Monzo co-founder quits fintech bank – to farm alpacas
Monzo co-founder Paul Rippon has quit the UK challenger bank he helped begin so he can spend his time farming alpacas.
Rippon, a veteran of the banking sector who has also worked at Starling Bank, will leave his role as deputy chief executive of Monzo “to go and enjoy life” with his alpacas.
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In a Linkedin post, Rippon said:
At 48 years young I’ve been working in financial services for 27 years and working away from home for the last 8 years. Building a fast growing bank takes its toll and even reducing my ‘work hours’ didn’t reduce the cognitive and emotional overhead.
He said that during that time his wife Debbie had built another business from scratch – Barnacre Alpacas.
“With no farming background or experience we now have over 300 alpacas and welcome many visitors to our farm and holiday cottages,” Rippon proudly announced.
“For the next few weeks and months I’m going to enjoy some time with Debbie at our wonderful farm in Northumberland,” he said.
For any Monzo fans who want to make the trip, Rippon said: “You’ll find me doing the feed rounds, hosting alpaca walk ’n’ talks and driving my tractor.”
The banker will also set aside a day a week for coaching and consulting after April.
“The rest of the time will be reserved for Debbie, our alpaca farm and enjoying life,” he added.
Rippon co-founded Monzo in 2015 with chief executive Tom Blomfield and was a central part of Monzo’s success in getting a banking licence.
Today he called his time at Monzo “an exciting and demanding journey”.
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“Along the way I led our fast and successful banking licence application, hired many exceptional people, led several areas of the company,” Rippon explained.
Prior to life at Monzo, Rippon worked at Anne Boden’s Starling Bank after stints at Natwest, Northern Rock and AIB.
A Monzo spokesperson told City PM: “Paul is a huge part of Monzo’s story and we couldn’t have got to this point without him – we’ll miss him very much!”