He will be succeeded by Eddie Trahearn, currently chief strategy & financial officer – subject to regulatory approval – at the end of April 2026.

Since joining in 2021, Say has overseen a period of rapid growth and transformation. Under his leadership, GB Bank secured its full banking licence, raised growth capital to support expansion, grew the lending book to approximately 拢800 million, built an institutional funding line franchise supported by a diversified deposit platform, and increased the balance sheet 7x to over 拢2 billion.听

The bank has also reached profitability and is now operating on a self-sustaining footing. Says will retain board roles within the group.

Trahearn joined GB Bank in 2021 as head of treasury & funding. He previously held senior treasury and balance sheet roles at Belmont Green, LendInvest and Charter Savings Bank.

GB Bank is also strengthening its executive team. Pankaj Thukral, chief lending officer, will broaden his role to become deputy CEO. Adam Royal, currently head of finance, will step into the role of CFO, and Tom Graham, group treasurer, will become chief capital and treasury officer.听

The leadership team also features COO Anne-Marie Lister and chief risk officer Rupert Carlton.

鈥淚 joined GB Bank with a clear objective: to build and scale a bank from pre-authorisation through to sustainable profitability,鈥� said Says. 鈥淗aving achieved what I set out to do, with the bank now on a strong and self-sustaining footing, this is the right time for me to step down from the executive role and begin the next chapter of my career.

鈥淓ddie is the right person to lead GB Bank forward, and I am confident the bank has a very bright future.鈥�

Trahearn added: 鈥淚 would like to thank Mike for his leadership and for the platform he has built. We have achieved a great deal in a short period of time and have significant opportunities ahead.

鈥淚 am excited to take on the role of CEO, supported by a strong and experienced executive team.鈥�

FinTech LemFi to invest 拢100m in UK as it opens global HQ

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Plum has multiple income streams spanning customer subscriptions, asset-based revenue and transaction revenue, which have together contributed to the company achieving this positive EBITDA milestone.

The app has benefited from steep growth in the last 18 months. Hundreds of thousands of new customers have been actively using Plum to manage their money, taking overall downloads to more than 5 million.听

The launches of a Cash ISA and Lifetime ISA with highly competitive interest rates has contributed significantly to this surge, the firm says. The company now manages around 拢3 billion in assets through the app.听

At the same time Plum has continued to build its subscription offering, which includes free travel insurance, a free VPN subscription and discounts on everyday essentials.听

FinTech LemFi to invest 拢100m in UK as it opens global HQ

Plum is now reporting strong financial growth of 60%+ year on year along with making 拢34 million ARR.听

鈥淭his is a major step forward for Plum,鈥� said Victor Trokoudes, founder & CEO. 鈥淲e鈥檝e worked very hard on our product to make sure it continues to deliver outstanding benefits for customers.听

鈥淭his has paid off as we鈥檝e now reached operational profitability, a key milestone for any company but especially for a fast-growing FinTech like us.鈥�

鈥淲hat鈥檚 really exciting is that we now can reinvest the profit back into what I believe is the best holistic personal finance app in the market.听

鈥淭here is still a huge opportunity to help people manage their finances with the help of the latest technology, in particular generative AI.听

鈥淥nly 8% of people in the UK have ever received personalised financial advice 鈥� leaving 92% of us to figure it out on our own.听

鈥淲e鈥檙e building something for this group who have never had financial advice because for too long, the financial world hasn鈥檛 been built for most people.鈥澛�

Revenue is important, but it鈥檚 not the only thing

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The announcement was made by the UK Government during the state visit of President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria.

LemFi serves more than two million global customers, enabling cross-border payments to over 30 countries.

Since the start of 2025, the company has grown its UK team by more than 60% and is on track to more than double its headcount to 150 employees by year-end.

