Goldman Sachs has invested £50 million into the digital unicorn Starling Bank, bringing the new total raised in the bank’s Series D funding round to £322 million.
The digital bank stated that the new funding will help its continued rapid and now profitable growth.
“Goldman Sachs will bring valuable insight as we continue with the expansion of lending in the UK, as well as our European expansion and anticipated M&A,” said Anne Boden, founder and CEO of the bank.
James Hayward, managing director at Goldman Sachs, called Starling one of the most innovative digital banks in the country that is addressing a deep market opportunity.
“We are delighted to be supporting their growth with this investment and believe the company has sustainable long-term earnings potential,” he said.
Starling Bank became the UK’s latest unicorn in March after becoming the 10th fintech firm to surpass the $1 billion mark. The £272 million funding round, which took it’s valuation up to £1.1 billion, was led by Fidelity Investments and included financial input from Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund.
The bank is one of the fastest-growing in the UK and has opened over two million accounts since it started in 2017. The company highlighted that this included over 300,000 small business accounts.
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This comes after news that the UK government has established a special taskforce to explore the launch of a UK central bank digital currency (CBDC). The new state-backed currency would function alongside traditional currencies, allowing payments to be made using digital payments issued by the Bank of England.
The announcement arrived as part of a wider package of measures the government is set to introduce in order to boost the UK’s fintech and financial services industry. It will found a Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology and also introduce the second phase of its Digital Sandbox where companies can test concepts that address climate change and sustainability-related issues.
