A UK peer-to-peer payments app, backed by property mogul Nick Candy, has scooped £5m in fresh funding and poached a top Klarna executive.
VibePay, which combines messaging with open banking-powered peer-to-peer payments, has appointed Klarna executive Conor Tiernan to head up its new insights unit.
Tiernan played a key role in launching Klarna’s open banking offering, Klarna Kosma, and managing it.
VibePay is a smaller rival to the likes of CashApp and is an alternative to traditional payment rails which, critics says, come with high fees and delays.
It says it has over 250k active users with multiple banks linked to their VibePay accounts.
At VibePay, Tiernan will head up sales and partnerships for VibePay Insights, a soon-to-launch division which will provide a new revenue stream for VibePay, providing key transaction data and trends behaviour through VibePay’s AI assistant to businesses.
Commenting on the appointment, Luke Massie, VibePay CEO and founder, who grew up on a deprived council estate in Preston, said:
“We’re hoping he hits the ground running because of his contacts from Klarna.”
"I first spoke with Conor around two years ago when we were exploring how Klarna’s open banking capabilities could support VibePay’s infrastructure.
“We also discussed the possibility of Klarna having a channel within the VibePay app, which would offer direct payment reminders to the 35% of Vibe users already using BNPL.
“Conor immediately understood the power of our Channels—putting users at the centre and connect them to what matters: their money, their transactions, and their relationships with banks, brands, and businesses they support."
VibePay has an office in Lancashire, but some of its 36-strong staff work remotely.
Recently, VibePay has been expanding its network, serving consumers, sellers, financial institutions, and now brands.
Through its new Channels feature, it allows users to send and receive money in real-time, message, and share media.
Separately, VibePay has bagged £5m in fresh funding, including investment from property mogul Nick Candy and from other existing investors, bringing its total to £12m overall.
Its other investors include UK entrepreneur Scott Fletcher and AIM-listed Vela Technologies.
The funds will be used to find its new insights unit and other product development.
Speaking of the new investment, Massie said it was “pretty positive” in the current environment.
He added:
“Our strategy is that we don’t want external investment at this moment in time. We want to keep building internally. I think external funding changes the landscape quite a bit for the business."
IMAGE: VibePay
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