UK banking startup Mondo - established by a team who flew the nest at fledgeling challenger Starling - is to meet with the Bank of England on Wednesday to make its case for approval for a full banking license after raising £2 million in funding from Passion Capital.
Mondo has been set up by Tom Blomfield, a co-founder of fintech startup GoCardless, who quit Starling in February to build a rival service with other departing executives CFO Gary Dolman, chief risk officer Paul Rippon, and customer experience expert Jason Bates.
The company is currently testing its prototype pre-paid smartphone account, which comes with a debit card and PFM features, with a handful of users from its office space in Clerkenwell which it shares with Passion Capital.
“Passion Capital have invested £2 million, and we’ll be looking to raise around £15-20 million before our full launch — this will be dictated by the Bank of England’s regulatory capital requirements,” Blomfield tells TechCrunch.
Assuming its gets the green-light from the central bank, the company expects to start a limited beta trial within the next few weeks before a full-scale launch in 2016.
Beyond that, Mondo is thinking big. "Thanks to EU single-market rules, we can passport this licence across Europe, although we’ll focus on getting the UK right first," says Blomfield.