Monese

Monese is a British company that offers current accounts and money transfer services as an alternative to traditional banks. The mobile-only service provides accounts in Pounds sterling, Euros and Romanian leu, and is available in 31 countries across the European Economic Area. As of January 2020, it has over 2 million customers.^[2]

Monese was founded by Norris Koppel, an entrepreneur from Estonia. Koppel moved to the United Kingdom and had his application for a current account at a major high-street bank declined because he could not provide local proof of address and did not yet have credit history in the UK.^[3] This experience led Koppel to vow that one day he would launch a banking service that did not exclude customers based on their residency or lack of credit history.^[4]

The company completed its seed round in May 2015, raising $1.8 million from Seedcamp, early Spotify investor Shakil Khan and several other angel investors.^[5]

Monese launched its first product, an instant-to-open mobile current account in the UK, on 21 September 2015.^[6]

Prior to the launch of its current account, it was reported that over 56,000 customers pre-registered for service and joined a waiting list to be granted access.^[7] Monese is able to provide banking services to resident and non-resident customers, and has an account opening process that can be completed on a customer's smartphone in under three minutes.^[8]

Monese closed its Series A round in January 2017, announcing a $10 million raise from Outward VC, Anthemis Exponential Ventures, STE capital, and Korea Investment Partners, Smartcap and Seedcamp.^[9] Later that year it launched European accounts.^[10]

Its next funding round, $60 million as part of Series B, was announced on 6 September 2018, and was led by Swedish investment company Kinnevik AB, with participation from PayPal, Augmentum Fintech, British Airways owner International Airlines Group and Investec backed Outward VC.^[11]

Monese initially provided all of its services free of charge, except international money transfer – but in 2016 it began charging a fixed fee of £4.95 per month for its current account product.^[12] It subsequently launched other plans and, as of November 2019, offers three different pricing plans: "Simple" with limited benefits but no fixed monthly fee, "Classic" for £4.95 per month, and "Premium" with no transaction charges for £14.95 per month.^[13]

Towards the end of 2023 Monese began to charge UK customers £0.30 for virtual debit cards and £1 for domestic outgoing bank transfers. Transfers between Monese bank accounts remained unaffected.^[14]

They aims to secure additional funding in 2024^[15]

To open and manage a Monese current account, customers must install the company's mobile app on their Android or iOS smartphone. The Android app has been available since Monese's public launch on 21 September 2015,^[16] and the iOS app launched on 28 July 2016.^[17]

• Neobanks in Europe

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