About us
Our story starts when our Founder and CEO Norris Koppel moved to the UK. The first thing on his to-do list was to open a bank account, so that he could receive his salary, rent a place to stay, set up his utility bills and manage his day-to-day spendings. The task was anything but simple. To open a bank account he needed proof of his address, local credit history, utility bills and countless other documents ā but he couldnāt get any of these without having a bank account.
After being stuck in this frustrating loop, he vowed to fix it so that no one would ever have to go through the same painful experience again. He came up with the idea for Monese: an account thatās not just for those with perfect credit scores or the right set of utility bills. An account you can open instantly and use on your mobile, so you donāt lose access to your money every time you cross a border on a map. We launched in September 2015 as the UKās first mobile app alternative to the banks.
2015
Monese goes live! This year, we officially launched our mobile money accounts in the UK, and it was only the beginning of our journeyā¦
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.
2016
A year later, we won āBest Challenger Bankā at the European Fintech Awards, winning against 19 others in the category.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.
2017
After a very successful Series A funding round at the start of the year, we secured 10 million USD and launched EUR accounts.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.
2018
We were named one of the 10 Disruptors to Watch by The Sunday Times and secured $60 million after our Series B funding round.
We also hit two major milestones: we launched Monese business accounts and reached half a million sign-ups!
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.
2019
2019 was another big year for us. We launched joint accounts, were named in the top 20 of LinkedInās hottest startups to work for in the UK and reached 1 million sign-ups!
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.
2020
We launched RON accounts, Monese for web and celebrated another milestone number: 2 million sign-ups!
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.
2021
We secured a Ā£69m Series C funding round and introduced Credit Builder, our tool to help supercharge your credit score.
We also launched our pilot project with Investec Bank, sowing the seeds for the beginning of our XYB platform (more on this in 2023!)
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.
2022
We secured a Ā£30m investment from HSBC as part of our Series D funding round.
We were named in the Financial Times FT 1000 list of fastest growing European companies, and as one of the The Singer Growth Economy Top 50.
We also launched Monese Boost as an add-on to Credit Builder, and our Get Paid Early feature.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.
2023
A revolutionary year for Monese! We officially established XYB, our new Banking-as-a-Service platform that we built from the ground up.
We also launched our incoming international transfers subscription and our new and improved business accounts.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.
Fast forward to the present day and weāve signed up millions of people from across 31 countries. With 70% of incoming customer money coming from salary payments, weāre one of the most popular and trusted financial services across Europe. Weāre incredibly proud that our product improves the lives of so many customers that traditional banks fail to help. And this is only the beginning!