EXCLUSIVE – When college student Ollie Purdue set out to create the student-centered digital current accounts company Loot, the idea was to solve a personal problem.

“What’s the minimum I can earn, and the minimum I need to work to last me till the next payday?” Purdue related to Bank Innovation.

At the time, Purdue was studying law at University of the West of England in Bristol, U.K., when he realized many of his peers were having the same problem.

“Bank apps don’t show you transactions in real-time, and money management apps tell me how much I’ve spent, but still don’t tell me how much I should spend,” he said.

And that was the genesis of Loot. Oh, did we mention Purdue is  just 24 years old? Talk about an over-achiever!

“So, I sent letters to the CEOs at the top five banks in the U.K. with the idea of creating a mobile-first current accounts app that had features relevant to students,” he said. “Out of the five banks I reached out to, I heard back from three, including HSBC. They all overwhelmingly liked the idea. But either it wasn’t strategic, or they were planning way too far in advance or couldn’t do it on the tech level. So, I decided I would give it a go myself.”

First step for Purdue was to raise funds. In 2014, he raised £15K ($21K) in seed funding, and hired two people.

“The first product in 2015 didn’t work that well,” he said. “We even did a trial with Visa and also tried an unbranded card, but it didn’t pan out.”

“So, we spent a lot of time focusing on developing a solid current accounts product, and getting things live and working.”

By end of 2017, Purdue went on to raise £2.2 million ($2.9 million) in Series A funding round, which was led by Portag3 Ventures and Austrian VC Speedinvest. By then, Loot had also partnered with Mastercard to issue its debit cards.

Today, Loot employees 45 people. It has over 100,000 signups and is experiencing a 12% YOY growth rate. A recent report by MoneySuperMarket shows Loot to be one of the best-known digital banks among the U.K. population.

During 2018, Purdue will focus on generating revenues.

“We spent last year and most of 2016 scaling and on the workings of the product,” Purdue said. “This year, we look at revenues.”

Loot is a U.K.-based digital current accounts app centered around PFM capabilities. It 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 side of things.

Read more about how Loot will generate revenues here.