Atom bank announces business incubator for North East startups

10 July 2018

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Date: 10th July 2018

Atom bank announces business incubator for North East startups

As signalled by Atom’s Chairman Bridget Rosewell at the Great Exhibition of the North’s business summit, the UK’s first bank built exclusively for mobile or tablet is creating the Atom Incubator.

Based in the bank’s HQ in Durham, the Atom Incubator offers professional advice, fully serviced space and access to a community of entrepreneurs and technologists.

Edward Twiddy, Atom’s Chief Innovation Officer, said: “Atom started in a single room in the Rivergreen Centre just over 4 years ago. Now we’re creating a great offer for new technology startups to join us and the other small businesses at Rivergreen.

“With the support of our landlords the Adderstone Group and a legal support package from our friends at Newtons Solicitors, our incubator aims to supplement the existing offers in the North East and foster more exciting startups and spin-outs in the City and across the region.”

The first business to be welcomed to the Atom Incubator will be Intogral Limited, a spinout from Durham University who are developing image analysis software using Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning.

Bill Shepherd, CEO of Intogral Limited said: “Intogral is a really exciting new spin-out business from Durham University’s computer science department with the potential to grow rapidly.

“Having recently received funding from Northstar Ventures and Innovate UK we are absolutely delighted to be moving in to the Rivergreen Centre and have the chance to become part of the Atom Incubator. We know that Atom have ambitious plans to increase prospects in the region and we look forward to playing our part to help deliver this ambition.”

From next year the Atom Incubator will link with the recently announced Durham City Incubator accelerator programme involving Durham University, New College Durham and the County Council.

ENDS

Note to Editors

After securing its banking license in June 2015, Atom bank launched operations in April 2016, offering market-leading Fixed Saver accounts and secured business lending for small and mediumsized enterprises (‘SMEs’). From the start, Atom set out to build a customer- driven bank, designed to meet their new needs and optimised for mobile technologies.

Atom bank launched its first mobile mortgage product a year ago and has recently announced it has taken £1.3bn of deposits and has now lent £1.2bn to small businesses and homeowners.

The Atom executive team are highly experienced, having built and run some of the most well respected banks in the UK. CEO Mark Mullen has 25 years’ experience in the sector and was previously CEO at the multi- award winning telephone and internet bank first direct. The team are supported by a strong non-exec board, which includes newly appointed Chair, Bridget Rosewell. Bridget has also been the chair of Atom’s audit committee since 2014. She has an economics background and is also Chairman of the Driver Vehicle Standards Agency and on the board of Network Rail as well as a Commissioner with the National Infrastructure Commission.

Atom bank are here to change banking, creating a disruptive and digital bank, keeping costs low and passing back the value to its customers. The Atom app is at the heart of the bank, with a 24/7 support team on hand to help with any customer queries through phone, chat, email and social media, working out of their Durham HQ.

Since its creation in April 2014, Atom has:

  • Raised almost £400m of equity capital through the support of private and institutional investors, including BBVA, Woodford Investment Management and Toscafund Asset Management
  • Built a highly motivated and experienced team of around 300 permanent employees
  • Been ranked 8th in KPMG’s ‘Global 2017 Fintech 100’ listing, and uniquely in the EU have been top10 in this listing for the last three years.
  • Ranked 1st in Tech World’s Digital Challengers list
  • Ranked 14th in LinkedIn’s ‘Top 25 Startups’
  • Voted the UK’s most recommended bank
  • Industry leading NPS scores in relation to Savings Product and Savings App Journey of 73%
  • Trustpilot score of 5/5
  • 98% of customers said they would recommend us on Reevoo
  • Established a global network of partners and suppliers
  • Launched 1, 2, 3 and 5 Year market-leading Fixed Saver accounts - Atom has nearly £1.3bn in deposits so far
  • Launched Digital Mortgages by Atom bank, offering secured lending to SMEs and residential mortgage products - Atom has loaned around £1.2bn to date
  • will.i.am joined Atom bank as a Strategic Board Advisor, giving an external perspective on culture, community and technology
  • Partnered with Deposit Solutions and passported its deposit taking licence to Germany to access German retail savings market to diversify funding options and increase deposits
  • Announced a four year STEM partnership with the Prince’s Trust in North East England
  • Signed up to the Women in Finance Charter in 2016 and the Tech Talent Charter in 2017