Glory has unveiled plans to invest in Scottish fintech OneBanks as part of a Series A funding round, supporting its ambition to become a leading player in the provision of everyday banking services.
OneBanks is the developer of a low cost, pop up kiosk format that provides face-to-face banking services on behalf of multiple banks and financial services clients. It has previously secured capital from angel investors, including Rupert Pennant-Rea, former deputy governor of the Bank of England, and Baroness Bottomley, the former Conservative cabinet minister.
As the latest to back the firm, Glory will become the lead external investor with a significant minority of the enlarged capital. Meanwhile, Javed Anjum, Glory’s head of software strategy and innovation will join the OneBanks board of directors.
In addition, Jonathan Hughes, a fintech investor, will assume the role of executive chairman of OneBanks. He has more more than 25 years’ experience in financial services and was previously at Worldpay. European law firm Fieldfisher‘s venture capital practice coordinated the Series A funding round.
OneBanks aims to fill the gap created in the UK market by the progressive withdrawal from the high street of the mainstream banks with branch kiosk formats already trialled in three Scottish towns. OneBanks intends to launch across in 15 locations across the UK by the end of 2022 and 150 by 2025. The kiosks are designed to be open seven days a week and offer longer opening hours, better economics and greater security than existing alternatives to conventional branch networks.
Toshimitsu Yoshinari, chief solutions officer at Glory Global Solutions, said: “We have many decades of experience helping banks transform their physical branch networks using the latest technologies in response to changing consumer expectations. The mass adoption of mobile and online channels has fundamentally changed the economics of branch banking across the UK and other countries and yet consumers still value, and in many cases need, convenient access to face-to-face banking services.
“We are delighted to be making this investment in OneBanks as they seek to introduce, in partnership with the major UK banks, their new open banking-enabled approach to providing this service to communities across the UK through shared branches.”
While Duncan Cockburn, founder and CEO of OneBanks, said: “We see a huge opportunity for us as an independent player enabling an efficient service model which will allow banks to offer better basic banking facilities in communities where they are needed.
“To have a leading global provider of banking technology solutions for the financial industry buying in so enthusiastically into our vision is immensely valuable – particularly at this stage in our development. Access to cash and the need for human interaction are still highly valued by many in our communities. We look forward to working together with our new partners to ensure that our concept of shared branch banking gains the widespread adoption to which we aspire.”
