News release: Modulr awarded £10m from CIF to transform how Accountants manage payments for SMEs

• The Business Payment Account & Payment Services API platform provides a digitally native alternative for businesses to integrate payments into their products and business platforms quickly and easily
• The new funding from CIF will create a new module: Accountant Payments Control Centre (APCC), to deliver greater control, automation and efficiency
• Modulr will also commit an extra £10m of its own funding to deliver on its commitments to expand the benefit of the CIF
• The funding will lead to a minimum of 64 high quality regional UK jobs with more than 80% of roles created to scale our existing footprint in Edinburgh
• Modulr pledges to deliver a wider range of innovation to provide SMEs access to new payment services

London & Edinburgh, UK, 14^th August 2019

Modulr, the Payments as a Service API platform for digital businesses, has secured £10m from Pool C of the Capability and Innovation Fund (CIF) under the RBS Alternative Remedies Package.

The new funding will deliver a wide range of innovative solutions to provide SMEs with greater access to new payment services. This includes the creation of a new product - the Accountant Payments Control Centre (APCC) - which will deliver greater control, automation and efficiency for Modulr’s accountant and SME clients. Modulr will also invest a matched fund of £10m, to deliver on its commitments to expand the benefit of the CIF to as many clients as possible.

This will lead to the creation of a minimum of 64 new high-quality regional jobs within the UK, with more than 80% of the newly created roles being used to scale the FinTech’s existing footprint in Edinburgh.

Modulr is an Authorised Electronic Money Institution (AEMI), and already enables partners to embed payment processes in existing SME customer journeys seamlessly, allowing accounting software and payroll providers to compete with banks. 

The FinTech, which at present reaches more than 35,000 SMEs through its client and partner network, provides a digital payments alternative to incumbent error prone, time consuming and opaque traditional payment and banking services that are disconnected from business platforms such as accounting and payroll software.

A total of 5.6m SMEs in the UK account for 60% of all private sector employment and half of all private sector turnover¹. As part of the public commitments detailed in the proposal for Pool C grant, Modulr will make its payment services available to almost one million SMEs via a network of partners, driving cost effective innovation and boosting competition within the UK business payments market.

A new product powered by Modulr’s API platform and web-portal known as the APCC, will deliver control for accountants through accounting and payroll platform connections, multi-step approvals, granular access control and workflow management. The APCC will give accountants and SMEs unprecedented access to simple, secure and affordable payments to compete in the ever-demanding instant economy.

Wider investments will be made to further drive competition by providing a digitally native alternative for businesses to integrate payments into their products and business platforms quickly and easily using Modulr’s API platform. Modulr will also offer new partners the availability to utilise its API to launch innovative payment solutions including payment collection services, treasury management and fraud control services.

Myles Stephenson, Chief Executive Officer, Modulr, said: 

“We want to make tired old payment technology a thing of the past for neglected Accountants and SMEs. Modulr was founded with a purpose to make money flow more efficiently through businesses and the economy. This award from the CIF will help us deliver on our vision and passion to support SME businesses to thrive across the UK. 

This is a great opportunity to bring an entirely new digital solution to market; the benefits of unlocking automation and straight-through payment processing will radically change the way SMEs and accountants do business.”

The fast growing FinTech, backed by Blenheim Chalcot and Frog Capital, was founded in January 2016, and has grown rapidly to process over £14bn of transactions since launch on behalf of clients and partners including Sage, Paxport, Liberis and Revolut.

END

For Editors

About Modulr

Modulr is the Payments as a Service API platform for digital businesses. Integrated into any product or system.  Modulr’s new type of payment accounts are built for businesses that need a faster, easier and more reliable way to move money.  Once integrated, businesses can instantly set up as many accounts as they need.  Getting paid, reconciling and making payments is fully automated and can be managed in real-time, 24/7 through their existing software applications. 

Modulr’s API makes it easy for businesses to streamline existing services, launch new products and scale more efficiently.  Modulr combines its API enabled platform with authorisation from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority as an Authorised Electronic Money Institution to deliver a fully regulated service.

For further information – please go to www.modulrfinance.com

For Press Enquiries

David Beach | Head of Content & PR | david.beach@modulrfinance.com

Toby Brown | Octopus Group | modulr@octopusgrp.com

Ashleigh Brown | Octopus Group | modulr@octopusgrp.com

Background to the Banking Competition Remedies

Banking Competition Remedies Ltd (BCR) is the independent body established to implement the £775 million Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) State Aid Alternative Remedies Package. BCR is independent from RBS and the UK Government. It is governed by an independent board of directors.

The Alternative Remedies Package was negotiated and agreed between HM Government and the European Commission and comprises two RBS funded measures amounting to £775m:

• The Incentivised Switching Scheme is allocated up to £275m to assist SME customers within the Williams & Glynn business to move to ‘challenger banks.’ A further maximum sum of £75m has been set aside within RBS to cover customers’ switching costs.
• The Capability and Innovation Fund is allocated £425 million to encourage eligible bodies to develop and improve their capability to compete in the provision of banking services to SMEs and develop and improve the financial products and services which are available to SMEs. This is made up of four Pools (A, B, C and D).
• Pool C was set-up to facilitate the expansion of business offerings to include, lending or payments services to SMEs in the United Kingdom or international payments services to SMEs in the United Kingdom. Pool C had an allocation of £40m comprising of 4 grants of £10m.

¹UK Small Business Statistics, FSB, 2018