Financial technology company R8 is preparing a London stock market share listing as it looks to raise extra growth funding, possibly as soon as July 2019.

The company is believed to be sounding out new investors that could see it raise something like £20m of fresh funding, with speculation suggesting a £50m market valuation if it gets the IPO (initial public offering) away.

R8 recently raised around £4m from existing investors, including founder and chairman Jonathan Rowland.

Rowland spun the company out of Redwood Bank, the ‘born in the cloud’ challenger bank established by him and his father, property developer and former Conservative party treasurer David Rowland in 2017.

The core R8 project is Mode, a platform initially set up to serve emerging cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin. The ambitious plan is to expand Mode into a financial services ecosystem designed for both traditional customers and crypto enthusiasts, including becoming fully regulated with industry watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Last year R8 launched JGOO, a mobile payments platform that connects UK and European brands with Chinese consumers. JGOO has payment partnerships with two of China’s largest technology companies, social media firm Tencent and Alibaba, the online shopping giant, according to analysis website TechMarketView.

R8 has largely avoided the public gaze during its embryonic growth phase and little financial information on the company is available. Other privately-backed fintech start-ups have hogged the headlines, such as Revolut, Monzo, Monese and Nutmeg.

But R8 now seems to be gearing up for closer scrutiny by consumers and investors, appointing Biz Stone as a non-executive director, the co-founder of Twitter.

Stone, who is also believed to have backed the company with his own money, has previously invested in several fast-growth start-ups, such as online scrap book Pinterest, integrated messaging app Slack and Square, the digital payments business.

Cutting edge fintech companies have a patchy track record on the London stock market. One-click payments provider Bango (BGO:AIM) and cross-border transfers platform Earthport (EPO:AIM) have to date failed to break-even after years of trying.

Peer-to-peer lender Funding Circle (FCH) bolstered the stock market fintech sector in 2018 but it, like smaller fintechs Boku (BOKU:AIM) and eServGlobal (ESG:AIM), remains loss-making.

‹ Previous2019-04-25Next ›