According to a person familiar with the matter, Starling is looking to raise around GBP 80 million in additional capital from new investors. To assist in the process, the company is hiring a new international advisory firm, pointing to an investor search that potentially goes beyond the U.K. and could include large international institutional investors.
The need for Starling to increase its capital is thought to be related to the bank’s bid to be one of the recipients of the Capability and Innovation fund, which was set up by Royal Bank of Scotland to fulfill European state aid conditions arising from the bank’s GBP 45 billion UK government bailout during the financial crisis.
The fund will be split into different grants to help “challenger banks and other financial services providers” diversify and develop their business current account offerings for small and medium-sized enterprises.
TechCrunch also reports that the bank has dropped its previously announced partnership with fintech unicorn TransferWise.
Back in March 2017, the two companies issued a joint press release detailing the partnership that would have given Starling customers “direct, in-app access” to TransferWise’s international money transfer service.
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