Technology forward with a lean cost structure and known for being customer centric, Starling Bank is one of the most successful UK digital lenders. It has operated as a licensed bank in the U.K. since 2018 with shareholders that include Goldman Sachs, Fidelity Investments and the Qatar Investment Authority.
In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025, Starling Bank posted a profit of US$301.9 million on revenue of US$963.4 million.While that is an enviable performance by the standard of most fintech startups, for Starling Bank it was a bit of a disappointment. The company’s net income fell 26% annually because of a Covid-era business loan fraud issue and a regulatory fine over financial crime failings. Revenue grew 5%, but that was a significant slowdown from the 50% expansion rate in Starling’s 2024 fiscal year.
Never as audacious as competitors like Revolut and, to a lesser degree, Monzo, Starling still faces the reality of being an 11-year-old fintech startup long past the go-go days in private markets. Investors want Starling Bank to show them the exit ramp—and for this reason, the company has reportedly engaged investment banks, including Morgan Stanley and Rothschild, to explore options for a sale, targeting a potential valuation of up to £4 billion.
Though Starling Bank is a UK company whose largest business is in its home market, we would not be surprised if it were to eschew the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and instead go public in the United States. To be sure, a New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) listing—which we consider the likeliest destination for the offering—would signal a change in direction from what former interim CEO John Mountain said in 2024. At the time, Mountain said that London was the “natural home” for Starling, and he even emphasized that the company was not “considering other markets” for its market debut.
That was then. Now, Starling Bank is leaning towards a U.S. listing. The UK digital lender’s CFO, Declan Ferguson, told the Financial Times in July that while no decision had been made on where the bank would list, it was a U.S. IPO. “We continue to observe what is happening externally with our peers and also what is happening on the global stage in terms of the UK versus US [stock markets],” he said.
One reason for Starling Bank to go public in the U.S. would be to achieve a higher valuation than it could on the LSE. The U.S. IPO market benefits from bigger size, greater investor sophistication regarding technology stocks, and higher valuation multiples. UK fintechs often feel they are valued more like traditional banks in London, whereas in the U.S., they might be valued as high-growth technology platforms.
At the same time, the U.S. has a much larger financial services market than the UK that, despite its fragmented nature, offers Starling significant opportunities. Starling’s management reckons that its cloud-native technology platform (Engine) could be a key differentiator in the massive U.S. banking market, especially when it comes to its thousands of mid-tier and community banks.
To that end, Starling is also likely to expand in the U.S. prior to its IPO and has reportedly looked at acquiring a U.S. bank. If the UK digital lender can acquire a traditional U.S. bank, it will avoid the regulatory morass that would be guaranteed if it independently applied for a U.S. banking license. Further, an acquisition would give Starling Bank instant infrastructure and deposits in the American market, as well as an immediate opportunity to deploy Engine.
If the UK neobank finds an attractive M&A target, we expect it would move to make the deal in the first half of 2026 and help pave the way for an NYSE IPO, perhaps in the second half of the year.