UK Investment App Moneybox Raises $46M For Crypto Products

Key Insights:

• Asset manager Fidelity led the Series D investment round.
• Moneybox has almost $4B in AUM and 800,000 customers.
• Financial regulators are putting the squeeze on UK crypto firms.

Digital wealth manager Moneybox has announced a successful Series D funding round from asset manager Fidelity. The 35 million GBP (around $US46 million) will enable the London-based firm to scale its operations and launch new crypto investment products.

Fidelity International Strategic Ventures has previously backed the firm with investments in its 2018 Series B round. Polar Capital also joined the current round for Moneybox, which has almost reached $3.9 billion (3 billion GPB) in assets under management, according to reports.

Crypto Investment, Not Speculation

Moneybox was launched in 2016 to help people invest with their small change. The app has grown substantially, offering retirement planning, property buying, and stock investments, and now has more than 800,000 users.

Co-founder and co-CEO Ben Stanway is confident that crypto is the next direction for the company. Speaking to Altfi, he said that the firm can now deliver on the “societal need for the mass market to have wealth planning, savings, and services made available to them.” He explained that the app will not offer crypto trading but will focus on portfolio diversification.

“We’re going to be expanding [into crypto] through the lens of diversification, not through the lens of speculation,”

He added an example of suggesting holding “a couple of percent” in Bitcoin [BTC] as part of a more extensive portfolio, reiterating that “We will not be a good place for people to speculate on cryptocurrencies.”

Stanway said that the crypto investment plans were still in the early stages of development, adding that there was likely to be “just Bitcoin, or maybe Bitcoin and perhaps one or two others,” to begin with.

The company’s long-term goal is to offer financial planning services to as many as 15 to 20 million Brits who would benefit from such planning.

UK Regulators Tighten the Leash

The move comes under increasing gloomy skies for crypto regulation in the United Kingdom. The Bank of England and financial regulators have taken a harsh stance toward cryptocurrencies and plan to further restrict and regulate businesses in the sector.

As a result, many U.K. firms are already seeking friendlier jurisdictions in Europe, such as Switzerland and Croatia. Industry experts have warned of a potential exodus of talent and innovation from the country.

Last week, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) extended the deadline for registering crypto asset businesses for 12 companies, but it has since passed for the rest of them.