Glint, a London-based fintech startup that enables users to store, spend and save their wealth in gold, has gone into administration, leaving customers high and dry.
By using the Glint iOS app and the Glint Mastercard, Glint clients were able to make everyday payments by debit card in multiple currencies specified by the user at the point of sale.
Glint is authorised and regulated by the UK’s FCA with clients’ money stored in segregated bank accounts.
In a statement on its Website, the FCA cautions that customer funds held by Glint are not protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
Joint administrators Jason Daniel Baker and Geoffrey Paul Rowley of FRP Advisory say they have been advised by Glint's management team that all customer funds are fully reconciled, accounted for and protected.
Says Baker: “Following a dispute with the secured creditor, the board were unable to secure sufficient funding in time to repay the outstanding loan.
“As Joint Administrators our priority is now to undertake the reconciliation exercise as quickly as possible to confirm the position in relation to customer funds. We will also be working with the board in seeking investment to rescue the Companies and exit Administration, failing which to achieve a transfer of the business and assets to an appropriately regulated entity”
Glint, which raised £6.1 million in capital to support the launch, with backers including NEC Capital Solutions, Tokyo Commodity Exchange, Bray Capital and a number of prominent angel investors, moved out of public beta in November 2017.
In July this year it sought to raise £1.25 million in a crowdfunding exercise as part of a Series A financing of £15 million. Within weeks the firm set up an operation in Boulder, Colorado and launched the account in the US.
At the time, Glint said the app had achieved more than 50,000 app downloads, 10’s of thousands of registered users and more than USD $50 million in transacted volume.