Apax leads GBP 175m round for ClearBank

Existing investors CFFI UK Ventures (Barbados) and PPF Financial Holdings also participated in the round.

The investment is expected to help the company with its international expansion, as well as the growth of new partnerships, product and services.

Mark Beith, partner in Apax’s Digital strategy, told Unquote that the deal is the first investment from Apax’s second Digital fund. Apax Digital Fund II held a final close in September 2021 on its USD 1.75bn hard-cap. The vehicle invests in fast-growing technology companies on a global basis.

Beith said that the GP had been tracking the company since 2019 and was impressed by its growth, as well as its level of service and functionality.

Beith added that the GP was impressed by the positive feedback that ClearBank has received from many of its customers. Its customers include financial technology platform and Apax portfolio company Tide; Apax Digital led a USD 100m round for Tide at a USD 650m valuation in July 2021.

Beith told Unquote that an IPO would be an eventual option for ClearBank, but that the firm could ultimately also combine with other relevant companies. Asked about its international expansion, he told Unquote that the company expects to see strong organic growth, with opportunities in Europe, North America and the APAC region.

Beith declined to comment on ClearBank’s valuation or the size of the stake held by Apax following the round, but said that the company has been doubling its revenues year-on-year in recent years and that the firm will hold a “meaningful minority stake” in the company.

Previous funding
PPF Group and Northern Private Capital, the investment vehicles of Peter Kellner and John Risley, previously provided funding of GBP 195m to the company, according to TechCrunch.

Company
Founded in 2015 and launched in 2017, ClearBank is a clearing and embedded banking platform with more than 200 financial institutions and financial technology businesses in its customer base. It serves 13 million accounts and GBP 3bn in balances. The company provides access to its financial services offering via a single API to a cloud-native software platform.

London-headquartered ClearBank was the first clearing back to be launched in the UK in the past 250 years at the time of its foundation, joining the ranks of Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC and NatWest.

People
Apax Partners – Mark Beith (partner, Apax Digital).
ClearBank – Charles McManus (CEO).

Advisers
Equity – Simpson Thacher (legal); PwC (accounting).

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• Topics
• Expansion
• UK / Ireland
• Technology
• Financials
• Venture
• Apax Partners
• United Kingdom