Participated · Series D · Apr 2022

Starling Bank is a London-based challenger bank founded in 2014 that provides consumer and business banking as a fintech. The company has accrued more than 2 million users and about 350,000 business accounts. It counts investors such as Goldman Sachs and Fidelity among its backers. Starling has been planning an initial public offering in London later this year or in early 2023. The bank recently doubled its valuation to £2.5 billion ($3.3 billion) following a Series D extension and raised an additional £130 million. Management says the new cash will be used to fund growth through acquisitions and to build a war chest for potential targets. The funding was filed at Companies House and later confirmed by Starling. Starling Bank is a U.K.-based mobile banking platform founded in 2014 by Anne Boden that offers personal, joint, children’s euro and dollar current accounts, business accounts, lending products, and Banking-as-a-Service to third parties. The bank powers its own services on a proprietary technology platform and offers customers access to third‑party financial services through the Starling Marketplace. Starling reports more than two million current accounts, including 350,000 business accounts, and a deposit base that has grown from roughly £1 billion to over £6 billion in just over a year. The company is the fastest-growing bank for SMEs in Europe and holds a 6% share of the UK SME banking market. Starling is on course to report its first full year in profit by the end of its next financial year-end and describes its growth as now profitable. Management plans to use new funding to support continued rapid growth, expand lending in the UK, pursue European expansion, and consider anticipated M&A. Starling Bank is a London-based digital challenger bank that offers personal, business, joint, euro and dollar current accounts, lending products, a Banking-as-a-Service platform, and an in-app marketplace for third-party financial services. Founded in 2014 by Anne Boden, the company powers its own banking services on a proprietary technology platform and provides B2B banking and payments through that platform. Since launching in 2017 it has opened more than two million accounts, including over 300,000 small business accounts, with a new customer joining every 39 seconds. Operationally the bank has recorded four consecutive months of operating profit, generated £12M in revenue in January 2021, and reports net income now exceeding £1.5M per month; deposits top £5.4B and gross lending exceeds £2B. The newly raised capital will be invested to support targeted expansion of UK lending, to launch Starling in Europe, and for anticipated merger & acquisition activity. Starling is fully licensed and regulated, headquartered in London with offices in Southampton, Cardiff and Dublin, and all accounts are protected up to £85,000 by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Starling Bank is a U.K. challenger bank that provides personal and business banking accounts and services. The bank has 1.4 million accounts, including 155,000 business accounts, holds more than £2.4 billion in deposits after its deposit base doubled in six months, and reports almost £500 million of SME lending on its balance sheet. Since launching SME accounts in March 2018 and securing £100 million in state aid via the Capability and Innovation Fund (CIF), business banking has become a strategic focus. Starling claims a 2.6% share of the U.K. SME banking market. Starling says it will use the new funding to continue investing in growth and to provide support to small business customers affected by the coronavirus; it has collaborated with the U.K. government on schemes such as the £300 million under the government-backed CBILS and via its own CBIL and Bounce Back Loan Schemes. Since its 2014 launch the bank has raised a total of £363 million and was founded by Anne Boden. Starling Bank is a U.K.-based challenger bank founded by banking veteran Anne Boden. It offers a mobile banking app that launched in May 2017. Customers have opened 1.25 million consumer and business accounts since the app's launch. The company recently raised another £60 million from existing investors. The investors named in the article are Merian Global Investors and Harry McPike’s JTC. The article does not disclose the specific financial instrument used in the round.

Participated · Series D · Dec 2018

Graphcore builds AI infrastructure and hardware aimed at supporting advanced AI workloads. The company has entered a strategic investment partnership with SoftBank, which invested $450 million. As part of its growth plan, Graphcore is expanding globally and opening a new AI campus in Bengaluru, India. The partnership with SoftBank is described as intended to advance research toward artificial general intelligence (AGI). The article does not provide revenue, user, or other operating metrics.

