Morgan Stanley throws weight behind Thought Machine in $160m funding round
Morgan Stanley has thrown its weight behind London fintech Thought Machine in a $160m funding round announced today, as the London-based cloud banking firm gears up for international expansion.
The fresh funding round, led by Singapore investment giant Temasek with backing from institutional heavyweights including Morgan Stanley, Lloyds Banking Group and JP Morgan, doubles Thought Machine’s valuation to $2.7bn.
Bosses at the London fintech said the round was a “statement of intent” as it gears up for an expansion into markets including Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines.
“We intend to become the leader in core banking technology, and are being deployed by the biggest, most successful banks around the world,” said Paul Taylor, founder of Thought Machine.
“We will use this new capital to accelerate our expansion plans, serve more clients around the world, and continuously refine the capabilities of our core banking platform and other products.”
Thought Machine has also now bolstered its executive team alongside the funding, with the appointments of former Bank of America and Finastra finance leader Arnaud Attamian as Chief Financial Officer, and ex-SAP and Box sales leader Dana Barisano as Chief Revenue Officer.
The capital injection comes on the tail of a $200m November funding round which saw Thought Machine pass so-called unicorn status for the first time.
Intesa Sanpaolo, which backed the new round with £40m, said Thought Machine’s was set to grow fast.
“Thought Machine’s cloud-based technology is fundamental to our transformation from incumbent to digital challenger, improving our core banking technology and providing the foundation for our new digital bank, Isybank,” said Carlo Messina, managing director and CEO.