London-based ClearBank, the largest next-generation clearing and embedded banking platform in the UK, announced on Monday that it has raised £175M (nearly €208.41M) in a fresh round of funding.
The round was led by funds advised by Apax Digital, the growth equity arm of Apax. Existing investors CFFI UK Ventures (Barbados) Ltd and PPF Financial Holdings BV also participated.
Niccolo Ferragamo, Principal at Apax Digital, says “Combining a banking license with a modern, agile and scalable embedded banking infrastructure is hard. Doing it at scale, and while delivering exceptional customer satisfaction, is truly special. ClearBank has been quietly building the clear next generation leader in the UK on all key metrics, and we are thrilled to continue innovating the category together.”
Capital utilisation
ClearBank says the funds will help accelerate the global expansion of its clearing and embedded banking offering, initially in Europe, before moving into North America and the Asia Pacific.
Besides, ClearBank also plans to expand its range of products and services to include direct API-based access to interbank payment schemes such as SEPA, enhanced multi-currency accounts, and additional FX services. This will help support existing customers in scaling internationally and acquiring new customers in multiple markets.
Charles McManus, CEO at ClearBank, says, “Over the last five years we have demonstrated the success of our business model and through our work with leading financial service providers, helped to both unlock their potential and bring about positive and meaningful change for UK businesses and consumers.”
“Our revenue growth is proof of the momentum we have been gathering since 2017. It is this proof point and our transformative effect on access to banking services, traditionally a space characterised by high barriers to entry, which has given us the credibility to partner with and deliver seamless and secure embedded banking for financial institutions, powerful fintech disrupters and government bodies alike. The next challenge is delivering this innovation globally. To achieve this, we needed a strategic partner with the right cultural fit, sector expertise and geographic experience, something we found in Apax Digital,” adds McManus.
Fastest-growing UK tech company according to Deloitte
Launched in 2017, ClearBank is a purpose-built clearing and embedded banking platform. Through its banking licence and technology solutions, ClearBank enables its partners to offer real-time payment and banking services to their customers.
The company claims to be the only next-gen payments provider with direct access to all banking payment schemes in the UK (e.g. Faster Payments, BACS, CHAPS). As a regulated bank, ClearBank manages transactions end-to-end from order transmission to settlement, liquidity management, and clearing.
The firm provides over 13 million accounts to the customers of financial brands. It is also the only platform providing bank accounts with FSCS deposit protection at scale, bringing embedded banking services to the mass market. This product offering is complemented by a range of related value-added services, including FX and multi-currency accounts.
ClearBank’s end-to-end offering of regulated financial services is accessed via a single API to a cloud-native software platform, which delivers speed and efficiency. It also enables innovation, including settling payments between customers on the ClearBank platform instantaneously, removing friction and lowering cost.
As a cloud-native bank, the platform offers ‘industry-leading’ uptime with no downtime for maintenance, unlimited scalability and elasticity, and triple real-time redundancy. Operationally, ClearBank has built a financially sustainable and highly scalable, low risk, business model, with all its £3B of deposits held securely at the Bank of England.
Recent growth and development
ClearBank has witnessed massive growth and has been recognised as the #1 fastest growing tech company in Deloitte’s 2021 UK Technology Fast 50 awards together with the 2021 Card & Payments Award for Best Service. This combination has led to a customer base of over 200 financial institutions and fintechs, including Tide, Coinbase, Chip, and Oaknorth Bank.
ClearBank also claims that it is the only financial services provider to be awarded two grants, totalling £85M, from the Banking and Competition Remedies (BCR) fund in delivering competition and innovation to UK SMEs.
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