Atom Bank raises £30m as it delays IPO to 2024 at the earliest

Lender Atom Bank is delaying its long-planned initial public offering by at least a year, with CEO Mark Mullen telling The Times that 2024 or 2025 is now the target for a “liquidity event”.

Mullen’s comments came as Atom Bank this morning announced a £30m equity funding round from its key backers BBVA, Toscafund and Infinity Investment Partners, with cash going to fund further lending and drive growth.

The CEO had previously stated “financial year 2022/23 as our IPO target” and only raised £75m in February as part of its “drive to IPO”.

Since then however the global economy has soured and both listed and unlisted fintechs have suffered from falling valuations, prompting many IPOs to be kicked into the long grass.

Atom Bank has continued to say that 2022 will see it break even, with profitability already achieved in June 2021 and several months of 2022.

“I’m delighted that the bank’s continued success means that BBVA, Toscafund and Infinity Investment Partners have added to their stake in Atom, and taken new capital investment during 2022 to over £100m,” said Mullen today.

“Our prudent, secured lending model, backed by award winning retail savings allows us to make the very most of capital to support income growth and boost customer numbers. This will remain our focus."

In October the bank appointed Andrew Marshall as its new chief financial officer, taking over from long-serving CFO and co-founder David McCarthy.

The bank said Marshall would be specifically focused on working towards long-term profitability, while also preparing the bank for a “large capital event in the future”, though at the time the bank was no more specific on what this will look like or when.