The investment, which will be used for product development and international expansion, brings the total funding since launch to $76 milllion and allows Monese to make its new generation of mobile financial services accessible to many more customers.

Monese says demand for its services has continued to grow since its launch in 2015. Nearly 600,000 users have signed up across the UK and Europe, monthly new customers have tripled since the end of 2017, and customers are now moving more than $2.5 billion each year through Monese accounts.

The new funding round is led by Kinnevik, a global investor focused on digital businesses, with participation from PayPal, European investor Augmentum Fintech and International Airlines Group for its loyalty and data business Avios Group Ltd. Existing investors, including Investec’s INVC Fund, also participated.

“We are excited about this significant investment from world-class investors, which will enable us to continue on our path to becoming a global financial platform to all, offering more people access to the latest generation of mobile banking services,” said Norris Koppel, Founder and CEO of Monese (pictured).

“We are delighted to have such distinguished investors who share our belief that technology can be used to provide access to modern, convenient and affordable financial services to people who have been underserved by traditional financial institutions.

"To have investors who are leaders in their fields allows us to bring tremendous operational experience and growth potential for the services we offer today and have planned for the future. With a further series of product innovations to be announced in the very near future, this is an exciting time for Monese.”

The first mobile-only current account provider in the UK, Monese allows eligible customers to open European IBAN accounts in 20 countries. Its product is powered by a proprietary technology that conducts deep KYC (Know Your Customer) checks globally in real time.

It says customers can create an account in 120 seconds regardless of citizenship, proof of address or credit history, and allows Monese to serve a diverse set of internationally mobile customers currently underserved by traditional financial institutions.

With transparent, low-cost pricing packages, Monese has created a financial platform that the majority of its customers use as their primary salary account, with 75% of all Monese funds coming from regular salary payments.

Monese has an aggressive product roadmap for the coming months that will bring an exciting range of new features and offers to the market. Furthermore, the company plans to hire an additional 100 employees across its existing UK and Estonian offices as well as a third new office in Portugal by the end of the year, significantly increasing the size of its operations.