鈥淭he UK is arguably the most important FinTech hub for the global economy, and we believe our 拢100m commitment will be one of the best investments we have ever made,鈥� said Rian Cochran, co-founder and CFO of LemFi.听

鈥淥ur team spans five continents and reflects the corridors we serve: that lived experience is our product advantage. London gives us the regulatory environment and capital access to build a full-stack financial platform for globally mobile communities.鈥�

In 2025, the company acquired London-based credit FinTech Pillar to extend credit services to the 鈥榗redit-invisible鈥� – people often overlooked by mainstream lenders.听

In Ireland, it secured approval from the Central Bank of Ireland to acquire Bureau Buttercrane, granting it instant access to the entire European Economic Area.听

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LemFi now holds financial services licenses and approvals in several other countries, including Australia, Canada and across 14 US states.听

The company has also expanded its range of products, including the launch of Send Now Pay Later services, Instant Access Savings and LemFi Credit.听

Ridwan Olalere, LemFi co-founder and CEO, said: 鈥淥ur London hub will be central to our next phase of growth.

“From here, we鈥檙e building the infrastructure to serve customers across Europe, North America and beyond, creating financial systems that move with people, not against them.鈥�

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The FinTech said today it is 鈥榙eeply concerned鈥� that shareholder Helios Consortium will reject the 110 pence-per-share offer from American payments giant StoneX as it pursues its own 拢213m bid.

Fortune 500 firm StoneX, listed on New York鈥檚 Nasdaq exchange, had previously seen a 拢241m bid rejected by CAB鈥檚 independent board of directors, which does not include Helios.

Prior to that CAB鈥檚 independent board rejected two rival takeovers from Helios – the latter for 拢213m. After the previous StoneX offer of 95 pence per share was rejected, Helios accused the independent board – which does not include Nitin Kaul and Henry Obi CBE, who represent the interests of Helios – of acting against the interests of shareholders.

In retaliation, CAB accused Helios of 鈥渓aunching an unsolicited firm offer for CAB Payments at an unrecommendable value鈥� which it said was 鈥渉ighly opportunistic鈥�.

Then last week CAB said that it was recommending the fresh StoneX offer for 110p per share in cash, which represents a premium of 52% to CAB鈥檚 closing share price of 72p on 30th January 2026, the last business day before the Helios Consortium first announced a possible offer.

The offer was subject to satisfactory completion of due diligence, as well as irrevocable undertakings to support the transaction from each CAB Payments director, the members of the Helios Consortium who own or control company shares and Eurocomm Holding Limited.

However Helios stated late on Friday: 鈥漈he Helios Consortium confirms it has carefully evaluated the StoneX proposal and concluded that it will not provide such an irrevocable undertaking or otherwise support or accept the StoneX proposal.

鈥淭he Helios Consortium continues to work towards the satisfaction of the regulatory conditions set out in the Helios offer announcement.鈥�

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CAB responded today: 鈥淭he independent board is disappointed by the Helios Consortium鈥檚 announcement.听

鈥淭he independent board is deeply concerned that the Helios Consortium鈥檚 position in respect of the StoneX final possible offer is depriving minority shareholders of the opportunity to realise value at a recommendable price and at a significant premium to the Helios Consortium鈥檚 firm offer.鈥�

CAB floated in 2023 with a market cap of 拢851m but has endured a torrid time as a listed company. Its share price plummeted more than 70% in the first three months of public trading.

StoneX has approximately 5,400 employees and serves more than 80,000 commercial, institutional, and global payments clients, and more than 400,000 retail accounts, from more than 80 offices spread across five continents.

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The Fortune 500 firm, listed on New York鈥檚 Nasdaq exchange, had previously seen a 拢241m bid rejected by CAB鈥檚 independent board of directors, which does not include Helios.

Prior to that CAB鈥檚 independent board rejected two rival takeovers from Helios – the latter for 拢213m. After the previous StoneX offer of 95 pence per share was rejected, Helios accused the independent board – which does not include Nitin Kaul and Henry Obi CBE, who represent the interests of Helios – of acting against the interests of shareholders.

In retaliation, CAB accused Helios of 鈥渓aunching an unsolicited firm offer for CAB Payments at an unrecommendable value鈥� which it said was 鈥渉ighly opportunistic鈥�.

