Starling Bank, a UK-based challenger bank, has completed three new integrations on its Marketplace - workplace messaging app Slack; energy switching service Bionic; and health insurance provider Equipsme.
The banking platform’s Marketplace offers easy integration of third-party services to its business-focused customers which they can link directly via their banking app.
With the new additions, Marketplace now offers 26 complimentary business services to the challenger bank’s 177,000 small business customers. The recent additions are also first in the area of communications, energy, and health.
Previous Starling Bank Marketplace partners include players from areas like mortgage advice and virtual office space, insolvency insurance, Cybersecurity , mobile point of sale technology, rent recognition platform technology and accounting software.
Commenting on the development, Anne Boden, founder and CEO of Starling Bank, said: “These new Marketplace integrations are bringing added value to our business customers, helping them to save money on utilities, incentivize their staff with health insurance and sync their Starling app with Slack so their teams can enjoy real-time spending notifications wherever they’re working.”
Bringing banking services to SMEs
Starling Bank is targeting specifically small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and individuals across the UK and Europe.
Slack is a popular team communication platform and it will give the bank’s business owners better visibility of their transactions in real-time. It will also allow finance or account managers to see transaction details without direct access to the Starling Bank account.
Bionic, on the other hand, has the potential to save the bank’s business customers up to an average of £725 (around $908) a year on their energy bills while Equipsme will offer flexible health insurance for the employees of the small and mid-size businesses.
Starling Bank recently raised £40 million (around $49.2 million) in the latest Funding Round from its existing investors, putting the total funding into the bank at £100 million ($125.3 million).
