yes, but it was a disappointing outcome considering the amazing traction of the company. The company was sold for Ā£42m but its generating annual revenues of Ā£55mā¦
Personally, I think this is highly doubtful (though I appreciate this is my opinion).
Reasons that Monzo could de very well:
- Very engaged use-base, that I believe to be relatively young. In time, more of these users will take on more financial products (loans, mortgages etc) that will help make Monzo more profitable.
Reasons against Monzo:
- Incredibly competitive field. I dont see anything in the Monzo offering that is unique. Most UK banks can now freeze cards, offer pots etc. Monzoās offering is less generous than Starling whn considering transactions abroad.
- Financial Services are becoming commoditised, and in turn a large proportion of revenues could come from user engagement in the app. User engagement will come from either being able to get discounts through the app (see what Revolut are doing currently in the UK; Paypall paid a large amount for Honey for this).
- Big tech is making entry into personal finance. First it was Apple with their Goldman linked card. Now it is Google [both in the US at the moment, likely they will come to the UK].
This has been written up in a far better way than I can articulate it (see article: Long Take: Google has come to Banking. What does that mean, and what should we do about it?) but in short:
a) Personal Finance management - Google has incredible ability to categorise and sort data. Transaction data is messy. Google should be incredible at categorising this information in a way that is valuable to the user
b) User Engagement: Revolut has now offers for spending at certain merchants. Paypal spent a lot to acquire Honey to apply discount codes at checkout. Google [especially with pre-existing Maps data, and data around individuals [GMail] should be able to provide much more tailored offerings.
Monzo could still be bought out and deliver returns to the Crowd. Fingers crossed for everyone!!
[Iāve not invested in Monzo, but I have with a couple of other Fintech ventures, which after reading the quoted article (among others) Iāve essentially written off]
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Fair enough, ye that isnāt out of this world fantastic, but at the same time a 3.5x return (potentially 5x) in 3 years is pretty decent.
Or more simply put, I would be very happy with this
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Iāve only been at this game 3 years but so far none of the 10 companies Iāve backed have either exited or shut down, I was expecting at least something would have happened by now 
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7-10 years exit timeline is the new black. 3-5 years timeline advised in almost all crowdfunding pitches is BS 
Iām quite deeply invested across 100+ start ups over the past 5 years and TBH those with the biggest paper gains are ones from 4-5 years ago and just starting to really accelerate. Exciting and seriously nervous at same time but thatās the buzz we are all looking for. In a way Iām glad they arenāt listed as Iād probably have bottled it and sold waaaay too early. Letās see!
Those that have exited after 3-5 years all went too early IMO and returns were just 2 or 3X. Not too bad as a profit is a profit and it helps fund the next wave of opportunities.
Good luck all 
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Monzo are doing so bad that they are signing up 5000 users a day. They have the best App out there and the simplicity of use is magnificent. Watch this space,there profits will take off in 2021/22.
Watch for big losses at Revolut
There hasnāt been a single day in the last 90 days where theyāve signed up 5000 users. The average is slightly over 3000. Freetrade will hopefully be doing that many when the European roll out starts 
https://bankstats.joecarter.xyz/d/000000001/monzo-current-acc?orgId=1&refresh=5m
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Fake News 
to be fair this shows promising growth. More people have signed up to Plus & Premium than I would have guessed.
The engaged user base may just be the ticket to profitability
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100k plus customers are 2% of the total Monzo customer base (5m customers) and assuming Ā£10 per month it means Ā£1m monthly revenues. Considering that the monthly burn rate is over Ā£10m it doesnāt really move the needle in my opinion.
I also find weird that they are celebrating an additional Ā£60m round at a 40% discounted valuation (vs. 2019). They are diluting Crowdcube investors by an additional 5%ā¦
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Couple of thoughts with the caveat that I havenāt dug deep into the latest top upā¦
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Iād argue that 10% is a material mover of the needle, and crucially itās a move in the right direction.
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The discounted valuation and dilution is not the right focus. Above all else this is a signal to the market and customers that investors have confidence in Monzo as a viable proposition. Given some of the heavy language in this yearās audited accounts of the bank. This additional commitment will provide much needed reassurance in an otherwise bleak macro environment (and thatās with the promise of a vaccine). There may also also be a regulatory capital driver behind this, which again isnāt necessarily a bad thing. Itās signalling to the market that they are adequately capitalised.
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In my view, the down round is not a reflection of investorsā dim view on Monzoās future - itās a shrewd move to acquire equity more during a period of extreme economic stress, at a discount that reflects both the bankās position and the wider market conditions.
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I echo this!!!
Hi! About the point 2, I agree that its great for Monzo to get additional money in the bank, but from an early investors point of view thats means more shares issued. At the end of the day the exit proceeds will be Valuation/Number of shares.
As an investor of Freetrade, do you prefer that Freeetrade raise Ā£20m at Ā£250m valuation or Ā£200m at a Ā£275m valuation?
But mostly what is worried in Monzo is the lack of leadership and the figure of a founder/CEO.
Think about the biggest tech IPOs of the last few years (from the HUT, Funding Circle in UK, DropBox, Box, Stitch Fix, Palantir,ā¦). In all of those companies the CEO was still the founder at the IPO moment. Investors in the IPO love to see the founder still in place and not a salaries CEO with a big fix salary and 1% of the equity.
From this point of view Starling and Revolut have an advantage in my opinion.
Cheers
ps Uber went to the IPO without the founder/CEO role, but Uber Ceo is the former CEO of Expedia
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Are there any other Cornish Lithium Crowdcube investors who are getting nervous?
I donāt think my Ā£100 is āgoing to the moon.ā
Why nervous? Is there any news? I looked at it and wanted to invest but the valuation was too steep for my liking
This is an interesting point to be fair
Just out of interestā¦ what makes you say this?
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I think Freetrade is going to hit the jackpot for all investors,especially from the next investment and those who invested previous to that.
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Can you elaborate on why CL investors should be getting nervous please. Thanks
Nope, I didnāt say Cornish Lithium investors should be getting nervous! I just asked if any others are getting nervous.
My concerns are around the lack of updates and the bizarre approach to social media (my line of work). For some reason they have
- an Insta account with no updates,
- a Facebook page thatās not been updated since the crowdfunding closed,
- a LinkedIn page (which is where Iād expect to see updates for a business like this) thatās also been abandoned since that date
- and finally a really low effort active Twitter account that largely just retweets related stories.
There havenāt been any updates on Crowdcube since funding ended either. Funnily enough, the news section on the site has an article - āCornish Lithium partners with the University of Exeter to train staff and students in geocommunicationā
āGeocommunication is a new narrative that explains the key role played by environmentally-responsible mineral extraction. It is important that students, academics and industry professionals are equipped with the skills to interpret geoscientific content and to engage with and inspire the general public.
Communication is the one thing that seems to be lacking. Perhaps Iāve been spoilt by Freetradeās level of communication or perhaps Iām expecting too much from a startup but a small update beyond āWow, we raised a lot, thanks for the cashā would be nice.