By Oliver Smith on Thursday 15 December 2022
The successful Crowdcube raise will help OneBanx to scale-up its kiosks across the UK.
The operator of a growing number of shared banking kiosks has closed a £1.28m crowdfund to help roll out its infrastructure nationwide.
OneBanx (formerly OneBanks Hub) launched in 2019 as a project to plug the growing gaps in the UK’s banking network, as banks close thousands of branches and leave many communities struggling.
So far, OneBanx has opened an Access to Cash Kiosk in Nottingham in partnership with TSB, and has two more planned with Newcastle Building Society, as well as three kiosks in Co-Op stores in Scotland.
After beating its £1.25m target on Crowdcube, OneBanx is calling on high street banks to club together to help fund a OneBanx kiosk in areas where they are closing branches.
“We have had amazing support from our existing shareholders, but as a business rooted in serving communities, we wanted to extend our shareholder base to include more communities and partners with a real stake in our business as we expand and grow,” said Duncan Cockburn, CEO and founder of OneBanx.
“Now that there are 10 high street banks committed to funding shared infrastructure and thousands of kiosks or similar needed across the UK, there is a real opportunity here to make a difference for customers.”
According to OneBanx, its crowdfunding was run at a pre-money valuation of £12.5m with shares equivalent to 9.04 per cent of the company sold to investors.
Shared banking hubs are currently in high demand, with 25 sites currently in the process of being developed by high-street banks into a shared resource.
Earlier in the year, the Financial Conduct Authority proposed new guidance forcing banks to assess the impact of service changes, including branch closures.
