Estonian fintech Monese lays off 22 employees and launches a banking platform

Estonian fintech Monese, which offers accounts and money transfer services, is to launch a new banking platform for banks and other companies. At the same time, management has to fire 22 employees in its Estonian office. 

In total, the company has 500 people on its team, 273 of which work in the Telliskivi Creative City office in Estonia.

Monese solution is a mobile-based multi-currency account and accompanying debit card that supports cash deposits and withdrawals. There are no credit checks, and customers don’t need local proof of address, but they have to provide a photo ID and selfie, and also live in the EU or the UK. It is possible to transfer the British pound, euro, and Romanian Lei into 16 European currencies on the platform.

Monese's founder is an Estonian entrepreneur Norris Koppel who started the company in London in 2015. Monese has more than two million customers in 31 countries. To date, it has raised about $208M. The latest investment amounted to $35M was made by European HSBC Ventures, the investment arm of HSBC in September 2022.