This morning CAB said that it was recommending the fresh StoneX offer, which is for 110p per share in cash and represents a premium of 52% to CAB鈥檚 closing share price of 72p on 30th January 2026, the last business day before the Helios Consortium first announced a possible offer.

The offer is subject to satisfactory completion of due diligence, as well as irrevocable undertakings to support the transaction from each CAB Payments director, the members of the Helios Consortium who own or control company shares and Eurocomm Holding Limited.

鈥淭he independent board encourages the Helios Consortium to engage constructively with the company and StoneX in relation to the increased final possible offer, which represents a 29% premium to the Helios Consortium鈥檚 firm offer,鈥� stated CAB.

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CAB floated in 2023 with a market cap of 拢851m but has endured a torrid time as a listed company. Its share price plummeted more than 70% in the first three months of public trading.

StoneX has approximately 5,400 employees and serves more than 80,000 commercial, institutional, and global payments clients, and more than 400,000 retail accounts, from more than 80 offices spread across five continents.听

Before trading opens this morning, CAB Payments has a share price of 90p and market cap of around 拢229m.

Allica Bank profits rocket as it eyes global expansion

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Underlying pre-tax profit in 2025 increased 34% to 拢43.7 million, even with 拢30m of strategic investment in new products and 鈥榞o to market鈥�.

Gross revenue rose 27% to 拢371.3m while its Active 老九品茶 Reward Account customers grew 133% to over 14,000.

Total lending was up 23%, reaching 拢3.7 billion, while customer deposits climbed 29% to 拢5.7bn.

Allica says 2025 saw it evolve into a genuinely AI-enabled tech platform. It is already deploying AI agents across its proprietary technology and data to deliver a step-change in its SME lending proposition 鈥� driving faster, sharper lending decisions, and giving relationship managers better insight in every customer conversation.

With the completion of its recent $155m Series D fundraise, the FinTech says it is well on track for 10% UK market penetration by 2028 and is actively considering international expansion.

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“2025 was our strongest year yet,鈥� said Richard Davies, CEO (pictured). 鈥淚n a year when we鈥檝e been investing deeply in tech and proposition enhancements, we鈥檝e delivered a 34% increase in underlying pre-tax profit 鈥� and the number of established SMEs choosing to make Allica their primary bank has more than doubled, showing the demand for our full-service established SME model.

“But the more significant story is what’s happening beneath the numbers. Because we鈥檝e been building Allica from the ground up on powerful, proprietary technology 鈥� with modern clean data architecture and a unified software stack 鈥� we’re entering this new era of agentic AI with a structural advantage that legacy banks and others relying on third-party systems simply cannot close.听

鈥淥ur engineering teams are now developing and deploying AI agents and tools across the full technology stack, and we鈥檙e developing what we believe will be a global first for complex SME lending using AI agents built on our own proprietary data.听聽

鈥淎llica is building the category defining digital bank for established SMEs 鈥� a segment who make up a third of the economy but are drastically underserved.

“With our tech advantage now being amplified by the power of AI, the opportunity for us to transform the established SME banking market in in the UK and overseas is bigger than ever.鈥�

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Founded in 2015 and based in Stockport, My Digital has spent a decade building deep, battle-tested expertise in high-frequency, high-complexity payroll.

Processing payments for more than 300,000 employees every month – with individual customers running pay for up to 10,000 workers in a single weekly run – the platform is now set to become a springboard for something bigger.

Dan Moss (pictured) – who joined the company when it was founded in 2015 and rose through roles spanning product design, head of product and COO, before becoming CEO in late 2024 – is leading that expansion.

With recurring revenue exceeding 拢3.5 million and accelerating cash generation, the business is preparing to launch its My Digital Payroll product to the broader bureau and accountancy market at Accountex in London this May.

Largest cloud provider in demanding niche

My Digital, third on our FinTech 50 ranking last year, currently serves umbrella firms and contractor payroll providers – and holds approximately 15% market share, the largest of any cloud provider in the sector by a meaningful margin.

