Sarah Hsu

As Harry Baker, Proposition and Product Manager at Barclays Eagle Labs, puts it: "Most people that are running scaling companies go through very similar problems. And we want to make sure that, as a cohort, these people are are learning from each other and they're creating their own tribe where they can get together and crowdsource the answers to problems" 🗣️ So following a six-month journey together on our Scaleup Programme with Barclays Eagle Labs, we're delighted by how much our founders value the networks they've built, while furthering their growth ambitions to even double headcount in some cases 📈 Check out the video below to hear from Scaleup Programme alumni G.Digital CEO Georgie Lynskey, Boodil COO Sam Owens and former Cloud8 CEO Dipa Mistry Kandola about their experiences of working with us 🎥 If you want to be part of the next Scaleup Programme cohort, register your early interest here: https://lnkd.in/er6qEkJM Read more to understand the challenges, opportunities and achievements unlocked at scaleup stage: https://lnkd.in/d_MXq39r Emma Marshall | Saj Huq | Russell Gundry | Charlotte West | Joe Howard | Winnie Yan | Alliah Rust | Naia P. | #Innovation | #Programme | #Cohort | #Graduation | #Founders | #Collaboration | #Network

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So TS Anil is the mastermind behind the greatest turnaround in tech in the last 10 years. Monzo Bank under TS has gone from £40M revenues to £1BN and profitable. But when TS took over Monzo: Had a 40% down round. Had large layoffs and low employee NPS. Had very little runway. Today we have TS on 20VC in the studio. What are the must asks? #Founder #funding #business #investing #vc #venturecapital #entrepreneur #startup

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🚨 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗙𝗹𝗮𝘀𝗵: Monzo Bank posts first full year of profit after more than doubling revenue 🤯 The fintech startup said in annual financial results that its pre-tax profits totaled £15.4 million ($19.6 million) in its 2023-2024 fiscal year, swinging to the black from a £116.3 million loss the year prior. Monzo posted revenues of £880 million for the full year, up from £355.6 million in 2022. That marked a more than twofold increase. Monzo is one of Britain’s largest digital banks, competing with the likes of Starling and Revolut as well as established lenders such as HSBC and Barclays. Last year, Monzo reported its first month of profit. That marked a major turnaround from 2020 when Monzo warned it faced doubts over its ability to continue “as a going concern” early into the Covid-19 pandemic. The company has seen significant growth in recent years. This year, it attained a $5.2 billion valuation and it now has 𝟵.𝟯 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 consumer customer (from 7.4m) and 400,000 business clients (from 200k a year ago). The long story short: ► £15.4m ($19.16m) profit  ► 2.5x revenue growth ► 88% increase in deposits (to £11.4bn or $14.51bn) ► 47% increase in card spending (to 47.8bn or $60.85bn) ► 84% increase in the gross loan book More info can be found in the document below👇 + you can find the complete report here: https://lnkd.in/eMjGRbfY Find this helpful? [ 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁 ] Anything to add about this subject? [ 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 ] Nice story, Marcel. Next! [ 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 ] 

