By Ryan Weeks on Tuesday 13 March 2018
Shortly after the acquisition of Harrods Bank, the newly-licenced Tandem makes another acquisition.
Neo-bank Tandem has acquired money management firm Pariti. Pariti helps users to get on top of their finances by connecting to their bank accounts and helping them to control their spending. It also provides refinancing options to users with expensive debts.
The agreement between Tandem and Pariti is pending regulatory approval, with an official announcement expected shortly. The cost of the acquisition has not been disclosed.
Speaking to AltFi, Matthew Ford (pictured), who will be joining the Tandem team, called the deal a “natural fit” for both businesses. He said that the mission of both firms is “almost identical”, namely, to provide a better solution for customers who are fed up with old school banks.
Pariti has 95,000 registered users. Over the years it has partnered with a couple of marketplace lenders (Zopa and Lendable) to provide more affordable loan options for those users. The plan now is for Pariti to be integrated into the Tandem offering.
Tandem is the UK’s newest licenced bank, having acquired Harrods Bank in January. The neo-bank’s CEO Ricky Knox told AltFi at the time that Tandem was in the process of raising money – from both new and existing investors – when it was approached about the Harrods deal. The details of this fundraise remain unclear.
Tandem then launched its first product, a credit card, in February. The card combines cashback deals with no overseas transaction fees and carries an APR of 18.9 per cent.
Asked about how the Pariti app and the credit card product could work together, Ford noted the breadth of Tandem’s activities. “If you think about Tandem’s long-term road map – Tandem has the most ambitious roadmap in the world,” he said.
However, he added that the plan was to build “a fair card”. He sees the Tandem acquisition as very exciting because Pariti will now be involved in servicing product needs, where previously it was more about providing insight. “It doesn’t change the mission in any way, in fact it enhances it,” he added.
Both Matthew Ford and Ricky Knox will be speaking at this year's AltFi London Summit. See the full agenda here.
