Loot, a UK startup that offers a pre-paid card and smart budgeting app to University students, is opening the service to millennials more generally, after scooping £1.5 million in funding from Speedinvest and Global Founders Capital.
Launched to coincide with start of the University year, Loot has so far signed up 5000 account holders for its neobanking app, which monitors spending linked to a MasterCard pre-paid account.
Founded by 22-year old graduate Ollie Purdue, Loot is aimed squarely at 'Generation Snapchat', providing a five-minute account opening process and a range of features designed to appeal to the impulse-buying youth segment, including future spending forecasts, instant notifications and discounted deals.
The company, which is branding itself as an alternative to traditional incumbent banks, is piggy-backing off the e-money license of Germany's Wirecard, which also provides the back-end servicing for the account and card.
The firm says it will use the new funds to upgrade the app and promote and roll out the account more widely, targeting an initial run of 25,000 new users.