Starling has acquired tax accounting software startup Ember to enable the UK neobank to offer book-keeping services to its small-medium enterprise (SME) customers.
According to people familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg, the transaction was worth less than £10m. Ember last year raised £5m in a round led by Valar Ventures and Shapers.
Cofounders Daniel Hogan and Aaron Shaw will join the bank and lead the platform’s integration into Starling.
“It’s a natural complement to start offering invoicing, accounting software, tax software, alongside traditional banking products, like credit related loans and facilities,” Declan Ferguson, Starling Bank’s chief financial officer, said in an interview.
Founded in 2015, Starling is one of the UK’s best-known neobanks and banks over 4m customers across £12bn deposits. Half a million of those customers are SMEs, after the neobank expanded its lending portfolio by offering government-backed business loans during the pandemic.
Starling’s acquisition of Ember follows a tricky period for the fintech. Last October, the FCA fined Starling Bank £29m for failings in their financial crime systems and controls.
The London-based fintech is also in the early stages of obtaining a banking licence through acquiring a chartered bank in the US.
