On the heels of make your first profit, the app-based digital challenger bank Starling has achieved unicorn status as its latest funding round exceeds £ 1 billion.

Latest £ 272million round of funding led by Fidelity Management & Research Company brings Starling’s value to £ 1.1billion, making it the latest in a group of fintechs with higher values to £ 1 billion, known as Unicorns.

According to the UK bank, the funding will support Starling’s lending expansion in the UK, help it get started in Europe and support M&A activity.

Created by Anne Boden, former IT director and digital banking pioneer, Starling obtained her banking license in 2016 and launched the following year. In October 2020, he made their first monthly profit of £ 800,000 and in its last month that almost doubled to £ 1.5million

Following the last round of investment, Starling Bank CEO Boden said digital banking has reached a tipping point. “Customers now expect a fairer, smarter and more human alternative to the banks of the past, and this is what we are offering them at Starling as we continue to grow and add new products and services,” a- she declared.

She added that the new investors will bring their experience to support the bank’s next stage of growth, adding that “the continued support of our existing funders is a huge vote of confidence.”

Starling was one of the first digital challenger banks and was created by Boden, an IT professional who started banking. She joined Lloyds Bank in the early 1980s and then headed UK IT at Standard Chartered before working for RBS and Allied Irish Bank.

As Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Allied Irish Bank, she began to implement the ideas she had come up with working with small fintech groups. It was successful for the bank, but Boden wanted more – and realized that the only way to do it was to start from scratch with a new bank. She left and created Starling Bank.

The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated adoption of digital banking services, from which Starling takes advantage.

As of November 2019, Starling had 926,000 retail bank accounts, 82,000 corporate bank accounts and held around £ 1 billion in credit. As of October 2020, it provided over 1.25 million current accounts, 200,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) business accounts and held over £ 3 billion in deposits.

It now has over two million customer accounts, including over 300,000 small business accounts. His total loan exceeds £ 2 billion and he has deposited over £ 5.4 billion with him.

After a pause in its European expansion plans when the Covid-19 hit, the bank relaunched them in August. Boden said the bank was currently “in conversation in France and Germany”.