Tandem Bank Buys The App Loop Money For Sharing Money
Buying the financial technology company that Tandem’s chair, Paul Pester, helped start.
The money-sharing app Loop Money, which just came out, was the first thing Tandem Bank bought in 2023.
Loop is a social network that helps friends and family lend and borrow money from each other. Open banking makes it possible for payments to go through without any problems.
The app starts out with a bill-splitting feature like Splitwise, but then it adds a “overdraft” that you can use by asking your contacts to lend you money.
“Tandem is on a mission to build the UK’s greener, digital bank – offering customers more sustainable ways to save, borrow and spend. The addition of Loop to our award-winning digital product range fits perfectly with our strategy,” said Alex Mollart, Tandem’s CEO.
“Loop’s unique approach to money sharing offers users a real alternative to expensive overdrafts. Given the app’s early success among Gen-Z users, the acquisition of Loop gives us a fantastic opportunity to grow Tandem’s customer base among a generation of climate-conscious consumers.”
Loop was started in 2021 by Mirko Giacco, Ankit Tharwani, and Paul Pester, who is also the chair of Tandem Bank. It came out in early 2022.
Tandem said that its board took steps to make sure that Pester didn’t have a conflict of interest with the acquisition. In particular, Tandem senior independent director David Fisher took over as chair of the relevant board meeting.
Neither Tandem nor Loop said anything about how much the deal was worth.
After the sale, Loop will still be its own app and brand, but Tandem plans to add its own products and features to Loop over time.
Tandem has been buying more and more things over the past few years, so this isn’t a new move for them.
At the beginning of 2020, it bought the green lender Allium Lending Group, bought £44.6 million in unsecured consumer loans from Honeycomb, and in 2021, it bought a £100 million mortgage book from Bank and Clients.
Then, in 2022, Tandem bought the consumer lender Oplo. This made the business much bigger, with assets of £1.2 billion.