Umbrella firms act as intermediary employers for contractors and freelancers, handling their PAYE tax and National Insurance on behalf of client businesses – a niche with specific compliance demands and punishing payroll volumes that most mainstream software is not built to handle. Umbrella companies operate on tight margins and low headcount at an extraordinary scale.

鈥淲e鈥檝e done the hard stuff,鈥� Moss said, explaining the logic behind expanding into broader payroll markets. 鈥淲eekly, high-volume contractor payroll is significantly more complex than monthly payroll cycles in most businesses. If you can do that reliably at scale, lots of those efficiencies translate into the bureau market.鈥�

Since April last year, the company has been selling into the wider payroll market – competing with established names including Sage, Iris, Staffology, and BrightPay – targeting bureau and accountancy firms across the UK.

My Digital – empowering payrollers, mastering payroll

Accountex 2026

Accountex in London this May will serve as the formal launch moment for My Digital Payroll in the bureau and accountancy market. It is the first time the company will attend the event in years, and Moss describes it as a 鈥減unctuation mark鈥� – a deliberate signal of intent to a new audience.

My Digital Payroll is a cloud-based PAYE payroll platform built specifically for bureaus and accountancy firms. It handles the full pay cycle – from AI-assisted data import and configurable approval workflows through to RTI submissions, pension auto-enrolment, and payslip distribution – within a single structured process.

The pitch to prospective customers is straightforward: take on more payroll clients without growing your team or your complexity.

The product was not built in isolation. Before a line of code was written, My Digital says its team spent considerable time talking directly to payroll professionals working in bureaus – the people who live with these systems every day. A consistent picture emerged: the market felt underserved, with existing providers failing to address the practical frustrations that define the job.

Fast and reliable data imports, structured workflow management, and support from people who actually understand payroll came up repeatedly as the areas where current solutions fell short. My Digital Payroll is a direct response to that, the firm says.

Meaningful AI

Moss is cautious about how the industry talks about AI. 鈥淵ou hear a lot about AI washing,鈥� he said, pointing to businesses that rebrand basic automation as something more advanced than it really is. He says his firm takes a more practical approach: identify where technology can genuinely remove friction, apply it there, and reinvest the time saved into better client work.

That thinking runs through both how the business operates internally and how the product is built. On the operational side, the team has worked to strip out the manual processes and repetitive admin that quietly slow companies down 鈥� less about reducing the headcount, and more about freeing up the judgement and expertise that technology cannot replace.

In the product, My Digital has tackled the payroll workflow stage by stage, automating where it makes a meaningful difference. Automated client data import, for example, is already 95% faster than the manual equivalent – a tangible improvement for customers processing high volumes week in, week out.

The longer-term ambition is more streamlined still. Moss describes a future state – the 鈥渉appy flow鈥� – where a timesheet input moves through to a completed payment run without manual handling at each step. It is a direction of travel rather than today鈥檚 reality, but one the company is building towards deliberately.

鈥淩epetitive admin disappears and people move into more valuable work,鈥� he said. 鈥淭eams spending less time trying to force through a payroll run and more time dealing with complex cases and supporting customers – that鈥檚 better for the business and better for clients.鈥�

Record revenues

The financial picture reinforces the growth story, with My Digital reporting record turnover.

鈥淲hen your bank balance starts to build up, the shackles are off,鈥� Moss said. 鈥淚t changes your mindset to a growth mindset rather than a survival mindset.鈥�

The company reached breakeven in early 2022, having landed its first meaningful-volume customer in 2017. That milestone, Moss says, was the real inflection point – more so than any funding round or product launch.

New markets, new technologies

Beyond the Accountex launch, My Digital is actively mapping the next phase of growth – new market segments and further technological investment are both on the roadmap.

鈥淲e鈥檙e looking at new markets we want to go into and new technologies we want to leverage,鈥� Moss said.

