Monzo - Shares Crowdfunding
Discussion
Morning all,
Had a few messages over the last few days from friends who are thinking about investing in Monzo, they are doing a crowdfunding run today.
Currently reading through the prospectus - caveat I am a customer of Monzo and use the banking.
Anybody else looking to invest? Thoughts?
No way of selling the shares, relatively high number of shares in existence already, but high growth plans.
Had a few messages over the last few days from friends who are thinking about investing in Monzo, they are doing a crowdfunding run today.
Currently reading through the prospectus - caveat I am a customer of Monzo and use the banking.
Anybody else looking to invest? Thoughts?
No way of selling the shares, relatively high number of shares in existence already, but high growth plans.
I like the company and how they work, and am a customer so I’m going to chuck a little bit in, but only as much as I’m willing to lose.
You don’t know IF or when they’ll end up floating, and I doubt there would be a private buy out, so I’d imagine you’re looking at 4+ years at least.
I’m also a bit unsure about the crowdfunding element... £20million isn’t a huge amount to raise through private equity, and they’ve gone to the public. I’m hoping it’s being crowdsourced to be inclusive for its customers to be involved, rather than because PE weren’t interested.
You don’t know IF or when they’ll end up floating, and I doubt there would be a private buy out, so I’d imagine you’re looking at 4+ years at least.
I’m also a bit unsure about the crowdfunding element... £20million isn’t a huge amount to raise through private equity, and they’ve gone to the public. I’m hoping it’s being crowdsourced to be inclusive for its customers to be involved, rather than because PE weren’t interested.
Do they have a USP? Seems to be an ever crowded market place with Monzo, Revolut, starling, N26, Caxton etc already in place and seemingly more coming to the market.
I’ve got a Monzo account and also have a Revolut one, a TransferWise account and a few others. I can’t see how one betters the other to be honest. My aim was to try and have a seemless account to use around the world but frankly none of them seem to have bettered each other with various limits on withdrawals, or average exchange rates. Frankly I’m better off using either my euro account directly, or nationwide or Santander accounts with free withdrawals (albeit conversion rates well below that of transferwise).
I’ve got a Monzo account and also have a Revolut one, a TransferWise account and a few others. I can’t see how one betters the other to be honest. My aim was to try and have a seemless account to use around the world but frankly none of them seem to have bettered each other with various limits on withdrawals, or average exchange rates. Frankly I’m better off using either my euro account directly, or nationwide or Santander accounts with free withdrawals (albeit conversion rates well below that of transferwise).
Monzo are looking to expand into the US. Typically the graveyard of foreign banks and it already has a bunch of challenger banks in the US that it will be competing against. In addition they are going to be squeezed by Starling, N26 and the existing banks who are slowly moving towards a more internet based solution.
I was thinking of having a punt but given the above I am not entirely sure they will be around in 5 years. More and more banking services are becoming bolt on's from third party companies making entry to the market easier. They have one million people that have accounts yet I am sure that I read that around 25% of them have their salary paid into their account. 250,000 customers isn't a big pool of people to target for financial services. And the one billion dollar valuation is laughable.
I was thinking of having a punt but given the above I am not entirely sure they will be around in 5 years. More and more banking services are becoming bolt on's from third party companies making entry to the market easier. They have one million people that have accounts yet I am sure that I read that around 25% of them have their salary paid into their account. 250,000 customers isn't a big pool of people to target for financial services. And the one billion dollar valuation is laughable.
Monzo gives a better exchange rate, if you are travelling a lot. (I think?)
Last summer, I've compared the usage of my monzo and barclaycard in Turkey and Spain. Monzo gave a better exchange rate somehow.
I will also definitely invest in monzo, a small amount..
By the look of it -brexit and the usual retail banks situation-, if everything all go tits next year march-april than monzo would be a great alternative.
Last summer, I've compared the usage of my monzo and barclaycard in Turkey and Spain. Monzo gave a better exchange rate somehow.
I will also definitely invest in monzo, a small amount..
By the look of it -brexit and the usual retail banks situation-, if everything all go tits next year march-april than monzo would be a great alternative.
Edited by ooid on Thursday 6th December 13:42
Greshamst said:
£20million isn’t a huge amount to raise through private equity, and they’ve gone to the public. I’m hoping it’s being crowdsourced to be inclusive for its customers to be involved, rather than because PE weren’t interested.
Getting money from PE or really VC in this case comes with all sorts of awkward strings attached like having their people on your Board of Directors and generally taking an interest in whether your business makes money or not. Customers don't bother with all of those safeguards and are happy to part with their money without control rights.anonymous said:
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Because it would cost a bank around 750 million to buy a platform that has attracted 1 million customers (only about 25% of those are what you would call active). Each customer they have just acquired has cost them £750 which is a hell of a lot of money. The things that Monzo have built could be achieved at a much lower cost than just buying them with Monzo.
750 Million for the development team and IP? I am not sure they have a great deal of IP that would be worth that value, what you see in their app can be achieved with the existing payment system rails that the banks already have, alternatively the bank could easily identify the key players and just poach them to create a new team.
Older banks could buy Monzo not just for their customer base. The beauty of Monzo behind the scenes is that it’s built from scratch using the latest tech allowing them to build new features much more quickly than older banks, who are struggling with ancient legacy platforms that are hard to iterate on. That’s why I invested the full £2k in Monzo. I think it’s a massive selling point that few investors understand.
Tebbers said:
Older banks could buy Monzo not just for their customer base. The beauty of Monzo behind the scenes is that it’s built from scratch using the latest tech allowing them to build new features much more quickly than older banks, who are struggling with ancient legacy platforms that are hard to iterate on. That’s why I invested the full £2k in Monzo. I think it’s a massive selling point that few investors understand.
Monzo have done a great job building a slick app but they use a bunch of commodity services to service that app. Their processing platform (card payments) is provided by Global Processing Services and they have partnered with TransferWise for foreign payments and I would assume they are using someone like gocardless to send payments within the UK.All of those vendors will have API's that anyone can take and build. Apple / Google and payment networks all provide services that Monzo will plug into.
They really have got the user experience part right with the app signup and general usage but a lot of the unique things they had are now appearing in other banking apps so they are losing advantage all the time.
They have invited me to invite my friends with a free £10 gift on the app. Giving money away to acquire new customers I think is never a good sign.
I will stay as a customer, passing on the investment.
ooid said:
I still can not understand, why people fail to see the "exchange rate" advantage of monzo? Has anyone used Monzo overseas, let's say in Japan or U.S.A. ? It does give really big advantage on big purchases.
A Halifax Clarity credit card does exactly the same, with the protection of a credit card over a debit card, and their website is also truly terrible at actually advertising what is better about Monzo. It simply repeats that Monzo is a 'better bank', without explaining how. There is little to make someone want to sign up IMO.
Tebbers said:
Older banks could buy Monzo not just for their customer base. The beauty of Monzo behind the scenes is that it’s built from scratch using the latest tech allowing them to build new features much more quickly than older banks, who are struggling with ancient legacy platforms that are hard to iterate on. That’s why I invested the full £2k in Monzo. I think it’s a massive selling point that few investors understand.
You don't think the big banks see the threat? Most could probably stand up their own standalone brand in 9-12months. RBS has "Bo" launching in 2019 and I believe HSBC also has Iceberg. I'm sure there are others in the works.Gassing Station | Finance | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff