Temasek leads $160m funding of UK-based banking tech firm

Singapore’s Temasek Holdings has led a US$160 million series D fundraise for Thought Machine, a cloud-native banking tech company headquartered in the UK. According to a statement, the round has raised the company’s value to US$2.7 billion and marks a 100% increase from its previous round at the end of 2021.

Other participants in the latest round include new investors Intesa Sanpaolo and Morgan Stanley, as well as existing investors such as Eurazeo, ING, JPMorgan Chase, Lloyds Banking Group, and SEB.

Photo credit: Temasek

Thought Machine will use the fresh funds to continue its expansion plans in Asia-Pacific markets such as Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines. It will also use the capital raised to develop its tech, improve its core banking platform, and innovate new product lines.

Its teams are currently spread across London, New York, Singapore, Sydney, and Melbourne. Together, they have raised over US$500 million in funding.

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Vault Core, Thought Machine’s banking platform, was developed natively for the cloud to support large-scale banks undertaking core transformation, as well as smaller banks and fintech players that are launching new propositions to the market. The platform has helped several financial institutions like Intesa Sanpaolo, Lloyds Banking Group, Standard Chartered, ING, Atom bank, Curve, and others.

Thought Machine founder and CEO Paul Taylor said his company intends to become the leader in core banking tech in the world. The firm’s research shows that core banking tech in Asia is on average 20 years old or older, demonstrating a huge potential for modern cloud-native tech to thrive.