Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Top Monzo shareholders are pushing to reinstate the group’s chief executive and oust its chair, in an investor rebellion following the surprise departure of TS Anil as boss of one of the UK’s most valuable fintechs.
Investors, including venture capital firms Accel and Iconiq, have joined forces and hired lawyers as they push for greater shareholder representation on the board after Anil’s exit was announced in October, people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times.
The group is pressing for the removal of Monzo chair Gary Hoffman, who has led the British company since 2019 and previously chaired the English Premier League, the people said.
The shareholders are also demanding that Anil, who remains in his role until February and was backed by many investors, be retained as chief executive of the company, which was valued at £4.5bn in a share sale last year.
“The investors are currently working constructively with the board to find the right way forward acting in the interest of all Monzo’s stakeholders,” said one person close to the investor group.
The group had amassed the backing of investors holding more than 40 per cent of Monzo’s shares, said two people familiar with the matter.
Anil and some investors had been in favour of listing the business earlier than some of the board wanted.
Monzo has also been debating whether any listing should be in New York — favoured by Anil and some of the fintech’s US backers — or in London. UK government ministers have been encouraging homegrown start-ups, including Monzo, to make London the venue for any IPO.
The tensions between investors and the board threaten to destabilise Monzo, which has grown rapidly since it was founded by entrepreneur Tom Blomfield in 2015.
A person familiar with the matter said the company had been trying to work “constructively and reasonably” with investors in recent weeks, adding that the board had been open to increased shareholder representation and had discussed this with investors.
Appointing a chair and chief executive was a matter for the board subject to regulatory approval, the person added.
Monzo is one of a group of UK fintechs — alongside companies such as Revolut and Starling — that have attempted to disrupt the retail banking market dominated by the country’s big four lenders: Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and NatWest.
While some shareholders said they received no warning before the decision to replace Anil with former Google executive Diana Layfield, another person familiar with the company told the FT that investors had been informed “at the earliest opportunity”.
Anil was asked by the board to step down after concerns over the pace of Monzo’s international expansion and his long-term commitment to the business following a potential stock market listing, the FT reported this week.
Members of the board had also expressed dissatisfaction at the stagnation in the group’s valuation, some of the people said.
Monzo has been backed by several top investment firms over the years, including Alphabet’s independent growth fund CapitalG, HongShan Capital, Tencent and General Catalyst. The only investor representative on the board is Passion Capital’s founding partner Eileen Burbidge.
Since Anil took over in 2020, Monzo has tripled its number of customers to 13mn. In the 12 months to March it reported a £61mn pre-tax profit and increased its revenues by 48 per cent to £1.2bn.
However, Monzo has little presence outside of the UK even as many British fintechs seek to expand abroad to offset slowing growth in customer numbers in their home market. In 2021 its attempts to gain a US banking licence were rebuffed by American regulators.
Monzo, Accel, Iconiq, Hoffman and Anil declined to comment.