Led · Equity · Jul 2018

Secret Escapes operates as an online travel and experiences company offering discounted travel and experiences. The company completed an equity raise and refinancing to refinish debt and support the next phase of growth. Chrysalis Investments invested £6.5m as part of a wider £31.7m fundraising exercise. Management said the equity raise and refinancing were fully supported by existing shareholders and lenders, and that the business has refinanced existing debt facilities. Financially, Secret Escapes reported EBITDA of £5.4m for the 12 months to December 31, 2021 and trading reached almost 80% of 2019 levels between June and October 2021. The business recorded a loss of more than £30m in its 2020 financial year amid the Covid-19 crisis. Secret Escapes operates a portfolio of travel brands, including Slevomat, Zl’avomat.sk, Travelist, TravelBird, and Empathy Marketing’s Pigsback, selling discounted travel offers to users who sign up for free memberships. Its core product is time-limited flash-deal discounted travel offers, and in 2019 the group recorded a take rate of about 18 percent. In 2019 the group generated approximately $160 million in revenue on gross bookings of about $882 million and reported adjusted EBITDA of roughly $14 million. The pandemic severely impacted the business in 2020, producing adjusted revenue of approximately $77 million and a net loss of about $65 million. An approximately $74 million Series E equity fundraising in May 2020 from all existing shareholders enabled the company to keep customer-support centers fully operational and to implement changes such as a rebooking functionality. By 2021 the company reported a partial rebound—trading reached nearly 80 percent of 2019 levels, it generated overall positive cash flow for 2021, and as of December 31, 2021 it held $102 million in cash, liabilities of $97 million, and $85 million in debt facilities. Secret Escapes is a London, UK-based members-only online luxury travel marketplace founded in 2009 and launched in 2011, led by CEO Alex Saint. The platform offers discounts and deals on hand-picked luxury hotels and holidays. The company reports 50 million members and approximately 850 employees across eight offices, with more than 250 employees in London. Secret Escapes says it is profitable. It raised £52m in funding and has raised £104m to date. The company intends to use the capital to integrate the Slevomat Group, which it acquired late last year, and to pursue projects including in-house hotel and dynamic flight packaging across established geographies. Secret Escapes operates a membership-based platform that offers deals on luxury travel packages and hotels. The London-based company currently operates in Europe, the US, and Asia. CEO Alex Saint said the new funding will help the company "achieve its vision to inspire the world to escape and to become the number one travel deals website in the world." The business has made three acquisitions to date: Slevomat, MyCityVenue, and JustBook. It plans to use the new capital to pursue further growth through additional travel-tech acquisitions. The company has now raised more than £100 million in total. Secret Escapes is a UK-based luxury online travel company that operates a members-only travel club. The service offers discounted rates on hand‑picked hotels and holidays in the UK. The company is led by CEO Alex Saint. In July 2015 Secret Escapes raised $60m in a Series C round. The financing was led by Google Ventures and Octopus Investments, with participation from Index Ventures and Atlas Venture. The company said it intends to use the funds to expand in Asia.

Led · Series E · Nov 2017

TransferWise, launched in 2011, builds cross-border money-transfer services and multi-currency accounts that let customers hold funds in 54 currencies. The company processes about £4 billion in cross-border transactions every month and serves over 8 million customers worldwide. TransferWise grew in popularity due to the simplicity and low cost of its international transfers. It has been profitable and does not require outside capital for growth, having rejected cash-burning hypergrowth strategies. Since 2017 it has offered multi-currency accounts, and it recently received clearance to offer retail investment services in Britain, indicating service expansion plans. The company positioned the recent secondary share sale as a response to investor demand rather than an operating need for funds. TransferWise is a London-headquartered international money-transfer service that enables low-cost cross-border payments. The company supports 49 currencies across 1,600 currency routes and serves 5 million customers, processing £4 billion per month. It estimates customers save £1 billion annually in bank fees. Audited financials for the year ending March 2018 showed 77% revenue growth to £117 million and a net profit of £6.2 million after tax. TransferWise employs more than 1,600 people across 12 global offices and plans to hire 750 more over the next 12 months. Management says capital is not an issue, a public offering remains a long way off, and recent regulatory changes (including the EU outlawing exchange-rate mark-ups) are favorable for the business. TransferWise provides low-cost international money transfers for consumers and SMEs and offers multi-currency Borderless accounts. Its core products include direct consumer and business transfer services, third-party integrations, and the Borderless account aimed at businesses, sole traders and freelancers. The company serves over two million customers, supports 750 currency routes, handles more than £1 billion in transfers per month and has roughly a 10% U.K. market share. TransferWise has been profitable since early 2017. Management plans continued global expansion with a focus on the APAC region, further development of the Borderless account, and a consumer version with a debit card planned for the U.K. and Europe in early 2018. It is also partnering with banks such as N26 (and soon Starling) and pursuing markets including India and Brazil. TransferWise provides online money-transfer services and has built a strong brand around its product. The company is London-headquartered and employs over 600 people across the U.K., Europe and the U.S., including roughly 100 product staff. TransferWise is currently loss-making and reinvests all revenue into growth. Management says the business is closer to obtaining its own U.S. banking licence and prefers to control its own banking arrangements. The company noted that a U.S. money-transfer licence is required for each state, and that the fundraising climate has cooled, giving it a range of equity and debt financing options. TransferWise built a P2P money-transfer platform (founded in 2011 by ex-Skype and PayPal engineers) that matches transfers between users to avoid traditional bank fees and use mid-market rates. It targets expats, freelancers, sole traders, retirees living abroad and small businesses, with an average transaction around £1,500. The company reports about £3 billion ($4.5 billion) transferred through its platform and customer cost savings of more than £135 million versus traditional bank transfers. TransferWise currently operates 292 currency routes and plans to add 300 more in the next year. It is opening a U.S. office next month and will launch outposts in Germany and Austria in the coming months as part of a global expansion. The new funding is intended to ramp up its P2P transfer business and help bolster the company against competition from banks, PayPal and other startups.