It’s clear that the incumbent banks are now truly playing catch-up on product, and the world is clearly beginning to demand more transparency and technological advancement from retail banks.
With the unpredictable waters being experienced in most sectors due to coronavirus, does anyone have an opinion on either Monzo searching for a buyer or an acquirer increasing possible previous offers to acquire Monzo.
And what do you think is now the most attractive part of Monzo, is it the rapid customer growth, is it the product, or is it the ethos?
Atom bank might make for a good fit, though unlikely.
They seem to have a clear plan for profitability and seem to be doing well, they also excel greatly at customer support. Meanwhile Monzo has the platform and current account and app they could only dream of.
Revolut are looking for a banking license too, thought doubt their ethos is a good fit for Monzo and they would likely do damage to the brand.
As a cross boarder merger, which would help usher Monzo into the US and perhaps bring about a better product for us in the U.K. too would be Simple. They’re owned by a big bank now so not likely, but given they seem to be the root inspiration for Monzo’s inception suggest they might fit well too.
Maybe even N26
In terms of big tech, Apple would be least likely to tarnish the brand, though I suspect may do away with the name. I wouldn’t like to see Monzo sell out to big data like Amazon or Google though.
I think if Monzo sells, it would only be because of a business failure, or at some point after an IPO.
I think what they would buy is the brand and the customers. Itd most likely be a big bank that could increase its reach and use it to push mortgages to customers, and use the deposits as collateral for that.
I doubt itd be a tech company, I dont think they would have much to bring to the business and banking regulations make selling customer data extremely difficult.
I’d love to see a merger/acquisition with/by Stripe.
They could use Monzo to move up the value chain in the US and Monzo could use their tech chops to vastly accelerate features and compete with other FinTechs (e.g. create a checkout lending product to compete with Klarna, etc.).
No-one wants a brand associated with Millenials (I’ll also add in Gen Z for good measure)!? Of course, corporates are reluctant to be associated with a demographic cohort that will be spending more than any other age group.
When you accept VC money, the clock starts ticking. The VCs need an outsize return and hate zombie companies which are just breaking even, so the pressure is on to deliver a big return in a few years or shut down. Ways to deliver that are being acquired or an IPO (or massive growth to show you’re on the way).
Re promises of no acquisition, Tom being sidelined shows how quickly the script can change - a company has many stakeholders. I hope Monzo thrives though and finds a path to an IPO in a few years.
Unless Microsoft buy Monzo and turn it into Microsoft Money - it’s very unlikely to happen.
It’ll be an interesting game to stay ahead of the curve once the more traditional banks catch up - Monzo still have to take on Credit Cards, Mortgages to be on par with traditional banks products wise, but I honestly don’t see that being Monzo’s vision. Although a credit card would be nice, but that’s a big undertaking