鈥淲e have a clear sense of where we鈥檙e going – and the platform and the team to get there.鈥�

Wise shares rise as it reveals plan to move primary listing to US

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The London-headquartered and -listed FinTech says it expects to begin trading on New York鈥檚 Nasdaq exchange on 11th May.

The money transfer service will maintain a public listing on the London Stock Exchange but shift its primary listing to the US to 鈥渁ccelerate鈥� its path 鈥渢o become 鈥榯he鈥� network for the world鈥檚 money鈥�.

Wise pointed to 鈥済reater visibility鈥� in the US, where it employs more than 750 people. Shareholders backed the decision to adopt a dual listing last year.

Its shares are up 4% today (writing at 2.30pm), up 16% in the year-to-date and 5% higher than at IPO in 2021.

The float was mired in controversy as co-founder and CEO Kristo K盲盲rmann (pictured) had insisted on a dual-class share structure which effectively meant that his shares, and those of other early investors, were each worth nine times that of more recent shareholders. Despite holding just 18.1% of Wise, he controlled 40.75% of the votes.

The controversy ramped up further last year when K盲盲rmann proposed an extension of this approach and rolled the shareholder vote for this into that of the US listing.听

That led co-founder Taavet Hinrikus, who left the firm shortly after the London IPO, to publicly slam K盲盲rmann and call for two separate votes to be held. He said: 鈥淲ise owners deserve governance structures that enhance value, not entrench power.鈥�

Wise, which from now on will report results in dollars, has also reported a 24% increase in underlying income to 拢435.3 million, exceeding analyst expectations, for the fourth quarter of 2026 (ending 31st March).

Round鈥檚 拢4.5m seed investment includes 10% of its customers

Cross-border transaction volumes for the period rose 26% to 拢49.4 billion, while active customer numbers jumped 22% to 11.3m.

Wise said it expects annual profit margins to be at the top end of its 13-16% forecast.

Wise stated: 鈥淲e believe that the addition of a primary US listing would bring a number of strategic and capital markets benefits to Wise and its owners.鈥�

K盲盲rmann said: “We are making good progress on building the network for the world’s money.听

鈥淥ur infrastructure makes cross-border transactions cheaper and faster and, in January, we became one of the first payment institutions to be granted membership to Payments Canada, paving the way to direct access there.

“More and more people are using Wise at home or abroad for their everyday spending, for paying bills, for savings and investments. That’s why last month we formally launched our UK current account with a physical branch concept on Oxford Street in London.”

SysGroup improves profitability & revenues

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The round was led by Alstin Capital, with participation from BACKED VC and Love Ventures.听

Roughly 10% of Round鈥檚 existing customers also invested, alongside new angel investors including Paul Forster, co-founder of Indeed.

Existing investors, including Passion Capital, the early backers of Monzo, Tide, and GoCardless, doubled down on their investment.听

Round was founded to combat a persistent problem in finance teams: despite heavy investment in software, systems are disconnected and still require much of the day-to-day work to be completed manually.听

Round aims to shift finance from software that advises to systems that execute, automating real tasks like payments, payroll and cash management. It says it acts as an execution layer across fragmented finance tools, solving the problem of teams acting as 鈥榟uman middleware鈥�.

Built as an AI-native platform, it combines software with financial infrastructure to actually move money, not just analyse it. This positions Round to redefine the role of finance teams, removing manual work and enabling more strategic focus – and places it at the centre of a potentially large new category in AI-driven enterprise infrastructure.

Following the launch of its first automated workflows less than a year ago, the platform has processed over $500m in transactions, working with companies such as Cleo and PostHog.听

The funding will be used to accelerate product development, expand engineering and go-to-market teams, deepen integrations across banks and financial systems, and scale the platform鈥檚 infrastructure.

