EXCLUSIVE – With over 100,000 signups to date, Ollie Purdue, CEO of digital current accounts Loot will turn his focus on generating revenues this year.
“We spent last year and most of 2016 scaling and on the workings of the product,” Purdue told Bank Innovation. “This year, we look at revenues.”
Launched back in 2014, Loot is a U.K.-based digital current accounts app centered around PFM capabilities. The fintech targets students between the age of 18-25, with 23-years-old being the average Loot user age.
Loot doesn’t have a banking license, but instead works with Wirecard on the banking front and Mastercard for its debit cards.
Purdue, along with a team of 45 employees, spent the last few years building Loot’s infrastructure and amassing users. This year is about revenues.
So how exactly does Loot make money?
“We make money the same way a bank does,” Purdue said. “The real innovation is that we can acquire users for a tenth of the costs banks do. The last two years were spent focusing on acquisitions and proving that we can do it at 10% of the costs.”
“The goal is to be cheaper than a traditional bank and more expensive than a fintech. We want to be mid-market,” he said. “Cheaper than a Barclays and a little more expensive than a Wirecard, if you will.”
And indeed, this must be working, as Loot is experiencing a 12% YOY growth rate. In fact, a recent report by MoneySuperMarket shows Loot to be one of the best known digital banks among the U.K. population.
And given that Loot caters to a very niche audience, it allows Purdue and his team to develop and provide very specific products and services.
“The coolest one is our budgeting circle,” he said. Look at how that works here.
“The tool takes into account all the user’s expenses in real-time,” he explained. “It budgets based on all your upcoming bills and expenses and tells you how much you have left after all everything is considered.”
Most banking apps, he said, only looks at the money being spent and not any upcoming recurring expenses.
“We give you the whole picture,” he said.
As for PFMs, a user still must connect their bank account to the PFM.
“With Loot it’s all there in one place,” Purdue said.
In terms of revenue generators, Loot’s recently added a foreign exchange rate, will likely contribute to its revenue stream. Loot’s FX allows international transfer at a competitive foreign exchange rate.






