The Venture Codex

Led · Equity · Oct 2017

CommuterClub provides financing that lets commuters buy yearly rail season tickets or travelcards and pay monthly. Customers can sign up online in minutes and cancel anytime with no penalty. The company is regulated and authorized by the UK Financial Conduct Authority. It has provided more than £30m in loans to over 10,000 customers. The business is based in London and was co-founded three years ago by Irina Iovita, Petko Plachkov and Imran Gulamhuseinwala. CommuterClub plans to use new funding to continue expanding its operations and business reach.

Led · Series C · Aug 2017

Neyber provides a financial wellbeing platform that enables employers to offer employees access to salary-deducted loans and financial education insights. The company’s platform is used by clients including the UK Police Service, London City Airport, Anglian Water, NHS Trusts and FTSE-listed firms. Neyber was founded by former Goldman Sachs investment bankers Martin ljaha and Monica Kalia along with financial technology expert Ezechi Britton. The company is based in London, UK and focuses on expanding employer customers and workplace financial benefits. Neyber intends to use the newly raised funds to continue to expand operations and add new employers to its customer base. The articles do not disclose revenue or user metrics. Neyber provides a financial wellbeing platform for UK employees that offers salary-deducted loans and financial-education insights at no cost or risk to employers. The company also plans to introduce a savings proposition enabling employees to save directly from their salary. Neyber reports it has lent more than £50m to customers and that 700K members have access to the platform. The business serves clients including the UK Police Service, London City Airport, Anglian Water, NHS Trusts and FTSE-listed firms. The company has a team of approximately 60 and was co-founded by Martin Ljaha, Monica Kalia, and Ezechi Britton. Neyber intends to use new funding to expand operations and accelerate growth. Neyber offers a consumer finance and wellbeing platform that enables employers to offer access to affordable loans with repayments taken through salary-deduction technology integrated with employer payroll systems. The service is available to public sector employees across the Police Service, London City Airport, NHS Trusts and Local Authorities, and to private enterprises such as UK Power Networks and Anglian Water. The company’s total loan book exceeds £50m, indicating active lending volume. Neyber intends to use the new funding to expand its customer base. The business was founded by former Goldman Sachs investment bankers Martin ljaha and Monica Kalia along with financial technology expert Ezechi Britton. To date the company has raised £18m in total capital since inception. Neyber provides employers with a free employee lending platform that integrates with existing payroll structures and offers a dedicated customer call centre. The company underwrites salary-deducted loans ranging from £500 to £25,000. Neyber is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. It was co-founded by Martin Ijaha (CEO), Monica Kalia (Chief of Strategy and Business Development) and Ezechi Britton (CTO). The company is currently hiring and is using newly raised funds to expand operations. To date, Neyber has raised £8.5m in total.

Led · Equity · Jun 2017

Zopa is a UK savings-and-lending bank focused on retail deposits and consumer lending, and it has been preparing to launch a Bank Account/current account product. The bank said the latest capital raise strengthens its balance sheet and positions it for the Bank Account launch. It raised additional capital ahead of its current account offering six months ago and described this new raise as non-dilutive. Zopa listed its first-ever bond on the London Stock Exchange as Additional Tier 1 capital to help meet regulatory capital requirements. The company reported a doubling of pre-tax profits to £31.5m in 2024. Management also said an IPO is not a priority given public market uncertainty. Zopa is a UK savings and lending digital bank with a UK banking licence that offers personal loans, credit cards, point-of-sale retail finance, car finance, savings accounts, and financial health tools. It reports about 1.3m customers and holds £5m in deposits. Zopa recorded its first full year of profitability in 2023, making a pre-tax profit of £15.8m for the year ending 2023, and says it expects to double profits in 2024. The company has raised a total of £768m to date, according to Crunchbase, including two £75m fundraising rounds in 2023. Most recently it raised over €80m (£66m) in an equity round led by AP Moller Holding with significant participation from existing investors including Silverstripe; SoftBank is also a known shareholder. Zopa did not disclose a valuation, though press coverage indicated the new funding keeps it above $1bn unicorn status. The funding is intended to support the launch of a current account proposition next year and development of a GenAI proposition. Zopa is a UK neobank that offers loans, savings and deposits, a BNPL product and ISAs to retail customers and now serves 1 million customers. The company launched BNPL and a long-term savings ISA this year and plans to launch two more products next year. It says it will continue building products alongside its lending and deposit businesses and is also eyeing acquisitions. Zopa has no near-term plans to expand outside the U.K., citing ample opportunity domestically. Financially, Zopa is EBITDA positive, on track to be profitable for the full year for the first time, and projects an annualized run rate of £250 million this year. The firm has raised capital previously and has attracted large strategic investors as it prepares for a future IPO when markets improve. Zopa provides consumer lending, credit cards and savings accounts and currently serves roughly 850,000 customers across its products. The company reports £3 billion in deposits in its savings business, £2 billion in its loans business, £8 billion in loans approved overall, and about 400,000 credit cards in circulation. Revenue has doubled year-over-year and Zopa says it is on track to be profitable for the full year 2023, the first time since it was founded 17 years ago. The firm plans to use new funding to build out additional financial products, acquire assets, and bring on more customers. Management also intends to explore business-targeted products and expand further into payments alongside its existing credit, loan and savings offerings. Zopa notes market growth for loans has slowed to near pre-pandemic levels, but says customer migration to digital services continues to drive volume growth for the company. Zopa operates a savings-focused neobank and a peer-to-peer lending platform, serving roughly 500,000 users in the U.K. The company originated P2P lending and has processed about £6 billion in loans to date. It launched plans to become a bank in 2018 and completed its banking launch last year, building most products in-house rather than via third-party APIs. Zopa is on a run rate of £85 million (~$116 million) and expects that to double to £170 million (~$233 million) by 2022. Management says the business is on track to reach profitability by the end of the year. The company plans to use new funding to expand savings products, develop tools to help consumers pay down credit cards, target solopreneurs with additional products, and pursue partnerships with other fintechs and neobanks.