ormer Virgin Money boss Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia’s money-saving app Snoop has been sold to a specialist bank, four years after launching.
Vanquis Banking Group said it had acquired the fintech platform for an undisclosed sum.
The takeover is expected to help Snoop grow by bringing it under the ownership of the banking group which has 1.7 million customers, and focuses on consumers who have been declined credit from high-street lenders.
The budgeting app, which uses Open Banking to let people track their bank accounts and spending from different providers in one place, was founded by British businesswoman Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia in 2019.
The standard app is free to use, but a £4.99 monthly subscription service to Snoop Plus gives users more features such as creating unlimited spending alerts and custom spending reports, or tracking total net worth.
It pledges to target savings of up to £1,500 a year for customers through saving and budgeting.
Today’s announcement strengthens our purpose, and Vanquis Banking Group is the perfect partner to help the business grow
Dame Jayne-Anne served as the chief executive of bank Virgin Money from 2007 until 2018 when it was acquired by Clydesdale Bank owner CYBG.
She briefly headed up Salesforce in 2019 before stepping down to focus on growing Snoop, where she is currently the chair.
The amount Vanquis paid for the acquisition was not revealed by either companies.
Snoop had net assets totalling £14.5 million at the end of 2021, and hired 43 staff on average during the year, according to its accounts filed on Companies House.
Reports say it the firm was valued at £47 million at the end of a fundraise in 2021.
Meanwhile, Vanquis reported it swung to a pre-tax loss of £14.5 million in the first half of the year, down sharply from a profit of £46.9 million the same time last year, after it saw costs climb amid persistently high inflation.
Ian McLaughlin, the incoming chief executive of Vanquis, said: “I am delighted Snoop is becoming part of our group and am confident that the combination of our customers and scale, with Snoop’s market leading technology, will allow us to go from strength to strength.”
John Natalizia, chief executive of Snoop, said: “Snoop’s ambition is to make everyone better off, and we believe that personalisation is the most powerful way to empower people to take control of their finances and make a real difference to their spending habits.
“Today’s announcement strengthens our purpose, and Vanquis Banking Group is the perfect partner to help the business grow.”