Curve’s customers far outnumber ‘active users’, leaked figures suggest

Curve’s customers far outnumber ‘active users’, leaked figures suggest

Curve, the London based fintech, has come under fire after leaked figures show just 14% of their 500,000 customers are active users.

The fintech startup valued at £200 million in July, combines multiple credit and debit cards into one app and card. Customers can use the same smart card at POS by selecting which account they wish their funds to come out of through the app.

Earlier this month Curve announced the addition of Google Pay to their offering, meaning its users are able to link all their bank cards to Google Pay irrespective of the provider. Integrating Apple Pay looks to be high on Curve’s agenda.

Despite these feature announcements and a record-breaking £6 million crowdfunding raise in September, the leaked figures paint a slightly bleaker picture.

Two sources provided information to Business Insider which suggested only 72,000 of Curve’s 500,000 customers have used their card once a month or more. Curve has not shared these statistics publicly, and while the company spruiked optimistic growth projections in sales documents for the September raise, corroborating data for these expectations has been slim.

Certain disgruntled members of Curve’s crowdfunding cohort have lamented a lack of transparency and engagement from the startup.

Per UK regulation, Curve told the FT that it was not required to provide a detailed prospectus to crowdfunding investors when asked about their investment deck that lacked key-performance-indicator data or detail on expected revenue or profit margins

Comments: (7)

James Cranfield
James Cranfield - Insight Consultancy UK Ltd - Madrid 28 November, 2019, 13:13Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up 0 likes

Number of customers will always outnumber active customers and this definition of active is the strictest (1 month).  But even then, 14% is a very low active rate.  That compares to the worst prepaid programmes I have seen.  By the way I had to look up the word "spruik".  Never heard of it before!

A Finextra member
A Finextra member 28 November, 2019, 13:23Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up 0 likes

The new world of fintech is free of rules, both regarding services offered but also in investor transparency. Authorities are cherising these challengers to regulated financial service providers, and investors should not complain - Fintechs are beneficial to society and investors should gladly accept not to get information on performance, as "incumbent" service providers must accept that fintechs break every rule in the book. 

Phil Allen
Phil Allen - Lloyds Banking Group - London 28 November, 2019, 13:282 likes 2 likes

Agree with James this is a tight definition, 3 months is the usual active metric. Would be interested to see this metric from more fintechs as a key indicator of real engagement with the brand and importantly usage - driving income.

A Finextra member
A Finextra member 29 November, 2019, 17:50Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up 0 likes

Responding to A Finextra Member. People working in the industry know certain metrics are for bragging and prove little, while other metrics give a more realistic view. 

Using selective KPIs to create a halo of 'momentum' is one thing, but disagree with your statement: <investors should not complain - Fintechs are beneficial to society and investors should gladly accept not to get information on performance>

‘Investors’ are also owners of the business. They deserve appropriate and accurate information.

A Finextra member
A Finextra member 29 November, 2019, 21:16Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up 0 likes Reply to finextra member responding: Sorry for expressing myself in an unclear manner: I tried to be ironic. Since the fintechs with applauds from regulators break any reasonable practice in the business by among others screen scrape and with assist fraudsters to other peoples monies, it is logical that they take lightly on investor transparency...
A Finextra member
A Finextra member 02 December, 2019, 11:291 like 1 like

I don't thinkl that 1 transaction per month is a "strict" measure of activation.  Curve is meant to replace debit and credit cards, so it should be an all-or-nothing proposition.  In other words, genuine users should be using it multiple times per week. 

A Finextra member
A Finextra member 02 December, 2019, 18:082 likes 2 likes

I'd say that of the 75000 active customers, approximately 74,999 work in fintech.

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