Starling raises another £40m to bolster SME banking

The digital bank holds a 2.6 per cent share of the UK’s SME banking customers and £500m of SME loans on its balance sheet.

Starling Bank has raised £40m in a round led by existing investors JTC and Merian Chrysalis. 

The latest capital injection comes after the challenger bank raised £60m in February, taking Starling’s total raised this year so far to £100m and since 2014 £363m.

Starling says the latest funding will be used to “continue its rapid growth and help it provide much-needed support to small business customers who have been hit by the coronavirus emergency.”

Anne Boden’s digital bank now counts 2.6 per cent of the UK’s SMEs as Starling customers and it has nearly £500m of SME lending on its balance sheet, taking its total commitments to nearly £1bn.

To date the challenger bank has 155,000 business accounts, meaning that it has amassed 55,000 new customers since the beginning of February—no doubt accelerated by coronavirus.

Anne Boden, founder and chief executive of Starling Bank, said: “This additional funding from our existing investors demonstrates their commitment both to Starling and to our small business and personal customers who need our support now more than ever.”

According to Starling it now has also more than doubled its user deposits in the last six months, taking its total amount held to over £2.4bn.

Starling first became a CBILS-accredited lender in mid-April and, according to the latest figures, has dished out £363m in CBILS and Bounce Back Loans.

It has not been all smooth sailing for the bank, however, as it came under fire when it stopped accepting new sole trader business accounts because of “record demand” on 14 May 2020.

Despite this, Starling teamed up with fellow accredited fintech, Funding Circle, to provide the listed lender with a £300m pot for SME lending.