Monzo is preparing to announce a secondary share sale that promises to give the digital bank a higher valuation of nearly $5.9 billion (£4.5 billion), according to media reports. Monzo had previously been valued at $5.2 billion during a fundraising in May.
The London-based fintech is giving its employees the opportunity to sell some of their shares less than three weeks prior to an expected increase in capital gains tax in the government’s next budget, according to Sky News.
New York-based StepStone Group and GIC, the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund, which both invested in Monzo previously, are said to be buying the shares from the bank’s employees.
Monzo is expected to announce the share sale on Friday. The bank’s spokesperson declined to comment on Thursday.
So far this year, Monzo has already managed to raise $610 million in funding by selling shares to a group of big-name investors that included CapitalG, a fund owned by Google’s parent Alphabet, and HongShan Capital, the firm formerly known as Sequoia Capital China. The fintech’s earlier backers include Tencent, Passion Capital, the Abu Dhabi Growth Fund, Coatue and Accel.
Monzo’s latest share sale will fuel speculation that an IPO is likely to happen in the next couple of years, despite assurances from its CEO TS Anil that the bank’s priorities lie elsewhere.
Anil has recently sought to avoid giving any indications that a public listing would be coming soon, and he also hadn’t ruled out floating the bank in New York rather than London. British tech companies have been pursuing listings in the larger U.S. market in recent years on expectations they could attain higher valuations and gain access to deeper pools of capital.
Monzo achieved an important milestone in June, when the fintech reported its first annual profit of £15.4 million for the year ended March. The bank had recorded a £116 million loss the year before.
Founded in early 2015, Monzo says it now has more than 10 million customers in the U.K., making it the country’s seventh-largest bank. It competes with other digital banks like Revolut and Starling as well as traditional lenders such as Barclays and HSBC.
The company recently restarted its U.S. expansion efforts, which included hiring Conor Walsh from Block’s Cash App to be its new U.S. CEO. Monzo had abandoned an earlier bid to acquire a banking license from U.S. regulators.
