Spare change investment app Moneybox today announced the close of a £14m series B fundraising round, led by Alibaba investor Eight Roads.
Existing investors Oxford Capital Partners and Samos Investments, among others, also participated.
The fresh funding takes Moneyboxs total amount raised to date to £21.3m. City A.M. understands that the money will be used to fund new products and to expand the team from 30 to 60 staff, all based within the startups London base on Southbank.
The Moneybox app connects to a users bank account and automatically rounds up their payments, investing the spare change into an ISA of their choice with three different risk appetites from funds run by Vanguard, Henderson and Blackrock.
Users can also make extra deposits into their Moneybox ISA, with more than 80 per cent of Moneybox users setting up weekly deposits and 15 per cent utilising its pay-day boost feature.
Over the next year, co-founder Ben Stanway told City A.M. that the startup will pursue building out a Sipp or pensions product, meatier financial planning tools and more brand deals via its premium Moneybox Plus service.
The app has previously teamed up with flower delivery company Bloom & Wild, which Stanway also founded, and meal-kit startup Gousto, whereby each company made a one-off £15 investment into the users account on their first time using the service.
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The series B round is the first time that Eight Roads has invested in Moneybox, coming off the back of previous investments in the UK to the likes of Made.com, Notonthehighstreet.com and Treatwell.
Despite similar so-called round up features coming out in recent months from fintech favourites like Monzo, Starling Bank and Revolut, Stanway remains undaunted.
"Moneybox customers are investing their money, and with those, the money thats being saved is going into zero-interest accounts," he said in an interview last week.
"You might want to save towards a house rather with a lifetime ISA, which you cant do with those. You might want to consolidate your pensions."
"Over the long run our funds should deliver."
The app now has more customers in London than any other part of the country, which Stanway believes is a real “heartland” for the company.
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