Zopa bank has achieved a rare feat among UK challenger banks, hitting profitability for the first time just 21 months after acquiring its UK banking licencet.
Since launch in 2020, the bank has attracted £1 billion in deposits, more than £1 billion of loans on balance sheet, issued circa 250,000+ credit cards and tripled its revenue per customer.
The digital bank says it expects to remain profitable from this point and anticipates closing 2022 with a balance sheet of £2bn and again more than doubling revenues.
Jaidev Janardana, CEO at Zopa bank says: “The past year has been a highly successful one for Zopa as we’ve exceeded our targets across new and existing products and raised $300 million led by Softbank to fuel our accelerated growth.
“Hitting profitability in just 21 months is a testament to our unique model that meets customer needs by focusing on how they borrow and save - the two things with the most impact on finances. Today’s news makes Zopa one of the fastest digital banks to achieve profitability ever and reinforces our thesis on the importance of sustainable growth as a catalyst for accelerated product and market expansion.”
Looking ahead, Janardana says Zopa will launch a fully regulated BNPL product in the fall, targeting big-ticket items.