BT rescues startup to help prepare fintech expansion | M&A
BT has made another opportunistic M&A deal to help address digital recruitment challenges by buying Welsh start-up Monva out of administration, TelcoTitans can reveal.
The acquisition, which was done quietly earlier this year, has seen the Deeside-based business’s team absorbed into BT Digital, the division BT set up in 2021 to drive internal transformation and develop new high-tech products (BTwatch#320).
It is understood that Monva CEO Steve Wiley and Chief Technology Officer Simon Dawson have since been working on a service that will support a new play by BT in the fintech market.
Both transferred to Digital in May, with Wiley as Director of Data & AI Solutions and Dawson taking up a newly created position as Head of Technology, Fintech at Etc, Digital’s incubation unit (BTwatch#332 and #337).
The acquisition came in the weeks after Monva went into administration at the beginning of March. BT Chief Digital & Innovation Officer Harmeen Mehta reportedly sanctioned the deal after the meeting – and “loving” — The Monva team.
A BT spokesperson confirmed that the transaction had been completed, saying that “we acquired three people and certain assets of Monva Ltd earlier this year and are integrating their technology and skills into various parts of the business“.
Monva was established in 2018, with the aim of offering consumers a simpler and more intuitive comparison and recommendation offer for financial services and utility products. It received three rounds of investment during its time in business, with backers including the government-owned Development Bank of Wales. However, it is said to have been heavily influenced by pandemic and increase in wholesale energy prices, limits the ability to act on consumers who switch to new energy tariffs. Attempts to raise new investment, then sell the business, founded in early 2022, which led to it calling in Quantuma as an administrator.
BT’s bid to make bank
Fintech is one of a handful of growth areas that Mehta is targeting, along with healthcare and drones.
She has a background in the sector, with a current board seat at Lloyds Bank and a previous term at HSBC – and has understood discussions with partners who can support BT’s play in the area. The territory is also known to CEO Philip Jansen, recruited by BT from Worldpay in 2019.
The operator does not have a significant existing presence in consumer financial services, but will no doubt be looking to tap into the vast array of telecom customer data when it comes to delivering customized services at scale in the market, and building deeper relationships with money-saving households. during the cost of living crisis.
BT also has a number of important B2B relationships in the area, including via BT Global’s financial IT and network unit BT Radianz. Global banking and financial services accounted for almost a third of revenue in BT’s last financial year, to 31 March 2022, delivering £1.04 billion (€1.19 billion) of its £3.36 billion turnover.
Start over
While BT has not been an active player in corporate venturing for some time, things have changed as part of Mehta’s innovation agenda.
Buying Monva feeds additional resources into Etc’s Product Factory feature, set up this year to enable “fast” service prototyping, strategy development and start-up investments and partnerships – all with the aim of delivering new applications and services faster.
The digital division has indicated in recent months that it is looking to buy or invest in more startups to gain intellectual property and talent, and in February bought a minority stake in developer recruitment platform Distributed in a £30m transaction (BTwatch#333).
Head of the partnership program is Meg Blight, director of Startup Growth at Digital.
