Monzo is exploring a new funding round that would value the digital bank at about £7.5bn, according to the Financial Times. That is £500m below the £8bn it sought from buyout firms, but roughly 67% above the £4.5bn set in its 2024 employee share sale.
The move is Monzo's third attempt this autumn to set a new price for the 16-million-customer bank. Brazil's Nubank held early talks about a cash-and-shares takeover valued at between £8bn and £10bn, but said at the end of September that it would not proceed. The two sides reportedly could not agree on value.
Monzo then turned to private equity. Advent International, TPG and CVC were among the groups discussing a minority stake of up to 15%, with the bank aiming for an £8bn valuation. Those talks have also stalled. People familiar with the process told the FT that the board had preferred a buyout or private equity deal, because either would have raised more money than a primary round.
The numbers behind the price
Monzo reported revenue of £1.7bn for the year to March 2026, up 39%. Statutory pre-tax profit rose to £87.3m from £60.5m. At £7.5bn, a new round would value the bank at about 86 times statutory pre-tax profit, according to calculations by Tech Funding News.
Revolut is the obvious benchmark. Its latest share sale valued it at $115bn, about 50 times its 2025 pre-tax profit of $2.3bn. At current exchange rates, Monzo's target of about $10bn is less than a tenth of its rival's valuation, against roughly a fifth of Revolut's 80 million customers.
The size of the round, its lead investor and whether it would include secondary shares have not been disclosed.
Who decides
The decision now rests largely with Monzo's existing institutional backers, including Accel, Iconiq, CapitalG and Singapore's GIC. They must decide whether to invest at a price close to the one buyout firms would not pay. A takeover would have priced the whole company, while a minority round prices only the new shares. Even so, the gap will be noted by later-stage investors across UK fintech.
What's next
Monzo has said it wants capital to expand in Europe. It launched in Ireland in April, closed its US business the same month and entered Spain in October. The bank employs about 5,275 people. Diana Layfield, a former Google executive, replaced TS Anil as group chief executive earlier this year.
A London listing, with Morgan Stanley lined up as lead bank, was the original plan and remains an option. A completed round at £7.5bn would set the price for any future float.
Original source: Financial Times, via Tech Funding News — https://techfundingnews.com/monzo-7-5bn-funding-round-nubank-talks-collapse/
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