[NEWS] Sources: Y Combinator’s growth fund to back challenger bank Monzo – Loganspace

Dazzling 5 months afterannouncing£85 million in Series E funding,Monzois already gearing as a lot as expand extra funding, which would practically double its valuation.

As reported within theSunday Instancesthe day earlier than at present time, the U.Okay. challenger bank is end to elevating £100 million in extra funding in a brand fresh round led by an unnamed U.S. investor. If the deal goes thru, this can reportedly give Monzo a pre-money valuation of £2 billion, up from £1 billion in October.

Now TechCrunch has discovered that the fresh U.S. backer is Y Combinator.

In step with a pair of sources within investor circles either aspect of the pond, the Silicon Valley accelerator and venture capital fund plans to make investments in Monzo out of its enhance fund, the auto it most steadily uses to double down on lickety-split-rising companies within its alumni.

Significantly, Monzo isn’t a graduate of YC. Nonetheless, Monzo co-founder Tom Blomfield’s outdated startup, the payments firm GoCardless, did fight thru the accelerator program, making Blomfield himself an alumni.

Monzo declined to commentary. Y Combinator couldn’t be reached at the time of e-newsletter and I’ll update this post will possess to I hear support.

Meanwhile, the news that Y Combinator is lining as a lot as make investments in Monzo makes reasonably a range of sense in a collection of systems beyond Blomfield’s outdated ties to the accelerator. The challenger bank already boasts a plethora of U.S. investors, akin to U.S. venture capital firm General Catalyst, Thrive Capital and Stripe.

And,as TechCrunch reported completely, Monzo has quietly begun working on a U.S. launch. Here’s entails developing a miniature team states-aspect to commence laying the groundwork to lift a version of Monzo to North The usa, which is able to within the origin be powered by a U.S. banking partner while Monzo works on the well-known regulatory licenses to switch it by myself.

Monzo continues to grow at a clip here within the U.Okay., too. To this point, the challenger bank claims better than 1.7 million prospects because it launched in 2015.