Ex-Barclays CEO’s start-up gets backing from China’s Ping An
Somewhere, and some place, Antony Jenkins is saying “Uber moment” again
10X Future Technologies, the start-up founded by ex-Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins last year, will announce this week that it has raised more than £30 million in funding from Ping An Insurance and management consulting firm Oliver Wyman, according to Sky News.
The deal will speed up 10X’s expansion, and is good news for Jenkins’ ambitions. Sources said “that the partnership with China’s second-largest insurer would help 10X to expand in Asia – a key target region for the fintech company”.
As Banking Technology previously reported, 10X’s new platform combines software applications with a cloud infrastructure. It will offer core software for products such as mortgages, credit cards, loans, savings and current accounts; and uses API technology to bring systems together into a single network.
Its first corporate client, announced last year, is Virgin Money, with a new digital offer likely to launch from the bank backed by the enigmatic recluse Sir (how did he get that?) Richard Branson in 2018.
Since leaving Barclays in 2015, Jenkins has been a critic (I wonder why) of banks’ “antiquated” IT systems and warned that the industry is facing an “Uber moment” (we hear that all the time – give it a rest) in terms of disruption by “more nimble competitors”.
In addition to 10X, Jenkins chairs Currencies Direct, the foreign exchange group, and Business in the Community. So he’s not short of money.
A spokesman for 10X declined to comment to Sky News. I wouldn’t really worry about it. When Banking Technology asked 10X specific questions about its platform in October 2016, 10X (eventually) responded that it was in “advanced” talks with a number of potential, but unnamed, “major” clients. Really worth the wait for that gem.
