Payments provider Contis enters the running with dual £10m and £25m BCR bids

Becoming the 11th Pool E bidder.

Contis has become the 11th BCR Pool E bidder to make themselves public, with the payments provider being first to publicly throw its hat in the ring for the £10m grant.

Unlike most other rival applicants, Contis is aiming to use the funding to support the creation of services which enable new fintech businesses to flourish.

The new services—called Canvas, Engage and Freedom—include the ability for third-parties to offer credit, digital credit referencing, budgeting tools, automated payments, cash flow insights and much more.

If successful Contis believes the technology has the potential to empower over 200 fintechs and credit unions.

“Our mission is to democratise payments and financial services for all SMEs, so they’re spoilt for choice with innovative and affordable solutions that meet their exact needs,” said Contis founder and executive chairman Peter Cox.

“Our approach, based upon proven technologies, will broaden and disrupt the services available to SMEs far beyond the capabilities of existing providers such as the big banks.”

This bid comes less than 24 hours after AltFi exclusively revealed Cashplus had entered a dual bid for the £25m and £35m grants, of which only one is available for each.

For the £25m grant Contis will also go up against existing awardees Tide and ClearBank with their joint bid, and Starling Bank.

In the £10m grant fewer bidders have made themselves known, with Contis becoming the first to publicly delare.

Round 2 awardees—which include the winners of the £35m grant, £25m grant and two £10m grants—are due to be announced during the week of 21 September.

Here are the 11 current public applications as they stand:  

Bidding for larger grants (£10-35m)

• Starling Bank looking to raise up to £35m with two new BCR grants
• Tide and ClearBank join the race for £25-£35m slice of Pool E
• Cashplus enters the running with £35m BCR bid to rival Tide and Starling Bank
• Contis

Bidding for smaller grants (£2.5-5m)

• Fractal partners with Untied tax app for £5m BCR bid  
• Coconut files £5m BCR Pool E bid  
• Sonovate launches £5m Pool E proposal

Bidding, but unclear for which grant size

• Funding Xchange outs itself as first BCR Pool E applicant  
• Ezbob  
• Trade Ledger and Equifax  
• Trade Finance Global aims to enhance its tech with BCR bid

Know of any other BCR Pool E bids? Let us know.