Zopa to embed into Manchester’s tech ecosystem
Zopa will faucet into the tech ecosystem in Manchester by a regional workplace that would finally home 500 employees. The announcement comes days after the launch of the challenger financial institution’s present account, often known as Biscuit.
Zopa at present has round 900 employees, primarily based mostly in London, a 3rd of whom are technologists, together with engineers and knowledge scientists. The central Manchester centre will instantly add 50 folks to its ranks, together with software program engineers.
The financial institution stated the placement of the brand new workplace, which may open as early as subsequent month, was chosen as a result of Manchester’s “thriving tech ecosystem, sturdy monetary companies presence and deep expertise pool”.
Iain Kendrick, chief folks officer at Zopa, stated the financial institution desires to be nearer to prospects and expertise: “With greater than 85% of our prospects based mostly outdoors the capital, increasing into Manchester permits us to be nearer to our numerous, nationwide buyer base, entry new expertise and speed up our bold development journey.”
The town has a method to draw companies within the digital sector, together with banks. Manchester council chief Bev Craig stated that Zopa may have entry to “an energetic and ever-growing digital and tech group” constructed to “help organisations to thrive”.
Zopa financial institution has 1.5 million prospects utilizing its financial savings and loans merchandise. It had a income of simply over £300m in its final monetary yr, which grew about 30% final yr. Its revenue doubled to simply beneath £35m throughout the identical interval, and it at present holds over £5bn in deposits.
The brand new present account, Biscuit, may be opened in minutes, with digital playing cards immediately accessible.
Throughout a current interview, Zopa boss Jaidev Janardana stated the present merchandise alone may give the corporate the same “development trajectory” to final yr. “We wish to do extra with our prospects, very particularly day-to-day banking,” he stated.
Zopa’s beta model of the present account has been accessible to current prospects since September 2024 and was utilized by 60,000 folks.
Tech drives agency
The corporate’s tech experience and flexibility have enabled it to shortly construct a present account providing. The present account comes at a time when challenger finance corporations are starting to make inroads into the market domination of conventional banks. A present account is a way of constructing a wider relationship with prospects, who’ve tended to treat challenger banks as a secondary finance supplier.
It got here 20 years after the corporate pioneered fintech by its peer-to-peer lending enterprise, which it shuttered in 2021, and 5 years after reinventing itself as a financial institution.
Following the complete launch of the present account, Janardana stated: “Getting into on a regular basis banking is a pure subsequent step in Zopa’s mission to construct the House of Cash for its prospects.”
It was 2016 when Zopa first introduced its plan to turn out to be a financial institution, as a result of what it described as a lack of belief within the fintech phase in addition to growing prices. By December 2018, it had gained a UK banking licence with restrictions and, after receiving a full licence, it launched in 2020 with its first product, which was a financial savings account that may very well be arrange in seven minutes.
