Newcastle-based Noggin HQ has closed an oversubscribed £2.3m seed round led by Blackfinch Ventures, taking total funding to roughly £3m, and has secured Financial Conduct Authority authorisation to operate as a credit reference agency — one of only a handful granted in the UK in the past decade.
Noggin HQ was founded by childhood friends Evangeline Atkinson and Laura Mills after both were declined for credit while in full-time work and meeting rent and bills on time. The gap they identified is structural: applicants with thin files, short borrowing histories or time spent living abroad read as risky to legacy scoring models, regardless of what their bank statements show.
The company uses permissioned open banking transaction data to build cashflow-based credit assessments, giving lenders a real-time view of affordability rather than a backward-looking record of past borrowing.
The addressable problem is large. Some 3.2 million UK adults were declined credit in the two years to May 2024.
Blackfinch Ventures led the round, with continued participation from existing backers Oxford Capital and Bethnal Green Ventures alongside a group of sector angels. Among them is Alastair Douglas, former chief executive of TotallyMoney. Valuation and equity split were not disclosed.
The raise follows a £710,000 pre-seed led by Oxford Capital, also with Bethnal Green Ventures. Both existing institutional investors following on at seed is a reasonable signal on the cap table, and keeps early ownership from being heavily reset by the new lead.
The regulatory milestone is arguably the more valuable asset. Credit reference agency authorisation is rarely granted — Noggin HQ is one of a small number of firms to obtain one in ten years — and it allows the company to supply its data directly to FCA-authorised lenders rather than working through an incumbent bureau.
"The UK credit market has changed. Consumers earn, spend and borrow in more complex ways than ever before, but much of the credit referencing infrastructure still reflects an older economy," said Atkinson.
Proceeds will fund the move from pilot deployments into wider commercial adoption with lenders.
David Mott, founder partner at Oxford Capital, said the authorisation was "an important milestone", adding that the team had "the potential to build a category-defining credit infrastructure business from the North East".
Hugh Bartlett, principal at Blackfinch Ventures, said the company's approach helps credit assessment "evolve beyond traditional models".
The deal lands as UK seed funding tightens and fintech investment cools — the sector drew £1.1bn in the first half of 2026 as late-stage cheques thinned. An oversubscribed seed outside London, paired with a licence that is difficult to replicate, makes Noggin HQ an outlier on both counts.
Original source: BusinessCloud — https://businesscloud.co.uk/news/noggin-hq-raises-2-3m-becomes-uks-newest-credit-reference-agency/
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