Cashplus
“Can a UK prepaid-card pioneer reinvent itself as a full-charter challenger bank serving the SMB/sole-trader segment that high-street banks ignore?”
Founded2005
HQLondon, United Kingdom
FoundersRich Wagner
Latest round£50M growth round (2021)
IndustryFintech / SMB banking
The story
Founded 2005 as a prepaid-card operator serving underbanked UK consumers and micro-businesses. Spent 15 years operating as an e-money issuer before earning a full UK banking licence in 2021, unlocking deposit-funded lending. Rebranded to Zempler Bank in 2024 to shed the prepaid-card association and reposition as a challenger SMB bank. Acquired by The Access Bank UK in 2026, becoming an independent subsidiary of the Nigerian banking group.
Product timeline
2005
Founded as Cashplus, a UK prepaid card operator· pivot
2018
Partnered with Currencycloud to launch international payments/FX for SMEs· banking
2021
Granted full UK banking licence; raised £50M growth round· banking
2024
Rebranded from Cashplus Bank to Zempler Bank· pivot
2026
Acquired by The Access Bank UK (subsidiary of Nigeria's Access Bank)· acquisition
Regulated entities
1
regulatory licence held by Cashplus
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
7 layers disclosed in Cashplus’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Cashplus Bank (self-operated)
Banking / BaaS
in the full report
Card issuing
in the full report
Card network
in the full report
Lending
in the full report
Open banking
in the full report
FX & payouts
in the full report
Accounting gap: none
9 more providers across 6 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.