Advent International has expressed interest in buying a minority stake in Monzo while the British digital bank considers a separate takeover approach from Nu Holdings, the owner of Nubank.
Sky News reports that Advent is one of several private equity firms to hold initial discussions about an investment. Bankers told the outlet that a minority deal would be viable only if Monzo’s talks with Nu Holdings stall.
Neither path is agreed. Advent and Monzo declined to comment, while Nu Holdings previously said it does not comment on rumors or speculation.
Monzo is weighing a sale against fresh funding
The Nu approach could value Monzo at £8 billion to £10 billion and may use a combination of cash and stock. Sky News says the talks are at an early stage and that Monzo has hired Morgan Stanley and Qatalyst to advise it.
The alternative is another capital raise, potentially at a valuation above £8 billion, to fund expansion in mainland Europe. Monzo was valued at £4.5 billion in an October 2024 secondary share sale.
The bank says it now serves more than 16 million customers, including about 1 million business-banking users. Its latest annual results showed revenue rising 39% to £1.7 billion and adjusted pretax profit increasing 20% to £172.6 million.
Advent brings a long fintech record
Advent previously owned payment processor Worldpay and recently explored a much larger bid for PayPal. An investment in Monzo would give the buyout firm a stake in one of Britain’s largest consumer-focused digital banks without requiring the full acquisition Nu Holdings is considering.
For Monzo, the parallel talks preserve several options: sell to a larger international digital bank, bring in a private equity investor or remain independent with new growth capital. The valuation range and discussions do not guarantee that any of those transactions will close.
