Countingup on the up with £2.3m seed funding
UK-based challenger bank Countingup has raised a £2.3 million seed funding round led by Forward Partners with participation from Frontline Ventures and JamJar Investments.
It now counts 4,000 small businesses as its customers
The London-based firm offers an app that allows small businesses to do their banking, bookkeeping and taxes.
According to the start-up, its features have been built in the ten-month period since it closed its first funding round last year in October 2017. It plans to use its investment to ramp up development of these features.
Tim Fouracre, the founder and CEO of Countingup, says: “Combining accounting and banking into one single product simplifies running your business. It saves time and takes away the pain and hassle of tax and compliance.”
Refreshingly, Countingup does offer some stats to depict where it’s at now. It has 4,000 small business customers; has £18 million transactions processed; and £2 million in customer deposits.
Small businesses can open a business current account on their smartphone. The account comes with a UK sort code and account number and a contactless Mastercard.
Following a hiring round, it says most of the people for its growth plans have been recruited.
Fouracre adds: “We’re now looking ahead to our Series A as we’re growing at an incredible rate. 1,500 small businesses are joining us every month and this recent funding puts us on a path to be at 10k customers rapidly.”
The challenger also reckons there are 5.7 million businesses in the UK that need it. It cites the HMRC plans to require the digitalisation of small business record keeping with its “Making Tax Digital initiative”.
Countingup was started in September 2017 by Fouracre. He qualified as a chartered accountant at KPMG in 2007. He also founded cloud accounting software company Clear Books in 2008 and was its CEO for nine years.
If you enjoy counting, then check out this long list of UK challenger banks here.
