Did Monzo ever get any cash?

I know there has been some controversy over the Starling handout as the CEO and the person deciding where the cash goes are apparently friends

But I know Monzo was looking to apply for this to help there Business accounts - I wondered if there was any news?

Monzo didnā€™t apply in first round but are applying in second. (According to responses in linked thread

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Yeah I read that just was curious if there was a reason Monzo wasnt in the first one?

Or why they didnt apply for the first round?

I think the first round was for entrants that already had a business account launched at point of application, but I might be completely wrong about that.

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I think when applications were open for the first round Monzo were still concentrating on the Current Account and the Joint Account, and so they started developing a Business Account after first round applications closed.

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That makes sense thank you

It does feel like they completely missed the boat on this first round of awards.

If I recall, Monzo had no interest in building a business account as it would be a distraction from their core gameplan, however they only recently did a 360 when they realised they could get some serious free money if they pursued it. But it seems their U-turn was a little late for them to be included in the first (and main) handout.

Poorly advised perhaps? Too cash rich to care enough about a small handout with strings attached? Certainly compared to Starling who seem to be well in the know and timed everything perfectly to be included in every category.

I wonder if Monzoā€™s perceived ignorance on this huge potential windfall can be put down to assuming that it would have been far less than Ā£100m? At the time they would have needed to make the decision it was speculated that Santander, Metro, TSB and Co-op were all in the hat - over Ā£50bn of ā€œchallenger bankā€ all with established business bank accounts vying for Ā£700m of cash - surely a tiny startup like Monzo would only get a tiny proportion of that if they threw together an MVP?

Well it turns out that no, you wouldnā€™t get a tiny proportion, youā€™d get about Ā£100,000,000! :astonished:

I completely agree with almost everything you sayā€¦

But would it be a 180 or a 360? :joy:

All I can think of with a 360 would be the Monzo business team doing this in their team meetingā€¦

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Ha! Just imagine him saying ā€œwe have no interest whatsoever in offering business accountsā€, doing the flip and then saying ā€œweā€™d love to offer business accountsā€ and thereā€™s your 360

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Looks like Monzo missed out on the latest round with Nationwide getting Ā£50m and Investec & Co-Op getting Ā£15m each:

https://www.ft.com/content/1b2d40c6-7613-11e9-be7d-6d846537acab

Interesting since Starling got the largest sum in the last round and I would say they were very similar banks (I know the criteria was a little different for the two funding rounds) but both Starling and Monzo are very similar in terms of how they operate as a business

All is not lost?

ā€œEarlier this year Metro Bank, Starling Bank and Clearbank shared a Ā£280m in the grantā€™s first round of funding. The BCR will hand out two further grant pools worth Ā£50m later this yearā€

Monzo are still carrying on regardless too. The discussion about it is over here:

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