Starling, one of big three UK digital bank start-ups, has followed its two main rivals and completed a major funding round.
The bank raised £75mln led by Merian Global Investors, formerly known as Old Mutual, which chipped in £60mln.
Forefront of digital banking space
Existing shareholder Harald McPike stumped up the remaining £15mln.
Starling is battling with two other start-ups Monzo and Revolut to establish itself at the forefront of the digital banking space.
In October, Monzo reached “unicorn” status, a term used to describe a privately-held start-up company valued at more than US$1bn, after raising £85mln through venture capital investors Accel Partners and General Catalyst.
In December, it topped that up with a further £20mln through a crowdfunding event which saw more than 36,000 customers invest up to £2,000 each.
Revolut is said to be in talks with Japan’s Softbank over a US$500mln investment.
Monzo and Revolut already have over one million customers, a total Starling says it will achieve at the end of this year.
It has about 460,000 consumer accounts and 30,000 business accounts currently.
The bank also runs a fast-growing white label banking service that has 20 institutional clients and recently launched a euro account that allows UK residents to hold, send and receive euros for free.
The bank is also said to be applying for a licence in Ireland.
Anne Boden, chief executive and who founded the bank in 2014, said: "Building our platform and launching in the UK to provide genuine choice to retail, SME and Banking-as-a-Service customers was just the first step.
“Our ambition is to use our technology to build a next-generation global, digital banking platform, starting with our launch across Europe this year."