“Starling is not for sale” says Anne Boden in new chapter of her book

When Banking On It was first released in November 2020, the book sent shockwaves through the fintech world—giving us mere mortals a glimpse into the previously mysterious feud that led to the foundation of two of the biggest digital banks in the UK.

Now, Anne Boden, CEO and founder of Starling, reflects on the past year as her book is released as a paperback.

In a newly-written afterword, Boden gives a fresh perspective on just how well Starling has fared over the last year.

The afterword sheds light on Starling’s government-backed lending and also details the ramping up of its anti-fraud campaigns.

Boden also continues to stoke the fire with her keen rival and one-time Starling co-founder Tom Blomfield.

“I’d always marked our progress against Monzo, since they were our rival challenger bank and had launched at almost the same time. The fact I had history with Tom Blomfield always upped the ante, competition-wise too,” Anne admitted.

She notes that, in her eyes, Monzo is no longer a competitor for Starling anymore, rather it’s the likes of Lloyds and Barclays that Boden sees Starling in the same league as.

“I’m already convinced that Barclays is in our sights, since it has around 15 per cent of the business banking market and Starling has a six per cent share of the market for SME banking,” Boden wrote.

“At the rate of growth Starling is now experiencing, overtaking them is not just doable, it is a strong possibility.” 

Boden also commented on the media speculation surrounding alleged takeover bids from two big hitters—JP Morgan and Lloyds Bank.

With incumbent banks preferring to buy a digital bank, rather than build their own, other digital banks could be ripe for the picking but for Starling, an acquisition was never on the table.

“Starling is not for sale and I very much want to lead it to floatation and beyond. Thanks to the latest round of fundraising outlined at the beginning of this chapter, it is full steam ahead towards an IPO,” Boden added. 

In the time elapsed between the publication of the hardback and paperback copies of Banking On It, Starling has added 500,000 personal accounts and more than 100,000 business accounts as well as hitting £5.5bn in deposits and £2bn in lending.

It is clear to see that “digital banking is here to stay” and with Starling, and Anne Boden, at the forefront it will continue to go from strength to strength.

Banking On It: How I Disrupted an Industry by Anne Boden will be available from Amazon and other good booksellers on 4 November 2021 with an RRP of £10.99.