Company type | Public limited company |
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Industry |
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Founded | July 31, 2013 |
Founder |
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Headquarters | Durham, England, UK |
Website |
atombank |
Atom Bank plc is a retail bank in the United Kingdom. It is the United Kingdom's first bank built for smartphone or tablet, without any branches, [1] and the first digital-only challenger bank to be granted a full UK regulatory licence. [2] The company is based in Durham, England. [3]
Atom is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the PRA.
Atom was founded in July 2013 [4] by Anthony Thomson, co-founder of Metro Bank [5] and Mark Mullen, previous CEO at First Direct. [6]
In June 2015, Atom was granted a banking licence [7] and before launch in November 2015, Spanish bank BBVA agreed to invest a substantial stake in Atom. [8] The company launched to the public in April 2016, after its regulatory authorisation restrictions were lifted, initially to those who had expressed an interest previously and had been given a registration code. [9] It launched more widely in October 2016 and today it offers mortgages and savings accounts, along with secured loans for small businesses. [10]
In 2017, Atom was named by LinkedIn as one of UK's top 25 startups and ranked 14th alongside companies such as Deliveroo, Uber and Airbnb, [11] and in 2019, Atom ranked second in business analyst Beauhurst's list of 50 top fintech UK startups and scale-ups. It was the only company from outside London in the top 20 of the list. [12]
In November 2023, Atom raised 100m£ from BBVA, Toscafund and Infinity Investments Partners. [13]
Atom has apps for iOS and Android phones, [10] offering biometric security, with customers able to sign in via face ID or voice ID. [5]