Banking Without a Building
Written By:
Austin Stofer
Atom Bank is a banking startup out of the UK that is the first of its kind, directly targeting Millennials on a mobile-only platform. They provide the tech-savvy Millennial generation with a personal and business banking app wherein users can login using face and voice recognition and receive 24/7 customer support.
The mobile-centric banking ecosystem is competitive in the US market, with companies such asSimple, GoBank, and BankMobile crowding the space, but the UK market is still relatively untapped. Because of this, after TechCrunch confirmed, Atom Bank received a post-money valuation of $320 million. Atom Bank plans on using the $102 million in funding from its last round to build out its customer base and services.
BBVA led the last investment round of just under $30 million, looking to maintain a minimum 29.5% share of Atom Bank. This equity percentage is meaningful for BBVA, the second largest bank in Spain, because any investor with 30% share in a company triggers a regulatory requirement for that shareholder to make a mandatory takeover offer.
Currently, Atom Bank remains on the small side, with only 14,000 users, but it is growing quickly. Although Atom Bank has specifically targeted a limited target market – millennials – the platform is by no means limited to that market only. To put the total market size in context, the platform has tremendous room to grow with 65+ million people living in the UK alone.
Founder Anthony Thompson, acknowledging the potential for success of Atom Bank, said, “We are very pleased with the response we have had from investors… Our customers benefit from the backing of highly reputable investors who are supportive of what we are doing. This is a great vote of confidence in our growth prospects and plans for the future. With the work we have done so far, we are just beginning to see how transformational our new approach to banking can be.”
