Mondo, a London-based fintech start-up has been issued with a full UK banking license, the first challenger bank to have done so and been partly funded by equity crowdfunding.
Back in April Mondo raised more than £1m from 1800 investors in just 96 seconds. Demand was so great for the upstart bank that Crowdcube, who facilitated the fundraise, saw its servers crash. The bank also raised £7m from early stage venture capital firm Passion Capital.
A full UK banking license means Mondo's customers wil be covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) meaning that money up to £75,000 held at the bank is guaranteed by the British Government.
Like the majority of the ‘challenger banks’, bar Metro Bank,Mondo has no physical branches and instead purely faces its customers through an app on a smartphone. It focuses mainly on current accounts and payments at present and claims to offer instant balance updates.
“We are building a bank for people who live their lives on their smartphones,” is how they explain their unique selling point on their website in the crowded world of digital challenger banks.
In the next 12 months, the firm say, they will use a “very small” proportion of deposits to lend to private individuals in the form of unsecured personal overdrafts.
Mondo was founded by Tom Blomfield, formerly chief technology officer at another challenger bank Starling.