Alongside the funding, the company is launching two new products to expand its service offerings. Its Agentic Workflow Builder will allow finance teams to describe their desired automated workflow in plain English, which the platform will then build for their approval.听

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Its Autonomous Payroll will handle payroll operations end-to-end, from funding through to payment execution. This will streamline the process, negating the need for manual funding.听

Hayyaan Ahmad, co-founder of Round, said: 鈥淲e鈥檙e building for a world where finance doesn鈥檛 just analyse what鈥檚 happening – it actually runs it. Today, finance teams spend too much time acting as the glue between systems.听

鈥淲ith Round, they can describe what needs to happen, approve it, and it runs automatically in the background. This funding allows us to take that model across every repetitive process in finance – from payments to payroll – and move teams away from manual execution towards real strategic work.鈥�

Pac O鈥橲hea, the other co-founder, said: 鈥淓veryone鈥檚 trying to build an AI CFO – something that tells you what to do. We鈥檙e focused on doing the work itself. The biggest bottleneck in finance isn鈥檛 decision-making, it鈥檚 execution. Teams are still manually running payments, moving cash and reconciling systems.听

鈥淲e鈥檙e building the execution layer that sits across that entire stack and runs it automatically. This backing from some of Europe鈥檚 leading investors is a strong validation that this is where finance is heading.鈥�

Andreas Schenk, partner at Alstin Capital, said: 鈥淩ound understands that true finance automation requires infrastructure, not just software. The platform is positioned between banks, ERPs, and payment rails and orchestrates cash flows in real time.听

鈥淭his is not an optimisation of existing processes, but a fundamentally new way for companies to manage their finance operations. This vision and impressive execution convinced us as lead investor.鈥�

New tax changes 鈥榖ack founders to tune of 拢100m a year鈥�

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MillTech is a risk management platform which provides foreign exchange hedging and cash investments for fund managers and corporates.

The deal values MillTech at $325m. MillTech鈥檚 ultimate group holding company retains its majority shareholding.听

MillTech is scaling rapidly, delivering 79% revenue growth in 2024 and 73% in 2025. The firm has proceeds of approximately $500 billion in annual trading volume, supporting client hedging programmes totalling over $35bn.听

The investment will support MillTech鈥檚 next phase of growth, accelerating its expansion across North America while further enhancing its advanced treasury management capabilities. Apax is also a MillTech client, deploying the platform鈥檚 capabilities across a number of its funds to support investment operations.

Founded in 2019, MillTech automates FX hedging and investment operations by combining trade calculation, execution, settlement, reporting and transaction cost analysis (TCA) into a single technology solution. The firm, drawing on more than 30 years of currency management heritage from Millennium Global Investments, delivers direct access to the wholesale multi-bank market via its agency ISDA network and, on average, delivers 50%+ cost savings compared to traditional custody, prime brokerage, or single-bank arrangements.听

MillTech operates independently from counterparty banks while ensuring connectivity across its clients鈥� existing service providers, including bank accounts, fund administrators and portfolio/treasury management systems, to deliver institutional standards of transparency and governance. Sir Ronald Cohen, co-founder of Apax, was an early backer of MillTech.

Recent product expansion includes cash management, developed in collaboration with BlackRock’s CacheMatrix, that helps firms automate cash investment workflows and improve returns on cash balances. MillTech also launched Co-Pilot, an AI-enabled risk advisory solution that enables clients to automate trade calculation, model FX hedging strategies, assess interest rate differentials and optimise cash deployment.听

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Eric Huttman (pictured), CEO of MillTech, commented: “I am thrilled to be broadening our partnership with Apax from a client to an investor. The investment is a strong endorsement of the value our platform delivers and the sheer magnitude of our long-term potential.听

鈥淭his partnership supports our next phase of growth, including our planned North American expansion, as we continue to deliver industry-defining treasury solutions by combining purpose-built technology with our unique fiduciary DNA.鈥�

Marc Henckel, managing director at Apax Digital, commented: 鈥淢illTech is a disruptive platform that enables clients, including Apax, to automate and scale core treasury workflows with stronger controls and transparency.听

鈥淏y aggregating volumes across a high-quality bank panel, it sharpens pricing and improves FX efficiency.鈥�

FinTech Zuto on road to hit 拢100m turnover

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