Monzo Chief Operating Officer quits to launch grocery start-up

Monzo's Chief Operating Officer is to leave the digital bank to launch a grocery start-up, the latest personnel change at Monzo.

Tom Foster-Carter, who became Chief Operating Officer in August 2017, told the Sunday Times he was quitting Monzo to develop tech which will "help the incumbents" in the supermarket price wars.

"It is a race to the bottom on pricing. I want to be able to help them,” he said.

Foster-Carter joined Monzo from another fintech Curve, which he co-founded.

He has also worked as a consultant at Tandem Bank, another challenger bank, as well as at Bain and Accenture.

"I have seen the power of building a product and brand that people love," he said. "The time is right for me to recreate it in a new industry."

"I see this as the start of Monzo giving back to the tech start-up community in the same way the likes of Paypal and others have.  Other Monzo employees have already gone on to work on business ideas," he added.

"The company's culture, success and the founding team makes Monzo the perfect breeding ground for entrepreneurs."

Foster-Carter has updated his LinkedIn page, saying he is starting a new business, but has not given any details. Monzo said Foster-Carter will be replaced.

The departure of Foster-Carter is the latest in a number of personnel change at Monzo.

Last month, Monzo appointed ClearBank's Chief Risk and Compliance Officer Lisa Nowell as its new Chief Risk Officer. Monzo has also appointed Deloitte consultant Sheree Atcheson as its Head of Diversity and Inclusion.

In September, Monzo announced that it was replacing its Monzo Plus Service.

"We're going back to basics and starting from the beginning,” said Tom Davies, Product Marketing Manager.