British challenger bank Monzo is looking to close a $150 million funding round by the end of the year, pushing it into the unicorn league with a $1.5 billion valuation, according to the Financial Times. The new round will include American VC Accel Partners, says the FT, citing sources, and will see Monzo's value more than quadruple from its last funding in November 2017.Monzo has been at the forefront of the UK's challenger bank wave, signing up users at an impressive rate since first launching its prepaid account in 2015. The company now has more than 800,000 current account customers, with some 18,000 joining every week.However, the strong customer numbers have yet to translate to profits, with the startup last year posting a £33 million pre-tax loss on revenues of just £1.8 million.According to the FT, the new funding will be used to roll out new products such as short-term unsecured loans. The bank has also previously expressed interest in a US launch.
Challenger bank Monzo has ambitions to close a $150m funding round by the end of 2018, with the aim of reaching a $1.5bn valuation. The British company is looking to expand to the United States, and is also working on new services, such as offering short-term unsecured loans to its 800,000 users. It is adding about 18,000 account holders every week. In an interview last week, Mr McClure said that he was “very bullish” on Monzo, which had raised $200m in venture capital from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, SV Angel, Index Ventures