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UK AI-led fintech Abound announces new funding round to increase access to fair credit, expanding total funding to up to £1.3bn London based credit technology company Abound has announced a new financing round which in aggregate could extend up to £0.8bn. The new funding comes on the back of continued growth, with Abound reaching profitability just 3 years after launch. The funding announcement—one of the largest in Europe so far this year — is a mixture of debt and equity. Abound will use the new funding to expand into prime lending in the UK, and to roll-out Render, its proprietary AI credit technology platform, globally. Abound is now one of the UK’s fastest-growing fintechs, having issued over £300m in loans to date and is aiming to double the size of its team from 65 to 130 people this year. The new funding includes a multi-year asset backed debt financing arrangement (backed by loan originations) from existing financier Citi, while the Series B equity round component was led by Silicon Valley-based GSR Ventures. Abound’s AI technology, Render, scans customers’ bank transaction data to understand each person’s unique financial situation and determine how much they can afford to repay each month. This contrasts with traditional credit checks, which rely on statistical averages which may be right on average but are wrong in almost every individual case. The Render technology means that Abound sees 75% fewer defaults than the industry standard. As a result, Abound is able to offer lower interest rates to consumers than they can typically find elsewhere. This market leading credit performance is also the reason that existing investors are continuing to back Abound. It is estimated that over 15 million people in the UK struggle to borrow for unexpected costs, with many with poor credit scores having to accept unacceptably high interest rates. Abound’s mission is to change the way that credit decisions are made globally so that more people can access loans at rates they can afford to repay, driving financial inclusion. Abound is leading the use of Open Banking and AI in consumer credit decisioning. While this technology is at an early stage, Abound believes it will become a must-have in the lending space over the next 3 years. Abound is already providing its industry leading Render technology to banks and traditional lenders across Europe to support them through the AI-transition. #fintech #ai #payments ‍

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The recording for Will Sewell's talk from the latest Observability Engineering Community London tech meetup is here! A few takeaways: ⇥ Dependency management is a significant challenge in microservices. ⇥ Centralized migrations help maintain consistency across services. ⇥ No downtime is crucial during migrations for operational stability. ⇥ Using a Monzo tracing SDK allows for controlled rollouts. ⇥ A monorepo structure simplifies service updates and consistency. ⇥ Automated rollback checks ensure safe deployments. ⇥ Config services enable rapid changes across multiple services. ⇥ Gradual ramp-up of new features minimizes risk during migrations. ⇥ Strong ownership models enhance accountability and service management.

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74% of B2B SaaS product managers have a built-in payment wallet on their roadmap… I am a big fan of Gibson Biddle’s DHM model on how to build products that delight customers, in hard-to-copy & margin-enhancing ways. With embedded finance product managers of B2B SaaS companies have the opportunity to hit the three areas. Delight your customers by removing and automating steps in their job-to-done. Create a hard-to-copy advantage by seamlessly weaving fund flows and data into your customer’s processes. Improve your product’s margins by introducing new revenue streams. Interested to learn more? Get a copy of our latest white paper here:

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Monzo's impressive valuation of $5.9 billion underscores the growing confidence in fintech, driven by strategic fundraising and market expansion. The secondary market sale not only rewards employees but also signals robust investor interest, positioning Monzo favorably against competitors like Revolut. As neobanks evolve, their ability to provide liquidity while delaying a public offering could redefine startup financing strategies. Continued focus on U.S. and European markets will be crucial for sustaining growth and competitive advantage. #fintech #neobanks #startupvaluation #monzo #secondarymarket #banking #crossborderpayments #financialeducation #Payments #openbanking #digitalbanking

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Monzo Bank is the latest tech unicorn to achieve profitable growth after years of depending on large amounts of outside funding to fuel its growth. The company has posted a very nice profit of £15m, with revenues growing 2.5x and deposits growing 88%. Of course, like many fintechs they were helped by the higher interest rates in the last couple of years. But Monzo can take credit for being at the right scale when the interest rates shifted (which they did mostly through building the best customer experience in UK banking) and for pivoting to profitable growth at the right time. I've been a Monzo customer since its alpha days and even invested a bit in one of its crowdfunding rounds, so it's safe to say I'm a diehard fan. Still, I have to say they have never been as innovative and productive as they have in the last couple of years, finally building some revenue-generating products popular with customers. We will have to see if this trend continues, as interest rates are expected to fall over the next few quarters. https://lnkd.in/eHZ5Ayf2

