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What really happened between Monzo and Starling: Anne Boden set to recount in new book

The founder of Starling is ready to tell her story.

By Isabel Woodford

Credit: Starling CEO Anne Boden

She is one of the most recognised faces in fintech, having become the first woman to launch an independent bank — and succeeded.

But now Anne Boden, the founder of Starling Bank, is revealing the full story of how she got there by publishing a memoir, Boden’s publisher Penguin has confirmed.

Entitled Banking on It, the upcoming book — out on November 5 — will be a personal tale of Boden’s life at the top of banking, alongside accounts of the “prejudice,” “suspicion,” and turmoil she encountered on the way, according to the publisher’s website.

Two sources confirmed the book will also include a detailed discussion on her legendary fallout with the founders of Monzo, including Tom Blomfield and Paul Rippon, who were early executives at Starling but left after six months before launching the coral-coloured rival digital bank soon after.

Blomfield was Starling’s first chief technology officer while Rippon acted as chief risk officer, before taking the lead as co-founders of Monzo.

The Monzo-Starling saga has long been shrouded in secrecy thanks to stringent legal precautions. Nonetheless, piecemeal reports of the feud indicate that Blomfield and his peers abandoned Boden to create their own banking prototype back in 2015.

Boden is said to have recounted the fallout across a series of chapters in the new book, publicly offering her account of what happened for the first time.

Rippon told Sifted he had not been informed about the upcoming book.

The cover art of the upcoming book

Banking on It will be the second book authored by Boden, having already published an academic theory of the future of personal finance in The Money Revolution.

An avid reader herself, Boden is among the first fintech founders to document her journey in a book, which she reportedly wrote last year with a ghostwriter.

Starling declined to comment.

Isabel Woodford is Sifted’s fintech correspondent. She tweets from @i_woodford

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EMBI
EMBI

I wonder will Anne finally be able to disclose that Tom was fired from Starling bank?.

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10 months ago
DDaw
DDaw

She did it all by herself.

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10 months ago
Anon
Anon

Will it include the part where she had WPP do a half million pounds worth of work but didn’t pay them?

Reply
10 months ago
Johan Gravestock
Johan Gravestock

LOL, even if that is true, which some evidence would have been helpful for so it’s not some random saying something on the internet with nothing whatsoever to back it up, the fact that the little mom and pop operation WPP was out less than they likely spend annually on coffee in their offices isn’t really going to bring a rash of sympathetic feelings…

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10 months ago