(Bloomberg) -- Monzo Bank Ltd. will begin rolling out expense cards to small businesses across the UK in a push that has the upstart challenging the credit-card behemoth American Express Co.
The new offering — along with other services such as payroll, approving bulk payments and invoicing — will be part of a new account it offers to small- to medium-sized enterprises with 15 or fewer staffers, according to a statement.
“The traditional banks have under-served SME customers for the longest time,” Monzo’s Chief Executive Officer TS Anil said in an interview.
The London-headquartered challenger in recent years has taken on the likes of Lloyds Banking Group Plc and Barclays Plc and now has over 500,000 business customers across the UK, Anil said.
But with its latest expansion, Monzo will be on a path to challenge the likes of Amex, which is one of the largest providers of small-business credit cards in the world. The company has said its international offerings for smaller enterprises has been a bright spot in recent quarters.
Monzo, which reported its first annual profit in June, recently allowed employees to offload some of their stock in the company in a secondary share sale that valued the company at $5.9 billion. That was up from an earlier valuation of $5.2 billion that it received after raising $610 million earlier this year.
Existing investors including StepStone Group Inc. and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte participated in the latest round, the firm said in a statement.
Monzo’s business unit said it doubled revenue in the financial year through March, with a push into lending such as sole trader loans helping generate more revenue per user.
“Everything we build, we believe that it’s built with a view that customers around the world will want that product. So of course we intend to take this global in time,” Anil said, adding for now the product was focused on the UK, Monzo’s primary market.
It’s the latest example of a digital-only bank seeking to expand and become a viable choice for most or all of a customer’s financial needs. Business-focused Tide has grown to 650,000 customers, while Revolut’s business arm now generates $500 million a year in revenue. Revolut this week also launched its own payment terminal.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.