Member Article

Sheffield FinTech startup gets £300k funding as part of syndicate investment

A Sheffield financial technology start-up has raised its third round of equity funding from a syndicate of investors including Finance Yorkshire.

Ffrees, a digital current account provider, will use a £300k cash injection from the regional funding body to introduce new products including a mobile app, and to re-develop its platform to allow direct debit transactions.

With the latest round of funding, Finance Yorkshire has now invested a total of £1.55 million in Ffrees since 2012.

Established in 2012, Sheffield based Ffrees is one of a new breed of small, fast-growing financial technology – ‘fintech’ - companies which is offering an entirely different approach to the retail banks. It currently has 35,000 UK customers and is adding around 1,000 new ones each week.

Founder Alex Letts said: “Ffrees is not a bank but an account that also helps customers to save. We don’t rely on their wealth for our revenues, there are no unexpected fees and we don’t try to sell them products. We don’t offer overdrafts and we don’t run credit checks.

“A vital part of our ethos is saving and effective money management – we aim to take customers away from the debt mentality and encourage them to control their finances through tools such as our online ‘jam jars’ and the Ffrees Money Manager, which is free and helps to pay bills, avoid debt and control spending.”

Finance Yorkshire portfolio manager Ian Brown said: “Ffrees has responded very effectively to the disenchantment many people feel with the retail banks. It offers a real alternative which is easy to use and has customers’ financial security at its heart.

“This latest round of funding from Finance Yorkshire will enable the business to develop a new, more cost-effective platform, in addition to an app which will allow the Ffrees account to be used entirely on a mobile device.”

He concluded: “The business has a hugely experienced management team in place, with big ambitions for the future, and we are confident of its ongoing success.”

Within the next five years Ffrees aims to have 1 million UK customers.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .