Monzo sees valuation plummet by nearly 40% in latest fundraising bid

Digital bank Monzo may see a nearly a 40 per cent drop in its valuation as it seeks it’s latest round of fundraising.

The latest suggested valuation places the fintech at about £1.25bn, a huge step down from its £2bn valuation it received in June last year following a £113m Series F raise. 

Monzo is looking to raise between £70m and £80m to help it weather the coronavirus-related storm, in news first reported by the Financial Times.

Despite the drop in valuation, AltFi understands Monzo was able to attract both new and existing investors for the raise.

In early April it was confirmed that Monzo’s founder and CEO Tom Blomfield would be forgoing his salary for the next 12 months and top executives would take pay cuts to ensure that their staff still received their salaries. 

Monzo has also had to furlough 295 members of staff amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Before coronavirus took hold, Blomfield said he had planned to hire 500 more staff during 2020, upping Monzo’s headcount to 2,000.

Just over three weeks ago it was also revealed that Monzo had officially applied for its US banking licence after having launched stateside back in June 2019.

It hasn’t been all doom and gloom for the challenger, who became the most-switched to bank for the first time ever during Q4 2019, with a total of 20,843 net switches.

Monzo was approached by AltFi for comment but declined to provide one.