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 didnāt apply in first round but are applying in second. (According to responses in linked thread
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.
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.
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 Monzoās 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 āchallenger 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 wouldnāt get a tiny proportion, youād get about Ā£100,000,000! 
I completely agree with almost everything you sayā¦
But would it be a 180 or a 360? 
All I can think of with a 360 would be the Monzo business team doing this in their team meetingā¦
Ha! Just imagine him saying āwe have no interest whatsoever in offering business accountsā, doing the flip and then saying āweād love to offer business accountsā and thereās your 360
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?
āEarlier this year Metro Bank, Starling Bank and Clearbank shared a Ā£280m in the grantās 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:
This topic was automatically closed 180 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.