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C++ Engineer; join a crypto startup in London where Durlston Partners has placed 60% of the employees. I'm keen on speaking with C++ Engineers, who are comfortable tinkering with cloud technologies and have a strong understanding of DevOps principles, to join a company I know inside out based in London. I know them inside out as we've placed the lion's share of employees there. The company is building cutting-edge infrastructure which sits at the heart of CeFi and DeFi trading. It's a small outfit by team size, yet packs a punch well above its weight as the current employees are truly best-in-class technologists. This role would most likely suit an Engineer with a few years of experience who values being sat in a team that experiment, fail fast and iterate constantly. Yes it's a startup, but the HM doesn't want to set you up for failure; you'll have 2 HFT C++ veterans by your side in the office (4 days p.w.), as well as report into a Founder who is still fully hands-on. Interview process is done in 3 rounds and an offer typically starts being structured before your final round, so you're not going to be waiting for weeks to find out when you'll be joining. 3 Rounds: - Coderpad - 2.5 hours tech discussions w/ current employees - Final w/ Founder 📩 [email protected] 📲 TG: @cryptowarwick #DPDMCC

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📖 Weekend Reading 📖 1️⃣ Simon Taylor recently started a new podcast where he interviews fintech founders. The first trio is now out, highlighting the founders of Ramp (Eric Glyman), Brex (Pedro Franceschi), and Arc (Don Muir). I learned something new from each, and I feel like I have a better sense now of where they seek to differentiate. (sharing the first here) https://lnkd.in/dF__4imY One of the things Ramp and Brex have become particularly well known for is of course spend management. And conveniently, Alex Johnson has a great overview of the category. https://lnkd.in/dswwC7nY Bonus: Simon also wrote about the complexities of ledger reconciliations, worth a read if you’re following the Synapse debacle. https://lnkd.in/dAwz2WGj 2️⃣ Alex Telford has a long piece on the origins of the lab mouse. Definitely new territory for me, but a very interesting example of random contingencies and path dependence leading to outsized impact on how we do research in medicine today. It would never have occurred to me to even question the use of mice, and a particular species of mice at that, for medical research—but once you start asking these (very valid) questions, you start to wonder how pervasive this is across the scientific process. https://lnkd.in/dmxPt6Sh 3️⃣ Thanks to Byrne Hobart, CFA I’ve discovered Bret Devereaux’s writing, and this time it’s a fantastic two-part series on Alexander the Great, exploring the question of his “greatness.” This is a real treasure trove, and Bret goes into quite a bit of detail, first on the sources we have available (which I really enjoyed, and wish others would emulate), then on his track record as a general, king, and man. As is often the case, it’s a nuanced picture.   Part 1: https://lnkd.in/dF7ZjKiw 4️⃣ Finally, Li Jin wrote a thoughtful piece on the limitations of the systems that marketplaces are built on, and crypto’s potential to enable new types of marketplaces to emerge. I like this framework of scaling (via token incentives), portable (and immutable) reputation, and payments as key crypto pillars for marketplaces. In practice, there are still significant barriers with regards to the first 2 (lack of regulatory clarity around tokens, incumbents simply not wanting to make data portable, and KYC/AML regulations). Payments, however, is ripe for disruption, and that’s exactly why we’re focusing on global marketplace payments at Walapay. https://lnkd.in/d2UF_Djc #fintech #ledger #baas #spendmanagement #ramp #brex #synapse #marketplace #crypto #alexanderthegreat #payments

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What's next for Monzo Bank to retain (and improve) this level of profitability? Is it entering a new market, seeking both geographic and product expansion. The UK market is very consolidated, a difficult market to break in. What are the countries and/or segment available for Monzo to break in? #financialservices #innovation #leadership

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“Bad regulation doesn’t mean regulation is bad.” June is a busy time for #Fintech folks. I’m at Fintech Week London today hearing about the importance of right size regulation as an enabler of innovation and a driver of inward investment from Lord Holmes. #Fintech #OpenBanking #Payments #Regulation

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At London Tech Week, I attended a fascinating talk by TS Anil, CEO of Monzo Bank discussed Monzo's success, new features, and the future of fintech 💡 Read the article to learn more and to see what Monzo has up its sleeve for the future 👀

