A key fintech partner of Mastercard and Visa suffered a hit to its bottom line as the business kicked its loss-making European arm to the curb and counted the costs of a major accounting error. 

Monovate – which acts as a licensed middle man bridging businesses and payment giants – made a loss of £8.3m in 2025, which was dragged down from the £3.5m loss on the disposal of its European operation UAB Monovate.

The firm’s pull-back from the European market runs counter with many others across the sector, which are viewing the market as ripe for expansion after pivoting from the US. 

Fintech darling Monzo is targeting the region to beef up its digital banking presence after abandoning operations in the US, meanwhile consumer payments firm Zilch snapped up Fjord Bank last year as a means to secure a European banking licence.

Monovate also revealed it had made a mistake in how it calculated its past finances, admitting it failed to properly account for the long-term costs of developing its own software. 

In correcting this error, the firm instantly wiped £3.7m off its historical savings and ballooned its 2024 losses by £2.7m to a total of £9.2m. 

Monovate lands £10m financing to push forward

But Monovate was helped to be dragged back from the cliff edge after it landed £10m in funding from its new parent company US-listed Exodus Movement, which formally acquired it on April 30.

The firm was also able to wipe out its £22.4m debt pile in loans and borrowing through handing its lenders shares in the company instead of repayments.

As a result, Monovate finished the year with £6.2m in operational cash. 

The company has set its sights on expanding its UK operations, with its headcount expanding to 45 from 32.

Revenue grew nearly 11 per cent for the year to £61.5m as it processed over £1bn transactions.

The Cambridge-based business was founded in 2020 and has an e-money licence from the City watchdog that allows it to carry out the infrastructure behind physical and virtual payment card issuing and transaction settlements. 

The firm landed £5m in seed funding in 2021 with an anonymous US investor leading the round.