Revenues at Starling rose last year as it doubled its customer account numbers and raked in billions more in deposits.
The digital bank, which has no branches but allows individuals and small businesses to do their banking through a mobile phone app, pulled in revenues of £97.6million in the 16 months to March 31 – up almost 600 per cent on the prior year.
Starling’s customer numbers jumped from 926,000 to 2.1m, and deposits grew from £1billion to £5.8billion.
Appy days: Digital bank Starling, raked in revenues of £97.6m in the 16 months to March 31 – up almost 600 per cent on the prior year
And as small businesses rushed to the lender to borrow under government-support schemes during the pandemic, because it was one of the few banks open to new customers, lending shot up to £2.2billion from a ‘very low base’.
The challenger bank has been profitable since October, and over the 16-month period – longer than the usual financial year because Starling has realigned its accounting date – it narrowed its losses to £23.3million from £52.1million the previous year.
Starling said it is still opening a new account on average every 34 seconds.
Chief executive and founder Anne Boden said the bank was still planning to float on the stock market in late 2022 or early 2023 but that it ‘will not be rushed’.
She added that it would also look to buy businesses which help match borrowers with lenders, to build Starling’s loan book.