UK-based challenger bank Monzo plans to raise up to £20 million through a crowdfunding campaign

UK-founded challenger bank Monzo has announced an equity crowdfunding campaign to start on December 5th, in which the company plans to raise up to £20 million from its customers. The news comes less than a month after Monzo raised £85 million at a £1 billion valuation in a funding round led by Accel and General Catalyst.

This is Monzo's third equity crowdfunding campaign. According to the company's blog post, 7,395 people have participated in the first two rounds, in which the startup raised a total of £13 million. In the upcoming campaign, eligible customers of the challenger bank will be able to invest up to £2,000 each.

Monzo also mentioned in the announcement that the participants of its previous equity crowdfunding round purchased the company's shares at some £2.35 apiece, while the price as of October 2018 reached some £7.7 per share.

In its prospectus, Monzo reported its net operating income in the year ended 28 February 2018 to have reached more than £1.8 million compared to £120,000 in the previous year. At the same time, its net losses also grew from some £6.7 million to £30.5 million.

“The key driver behind these numbers is the rapid customer growth during financial year 2018 on Monzo’s former prepaid card program, and the subsequent migration of customers to current accounts in the latter half of financial year 2018,” the company stated in the prospectus. “During financial year 2018, the customer base almost quadrupled, reaching 590,000 customers.”