Moneyhub eyes London IPO after £35m cash injection
Fintech firm Moneyhub said it was eyeing up a London listing today as it bagged a £35m cash injection from investors including Legal & General and Lloyds Banking Group.
Moneyhub, which uses data to help firms conduct affordability and eligibility checks on customers, said it had secured the fresh equity funding alongside £5m debt financing from Shawbrook Bank.
Lead investors L&G and Lloyds will now take minority stakes in the business, Moneyhub said, as they begin rolling out the firm’s technology across their businesses. It declined to disclose the exact size of the two stakes.
The firm’s chief Sam Seaton told City PM today that taking the funding from British investors was seen as integral as it eyes a shift onto London’s markets in future.
“We particularly wanted to take the British backers actually, for a British founded company to have a British Board,” she told City PM
“I know that sounds a bit odd, but so many of the British startups end up IPO-ing in the States. And that’s because the boards ended up getting filled with investment backing from the States.”
She added that the company had taken the funding with a view that a London IPO was coming down the track, although timelines had not yet been confirmed.
A London-listing for Moneyhub would be a boon to the City after London’s markets have been snubbed by some of the country’s most promising tech and fintech firms in recent years. Founders and investors often favour New York’s Nasdaq due to a perceived deeper pool of investors and the ability to fetch higher valuations at floatation.
Digital bank Atom was among the firms said to be eyeing a listing on the Nasdaq exchange over London earlier this year, while ministers and politicians have been on a charm offensive to try and tempt chip giant SoftBank to the Square Mile.
Moneyhub is eyeing a shift onto the public markets after it said it had seen an uptick in interest from customers and investors in recent months, as businesses look to streamline and tighten processes like affordability checks amid a cost of living crunch.