration stage and no investment by its users has been made.