Three years ago digital challenger (now) bank Monzo - or Mondo as it was named then - did what many a young start-up keen for growth increasingly does and raised money via a crowdfund raise.
To say the round was popular is somewhat of an understatement. It fully funded to £1m in just 96 seconds. A total 1,898 people invested an average of £527 each and sharing 3.33 per cent equity at a suggested £30m valuation.
Last week Monzo was reportedly closing a new fresh round of venture funding that would see it push its valuation up to £1.9bn and making it one of the UK’s most valuable fintech companies.
Of course this does not guarantee any sort of exit for its crowdfunding investors or indeed its VC backers such as Passion Capital who invested c£7m alongside those taking part in its first crowdfund three years ago.
Nonetheless, those 1,898 people will now all be looking at a company that in just three years has increased its valuation by nearly 63 times, or a 6,300 per cent increase in value.
Revolut, which also raised money in 2016, saw a $250m investment one year ago led by DST Global. Following that investment, crowd investors had the opportunity to either sell their shares back to Revolut.
Monzo are yet to reveal whether investors will again get the opportunity to cash in when the round closes and, of course, private market valuations can go down as well up as evidenced by Uber. Public markets, were Monzo to IPO, are also no guarantee of growth in value as seen since Funding Circle's stock market listing as well as Metro Bank's recent fall.
