Another interesting fintech crowdfunding at the moment. They’re looking at combining accountancy services with a bank account for small business which auto-classifies expenses.
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There was a £200k investment from 7 percent ventures which pushed it to overfunding, see comment.
There’s a lot of competition emerging in the SME current account space. RBS announced Mettel today, which is very similar and presumably incorporates FreeAgent ( aquired by RBS last year ). Mettel, like Coconut have also partnered with Paypay Solutions which is a MasterCard company.
Worth checking out the Discussions in the pitch, Sam ( Coconut CEO ) has left detailed responses to most of the queries.
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I’ve not pre registered for Mettel.
There was a message which mentioned the share price but that was moderated. I’m guessing this happened because the quoted share price wasn’t accurate… I hope they revisit the discussion and post the share price, they should already know the price given Crowdcube include it in their due diligence email.
Edit - They’ve updated the share price discussion and have said they’ll “share exactly what the share price is before close.”
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I love the idea and think it’s super useful.
However, if they’re utilisi g API from the government, why can this not just be incorporated into an existing bank? Or into the Monzo/Starling marketplace as an add on?
I see that as a major risk to their business model.
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I’d agree! App looks good and it sounds like it’s useful now, but uncertain future if there are no more tax returns as they’ve been replaced by “Digital tax accounts, which the government hopes will offer taxpayers a complete picture of their tax position at any given time.”
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.ft.com/content/f5547c98-becd-11e5-9fdb-87b8d15baec2
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If you mean Making Tax Digital then HMRC will start with VAT payments from April 2019 but to start with this will require third party software.
Additionally the HMRC APIs for this are still work in progress, a few of the key endpoints are still in beta.
I think the bigger risk is how Open Banking API ( when it matures ) will let existing accounting packages work with any current account to automate aspects of book keeping .
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I think the interests of companies (less tax) will always be opposed to HMRC (more tax) so I don’t see accountants going away as an advice service. So accountants will always be useful, but this eliminates lots of the dull uninteresting accounting work that accountants currently overcharge for. That work will definitely go away one way or another. Not convinced hmrc will ever be slick enough for company taxes though. Personal tax yes sure, company tax is more complex and contingent on business details.
Re integration into an existing bank, absolutely, this can and will happen, but this is run by accountants so I think the bank side is less necessary to them, they might end up being an integration for Monzo too, and that would be ok. I suspect offering financial advice is far more lucrative than being a business bank.
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Did anybody else invest in Coconut?
I only invested £200. I’ve received my share certificate today and have this many shares:
Is this right?
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Their share price was 0.015349p according to the legal review.
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Ah right
So in that case it is correct
Thanks for that 
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I invested £10 in the company for 650 shares 
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Funny isn’t it, I’m not used to having 13,000 shares in something
Feel rich 
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I think we have many in this community who run a business.
I have a few questions and hope someone would answer
- Is this account useful?
- Does it solve existing problems with business accounts?
- And competition
Thanks
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I would worry about coconut now Monzo are launching business accounts. FSCS protection has great value to a lot of customers
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Coconut more focused on accounting services rather than current account. I think this area has good potential. In next few years lot of big players would like to have these services and potentially acquisition target
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I think we have many in this community who run a business. I have a few questions and hope someone would answer.
Is this account useful?
I think it is yes - one of the problem accountants have is getting details of payments/expenses from clients. One of the problem people running small businesses have is identifying expenses which qualify.
Does it solve existing problems with business accounts?
See above. It solves accounting problems more than business bank account problems. Frankly I don’t think small businesses have many bank account problems apart from annoying fees and unresponsive managers.
And competition
Mostly more traditional business banking (I get the feeling that’s what Monzo will target, and it is what Starling has targeted), but this is going in a very different direction - meaning you won’t need separate accounting software and possibly won’t need a separate accountant. I might try it out this year - I’ve opened an account and like what I see so far. The UI is far superior to Starling IMO - it’s something more like Tide, but with more of an accounting bent.
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The typical answer of players like Tide or Coconut who use PrePay Solutions for the card and a partner bank to this worry is that they hold money in a client account which is covered by FCA rules, but I agree it is a concern, particularly if the business keeps large amounts of cash on hand.
Long term I can see coconut integrating via open banking with a bunch of more traditional accounts, or selling out to a larger bank like monzo who want to get up to speed on business banking. Will be interesting to see how they navigate these waters though.
Just got this email from Coconut, some nice things happening …
We have some big product updates this month which I’m excited to tell you about. Keep reading and you’ll also find a little preview of what’s in the pipeline.
Introducing: The Coconut Accountant Portal
65% of Coconut customers either have an accountant or are thinking about using one, so we wanted to make it as easy as possible for you to work together with them.
We’ve been working closely with accountants to create our new Accountant Portal. Through the Portal, your accountant can view transactions, export transaction data and mange all of their Coconut clients in one place - and we’re just getting started with features that will help them to help you.
You can share access with your accountant by going to the “More” tab in the app. And if you want to learn more about how our Accountant Portal can help you work better with your accountant, check out our blog:
If you’re an accountant, you can learn more and [sign up for access here]
Our Grow plan is now Live!
As many of you will have noticed, we recently launched our first paid plan: Grow . Designed for people using Coconut to run their full-time business, it’s got everything you need to streamline your business admin.
The plan includes unlimited invoicing and free foreign exchange on card payments abroad.
Coming soon…
Here’s a quick preview of what’s [in the pipeline]
Invoicing Upgrades
Since launching our invoicing tools at the start of the year our customers have sent over 5000 invoices. We’ve taken your feedback and working on a few little updates we think you’ll like:
- Edit sent invoices: In case you agree changes with your client.
- Resend invoices: If you need to send them somewhere else.
- Duplicate invoices: So you can create your client’s next invoice easily.
Keep track of VAT
We’re going through final testing of our VAT functionality so if you’re registered, you’ll be able to record VAT on your income and expenses. We’re also working on supporting [Making Tax Digital for VAT]
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Happy with my crowdfunding investment
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Loving it so far - especially the in-app invoicing so I can finally keep track on the go rather than forgetting just what hours I’ve done on ad hoc freelancing.
Looking forward to the growth prospects of their incentivised referrals, my cheeky one here: Sign up for free | Coconut
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