Losses widen at UK fintech Monese in eight month delayed accounts
UK fintech Monese suffered a major widening of losses as its bottom line was hit by restructuring costs amidst its takeover by pseudo-bank peer Pockit.
The London-based firm – which provides mobile-only current accounts, multi-currency wallets, and money transfer services – booked a pre-tax loss of £15.9m in the 2024 financial year.
Fresh accounts – which were filed nearly eight months after the deadline – revealed Monese’s revenue dropped to £12.2m, down from £14.9m in the year prior. But a hefty portion of this fall came from the spin-off of XYB, Monese’s former business-to-business arm which was offloaded in May 2024.
The firm’s the previous year accounted for £3.1m of “recharge income” – paid by XYB to Monese for “shared operational costs and resources” – which helped inflate headline revenue.
Headcount also saw a staggering drop on the back of the XYB spin-off dropping by more than half to 137, from 373.
Restructuring costs rocketed on the back of the changes to north of £2m, a mammoth jump from just £302,278 in 2023.
This also came as Monese was snapped up by Pockit at the end of 2024, in a deal which the latter pumped £15m into to fund integration and growth.
Rocky road for Monese
Monese, which was founded in 2015 by Estonian entrepreneur Norris Koppe, defended the losses as an “anticipated” outcome that was “aligned with the company’s long-term business plan”.
A major hit to profit also came as Monese cancelled its employee share option scheme on the back of the Pockit purchase to the cost of £5.2m.
Monese has faced a turbulent period after once being hailed a potential unicorn, which refers to firms with a valuation of over $1bn.
HSBC “completely impaired” its remaining $5.86m stake in the fintech in 2024 after acquiring a minority holding just two years prior.
Last September, Monese warned it would need a fresh investment to survive for another year as as auditors Blick Rothenberg flagged a “material uncertainty” over its operations that cast “significant doubt” on its future.
In the latest accounts filing, directors confirmed they had received a formal letter of support from Pockit, which guaranteed the necessary financial backing to ensure it can meet its debts and liabilities.
With additional reporting from Benedict Loughran