Apax invests $230 million in ClearBank to expand into Europe and the United States
- ByStartupStory | March 19, 2022
ClearBank, a UK fintech that has established a new set of cloud-based financial rails that lets banks and other clients real-time clearing on payment transactions and other financial services, has raised a large amount of funding, which it will use to expand its services outside its home market and into other areas like cryptocurrency exchanges. The company raised £175 million ($230 million at today’s exchange rates) from a single investor, Apax Partners, a private equity firm.
The startup — founded in 2015 and launched in 2017 — is not disclosing its valuation, but CEO Charles McManus said that the company had prior to this raised £195 million from investors that include Canadian businessman John Risley and PE firms PPF Group and Norther Private Capital, and that its new valuation after Apax’s investment is a significant increase. PitchBook notes that as of the end of December, ClearBank’s valuation was just under £274 million, which likely puts the current valuation at $590 million at its most conservative estimate.
However, given the company’s current size and objectives, bigger numbers are possible. ClearBank was founded by Nick Ogden, who was also the founder of WorldPay (which Fidelity acquired for $43 billion, at the time the largest deal ever made in the international payments sector). It now has 200 customers, including UK businesses like Tide and Oaknorth, as well as international companies like Coinbase, which uses ClearBank for clearing. These clients have 13 million bank accounts and assets worth £3 billion (almost $4 billion).
The company began offering multi-currency and foreign exchange services to UK customers a few months ago, and plans for the investment include expanding those services to other currencies and facilitating interbank payments, both to existing customers with international footprints and to work with customers in other markets.
ClearBank’s ascent demonstrates how, as fintech matures, a new generation of entrepreneurs is emerging that are eager to take on the final tier of infrastructure. Payrails (the ambition is spelt out in its name), a German startup, launched with funding from a16z earlier this week with its own ambitions to build new infrastructure to handle payments specifically for marketplaces and other businesses that sit in the middle of complex transaction architectures.
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