Nationwide invests in BankiFi to boost new business current account
UK-based building society Nationwide has invested in business banking technology firm BankiFi, the latest funding from the financial institution’s £50 million Venturing Fund.
BankiFi provides business with microservices which can connect to banking services via application programming interfaces (APIs). Nationwide plans to launch its own business current account in the future, and plans to implement BankiFi solutions to offer accounting, invoicing, payments, VAT submission, lending and banking services.
Nationwide plans to launch its own business current account
“Nationwide has announced its intention to launch a business current account and we are exploring how we might work with BankiFi to make additional services available for business customers,” says Tony Prestedge, deputy chief executive at Nationwide. “This latest investment will allow us to learn from a start-up that already has experience of the services that businesses want and need, while at the same time sharing our knowledge and expertise from being at the forefront of innovation for over 130 years.”
The £50 million Venturing Fund was launched by Nationwide in June 2018 and was designed to create partnerships and knowledge sharing opportunities. As part of the fund, Nationwide is making strategic investments in and partnering with early stage start-ups “exploring innovative products and services that could provide real benefits for the members in the future.”
“The society continues to invest for the future,” says Prestedge. “Investing in start-ups like BankiFi will help us explore new capabilities and technologies that will help deliver our technology strategy both now and in the future.”
Mark Hartley, Founding Partner at BankiFi, adds: “We truly believe that the value creation in Open Banking centres around the business customer. They deserve financial and banking services that are wrapped around their daily lives, offered by a robust partner that can offer continuity and a flexible approach.”
