Starling hits 100,000 business customers as SME banking hots up

The digital bank is continuing its focus on freelancers and contractors.

Starling, one of the UK’s most popular digital banks, has hit a milestone of 100,000 business customers.

The bank also today announced an expansion of its Business Marketplace to include three new third-party services aimed specifically at freelancers and SMEs.

The Marketplace now includes online buy-to-let mortgage lender Molo, the UK’s first fully-digital mortgage lender that aims to make “easier, faster, fairer mortgages available to as many people as possible”.

PayStream, a leading supplier of accountancy, payroll and IR35 review services to contractors and freelancers. 

And UnderPinned, a newly launched career management platform for freelancers which allows them to manage portfolios and creating automated contracts and payments.

UnderPinned CEO and Co-Founder, Albert Azis-Clauson said, “by joining the Starling Marketplace, we’ll be able to improve the working lives of thousands more freelancers through our online platform.”

Over the past few months, Starling has continued to expand its Marketplace offering for businesses, in December they teamed up with Sparqa Legal to give their business customers expert legal advice on employment contracts.

The digital banking giant also recently launched in-house loans for up to £250k in an effort to further expand its business customer base. 

Starling CEO and Founder, Anne Boden said the expansion of their business platform will “give businesses access to a range of services within the app they use for their everyday banking.

“Today’s entrepreneurs have grown accustomed to operating in a world where digital services are crafted around their particular needs. We believe that the Starling Business Marketplace is exceptionally well-suited to meeting such expectations.”

All three entrants will adhere to the Starling promise of no hidden mark-ups, so customers will pay the same as they would if they went directly to the provider, unlike some other digital banks. 

The new additions to Starling’s growing business Marketplace join long-standing partners such as Xero and Quickbooks, and will no doubt cement Starling’s dominance for business customers even further.