Advent International has registered interest in buying a minority stake in Monzo, giving the digital bank a second route to a valuation of £8bn or more alongside takeover talks with Brazil's Nu Holdings that could value it at up to £10bn.
Monzo now has three live options on the table. According to Sky News, the London-based bank is negotiating a potential sale to Nubank's parent, Nu Holdings, while holding preliminary conversations with Advent about a minority investment and weighing a fresh primary round priced above £8bn to fund European expansion.
Bankers close to the process indicated that the Advent route is a fallback, likely to progress only if the Nubank talks stall. Monzo, Nubank and Advent all declined to comment.
The price gap
Any of the three routes would mark a sharp step up from Monzo's last reference price. The bank was valued at £4.5bn in an October 2024 secondary sale that allowed employees to sell shares to incoming investors.
A £10bn takeover would be worth more than double that mark. At the lower end of the reported £8bn–£10bn range, the uplift would still be close to 78%.
Nubank is expected to pay with a mix of cash and its own shares. The Brazilian group has a stock market value of about $66bn, reported second-quarter net income of $1.1bn and had 139 million customers across Brazil, Mexico and Colombia at the end of June. A part-share consideration would leave some Monzo investors holding New York-listed Nu stock rather than taking a full cash exit.
The numbers behind the bid
Monzo's latest accounts give buyers a profitable business to price. In the year to 31 March 2026, revenue rose 39% to £1.7bn. Adjusted profit before tax increased 20% to £172.6m, while statutory pre-tax profit climbed to £87.3m from £60.5m a year earlier.
The bank added about 3 million customers over the year and now serves more than 16 million. It employs more than 5,000 people. Chief executive Diana Layfield is leading the business through the process, with Morgan Stanley and Qatalyst named as advisers.
Advent manages more than $100bn in assets and has recently shown an appetite for large fintech deals, including exploring a bid for PayPal that was reported at $53bn.
What it means for the cap table
A Nubank deal would end Monzo's long-trailed route to a public listing. The bank had been lining up a potential float of about £6bn. A sale would instead give its venture and growth backers, employee shareholders and early crowdfunding investors a trade-sale exit priced well above any recent round.
An Advent minority stake or a new round would keep Monzo independent. It would also reset the price for existing holders at a level that could support a later IPO.
The next test is whether Nubank firms up terms. Until it does, Advent's interest gives Monzo's board a price floor and extra leverage in the talks.
Original source: Sky News — https://news.sky.com/story/buyout-firm-advent-eyes-monzo-stake-amid-10bn-nubank-bid-talks-13592377
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