Starling Bank


Starling Bank is a digital, mobile-only challenger bank based in the United Kingdom. It focuses on current and business account products. Headquartered in London, Starling Bank is a licensed and regulated bank, founded by former Allied Irish Banks COO, Anne Boden, in January 2014. Since its founding, it has received over £230m of funding. The company received its banking licence from the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority in July 2016.

History

Starling was founded by Anne Boden in 2014. In 2016, they announced the largest Fintech funding round of the year, raising £48 million.
The company started its beta in partnership with TransferWise in March 2017. The corresponding developer platform went live in April 2017.
Founder Anne Boden announced in December 2017 that the bank intended to apply for the RBS Remedies Fund.
In March 2018, Starling launched business accounts.
In November 2018, Starling announced a partnership with the Post Office.
In February 2019 Starling launched personal Euro accounts in the UK.
Starling's latest funding round was from Merian Global Investors, raising £75m in February 2019. The following week, Starling announced that it had secured a further £100m from the Capability and Innovation Fund in the form of grant funding.

Cards

Starling Bank offers a contactless Debit Mastercard. As of September 2019, Starling cards were not part of the LINK network.
In July 2018, Starling announced a vertical card design, coloured teal and navy.

Mobile apps

Starling Bank has built and released mobile apps for both iOS and Android phones. Starling were also the first UK bank to have in-app provisioning for Apple Pay.
The features of Starling's mobile apps include instant notifications of transactions, freezing and unfreezing customer's cards to prevent unauthorised transactions, categorising transactions for later analysis, creating separate "Goals" where money can be stored separately to customer's main balance and in-app chat with customer service representatives, among others.
Starling has built its own Open Banking API which is distributed in the form of a "marketplace" to allow customers to use their data with other financial products. The bank also offers a 'Settle Up' feature, where customers can send money to their contacts.
They also have a cash depositing partnership with the Post Office.