10x, a UK based fintech that specializes in helping larger, established banks build both next-generation services as well as tools to help their older services work more efficiently, has raised $187 million at a valuation of $700 million.
The round was co-led by BlackRock and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments). Existing investors like JPMorgan Chase, Nationwide, Ping An and Australia’s Westpac were also part of this round.
“We have been impressed with 10x’s strategy and ambition to play a key role at the heart of transformations taking place in financial services, driven by technology innovation, consumer expectations and regulatory reform. We are excited to be investing in the business as it scales into new markets.” William Abecassis, BlackRock’s head of Innovation Capital.
Its no longer news that incumbent banks are finding it challenging to stay relevant, given the rise of challengers bank. For example, in Ireland, two big banks have shut down due to the growing popularity of Neo bank. Incumbent banks lack what it takes to compete with these neo banks
"Incumbent banks want to compete against these new upstarts with rival products of their own, but in many cases they can’t: their infrastructure is too old, and oftentimes the company culture is even older." TechCrunch
The above problem is what the business model of 10x is built on. 10x Future Technologies helps larger, and established banks build both next-generation services as well as tools to help their older services work more efficiently.
“The legacy systems are where banks issues sit, because they are all architected around product, not customers. But we believe that the industry is ready to contemplate the process of migration now. The company is not yet working on any projects of this kind, he added, but it expects to in the next 12 months." Antony Jenkins, founder and CEO of 10x
10x will be using the funds both to expand into new geographies like North America, as well as to continue building more technology for its flagship platform called SuperCore.
United Kingdom in focus
GDP: $2.829 trillion compared to Russia's $1.7 trillion in 2019
Population: 66,836,327 compared to Russia's 144,406,421 in 2019
GDP per capita: $42,328 compared to Russia's $11,585 in 2019
