Tencent, Temasek invest US$35m in UK open-banking startup

[LONDON] Chinese technology giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Singapore government-owned fund Temasek said they would invest US$35 million in London-based TrueLayer.

The three-year-old fintech startup sells open-banking software, which lets people share or aggregate their financial information from different providers.

Venture capital firms Northzone Ventures and Anthemis Group, both previous backers, also participated in the new round. Including the new money, TrueLayer has raised US$47 million to date, it said in a statement Tuesday. A valuation was not disclosed.

The company said it would use the funding to expand across Europe, with a goal of connecting most of the continent's banks by the end of the year. It would consider expanding to Asia and Australia and so was eager to attract investors from that region, Francesco Simoneschi, TrueLayer's co-founder and chief executive officer, said in the statement.

"The support of Tencent and Temasek will be crucial to our future plans," he said.

Simoneschi said open-banking, which is increasingly mandated by regulators in countries around the world, and the growth of mobile phone-based money apps, had the power to transform the financial services industry.

In addition to the UK, where TrueLayer serves new, digital-only bank Monzo as well as peer-to-peer lender Zopa, the company already has a presence in Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

BLOOMBERG