Goldman Sachs invests £50M in Anne Boden founded Starling Bank

Anne Boden

Starling Bank, the UK digital bank which is the fastest-growing bank for SMEs in Europe has received £50 million as an extension to the bank’s oversubscribed £272 million Series D funding round last month.

The investment into Starling Bank came from Goldman Sachs Growth Equity. With this round, the overall Series D funding raised accounts to £322 million and values the company in excess of £1.1 billion pre-money. This fund will support Starling’s continued, rapid and now profitable growth.

Anne Boden, founder and CEO of Starling Bank, said: “Securing the support of another global financial heavyweight demonstrates the strength of demand from investors and represents yet another vote of confidence in Starling. Goldman Sachs will bring valuable insight as we continue with the expansion of lending in the UK, as well as our European expansion and anticipated M&A.”

James Hayward, managing director at Goldman Sachs, said: “Starling is one of the leading and most innovative digital banks in the UK, with an ambitious technology-first leadership team and addressing a deep market opportunity. We are delighted to be supporting their growth with this investment and believe the company has sustainable long-term earnings potential.”

Rapid growth in a year

Founded in 2017 by Anne Boden, Starling Bank has more than two million current accounts including 350,000 business accounts. Its deposit base has increased from approximately £1 billion to now more than £6 billion. It holds a 6% share of the UK’s SME banking market. Starling Bank is prepping to report its first full year in profit by the end of its next financial year-end.

Earlier this year, Funding Options joined forces with UK’s digital bank Starling Bank to deliver business-critical access to finance as SMEs across the UK rebuild following a turbulent year. The partnership is very positive for the UK SME finance sector with the challenger bank having issued more than £2 billion of government-backed loans during the pandemic with two-thirds of recipients outside London. It has ambitious plans to grow its SME account base in the UK market over the next five years.