Today Tandem Bank announces that it has relocated its headquarters to Russell Square, London.
The strategic decision to take on the 16,000 sq ft space is driven by management’s ambitious plans to double its headcount to over 230 people in 2019 and grow to over 300 in 2020. The relocation comes as a result of the company’s phenomenal growth over the past year, which has seen the company ramp up recruitment efforts to support its growing customer base and develop new services.
This move offers greater flexibility of layout to facilitate their agile way of working, including break out spaces, quiet spaces, suave meeting rooms, enhanced IT infrastructure and of course their Thursday night social and ‘Lunch and Learns’, weekly traditions that have taken place since the bank was co-founded with the help of 11,000 people. Tandem’s teams are made up of product, technology, marketing, operations and support with an integrated approach to development.
Despite Tandem seeing a 400% increase in candidates applying for roles at the bank, they fear future growth could be hampered by the lack of direct access to EU talent. The digital challenger bank has already established a developer footprint in Europe, however, it believes the pipeline of skilled EU talent has already declined off the back of continuing Brexit uncertainty.
Dan Atkinson, Tandem Bank Chief People Officer, says, "Tandem has seen unprecedented growth since we launched 16 months ago and have ambitious plans for 2019. In order to grow, Tandem need direct access to talented people and it’s getting harder to recruit EU nationals. We expect the UK tech talent pool to narrow further and feel that the UK government is not doing enough to support one of the key drivers of the UK economy. There is a big danger that our leadership in Fintech could be eroded by government inaction.”
Tandem Bank recently confirmed that they are looking to raise funding to accelerate their growth, which already far exceeds their targets, and expand their operations overseas into Europe and Asia in 2019. Tandem previously planned to service 150,000 customers by the end of 2019, but in fact, grew to 500,000 over the course of the year.
Tandem prides itself on a unique business model; it makes money when its customers make money. From table-topping fixed-term savings accounts, to credit cards that don’t sting consumers when they spend abroad and a banking app that makes money management simple, the bank measures its success against the value it provides its customers - not just how much it profits from them.
Ricky Knox, Tandem Bank Co-Founder and CEO, adds, “Tandem is made up of people who are motivated by helping consumers improve their lives with money. Any of our team could go to one of the big banks and probably earn more money, but they choose to work at Tandem because we operate as a purpose-driven tech business. We have an agile, collaborative approach and can engineer change quickly. With our new offices, we have the perfect base to nurture our growing teams and attract new talent from the pool available.”