Tencent takes stake in Monzo Bank

The tech giant from China Tencent has taken a minor stake in Monzo Bank after joining Monzo’s latest funding round.

“With the backing of some of the best names in the investment community, we’re going into next year with big ambitions — and we’re just getting started,” said Monzo’s chief executive TS Anil.

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Monzo raised more than $500 million at a $4.5 billion valuation in December.

At this point, the bank has more than five million customers, including 300,000 using paid accounts, with Business accounts recently topping 100,000.

An average deposit per user was at £620 in February this year. Monzo also has the largest market share among UK digital banking users, with 39%.

“The high level of investor interest we’ve had in this round is testament to our performance as well as the huge opportunity that lies ahead,” added Monzo CEO TS Anil.

Anil was previously credited for turning around loss-making units of CitiCard in Japan during a difficult time. He was also recognized as a bright talent by Standard Chartered, who snagged him to make him one of its youngest leaders at the age of 42.

“Honestly nothing fazes TS. He really can handle high amounts of stress and never shows it. I watched him transform a business and lead through the financial crisis,” Meghan Connolly, who worked under Anil at Standard Chartered told Sifted.

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However, just recently, Monzo decided to withdraw from the application for a U.S. banking license.

“While this isn’t the outcome we initially set out to achieve, this allows us to build and scale our early-stage product offer in the US through existing partners and invest further in the UK.”