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Seed stage FinTech? 👀 Looking to raise capital? 💸 Guess what the legend Mark "Z" Zmarzly 🦄 from Amazon Web Services (AWS) has in store for you? Registration link in comments🤌🏽 Come hear from FinTech resident legends Nikita Le Messurier, Ben Armstrong, Rhys Davis and Edward Hooper 🙌🏽 Added benefit? Your resident brown boy in FinTech will be there too 🫱🏽‍🫲🏾 #fintech #impact #investing

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Monzo Bank has raised another $190 million as the challenger bank looks to expand its presence internationally — particularly in the U.S. The new round comes just two months after Monzo raised $425 million, meaning the London-based company has now raised north of $610 million in 2024, and $1.5 billion since its inception nine years ago. Do you think that Monzo can make it in the US ? I personally don't think so. What about other international markets ? in Europe in key countries like France or Germany, or Latam like Brazil ? Isn't it too late for them to come there and compete locally with the likes of Revolut, Nubank, N26, who locally took over their market. I don't think Monzo would go internationally while applying for a bank license locally. Are we back in 2018? Again I believe going international is great but assuming you can leverage your costs, level your infrastructure, bring competition and innovation, this is what we did back in 2006 with Fortuneo Bank when we went international. What do you think Efi Pylarinou, Jason Mikula, Marcel van Oost, Bryan Clagett ?

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It's official! The London Observability Engineering Meetup is back for an exciting talk about scaling and managing SLOs at a global scale! 🌏 Join us on Thursday, July 11th, where Alex, Senior Site Reliability Engineer at Google, will present the evolution of Service Level Objectives (SLOs) for the GCE Compute API over the past eight years. He'll start with the initial 30 SLOs, move through a phase with around a thousand, and end with millions of per-customer SLOs. He'll share anecdotes, techniques for handling low-QPS (continuous over discrete metrics), and strategies for aggregating data to enhance leadership visibility. He'll also give practical tips for running and improving this system in production. #observability #engineering #devops #sre

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We were very lucky at Form Ventures to speak to Simon Taylor for our latest Form Playbook! Simon is one of the best writers on UK fintech and his insights about the FCA, the future of payments, open banking and so much more are well worth a read. #fintech #startups #regulation #fca #payments

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Since taking over the Sifted fintech newsletter in February, I’ve been lucky enough to meet some of fintech’s most notable investors and founders. And one name that keeps being mentioned is Fintech Founders, a grassroots network of fintech founders that’s become somewhat of a lifeline for founders. Set up in 2016 by LendInvest (LSE: LINV)'s Christian Faes, the group initially started off as a supper club where fintech execs could exchange advice away from the hustle and bustle of conferences. Since then, it’s grown into a 350-strong founder community that’s established a line of communication between the fintech sector and the UK government. After bringing in Henham Strategy's Nick King, ex-chief of staff to former UK -chancellor Sajid Javid, in 2018, it’s helped members secure meetings with FCA chief executive Nikhil Rathi, former economic secretary John Glen and ex-prime minister Rishi Sunak during his tenure as chancellor. Central to Fintech Founders is a vibrant WhatsApp group chat established during the height of the Covid pandemic, bustling with more than 300 founders sharing advice. But, as an exclusive, invite-only network that’s enabled lobbying access to the highest levels of the UK government, some say groups like Fintech Founders worsen gender inequality and elitism in the sector. So, how did this influential group grow to where it is today, and is it really a force for good in UK tech? Find out below 👇👇👇 https://lnkd.in/eSDMmatv

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The fact that some bureaucratic buffoons who have never built anything of value in their lives, are necessary to issue a company the “right to offer financial services” says a lot about how broken and upside down the world really is. This is why we’re stuck in the financial Stone Age. And this is precisely what bitcoin obliterates. It’s an open source “central bank” (in a sense) that anybody can leverage and build on top of. Few people can imagine the level of innovation that will occur on top of bitcoin in the coming decades, while the legacy financial system continues to hamper its own growth by tying itself in red-tape-colored knots

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