“Can a PRA-authorised UK challenger bank sustain both a direct consumer lending/savings business and a white-label BaaS licensing model on a single in-house cloud-native core?”
Founded in 2016 as a digitally native challenger bank focused on underserved UK consumers, Chetwood grew a suite of own-brand consumer products (LiveLend personal loans, SmartSave savings, BetterBorrow, Wave credit card, ModaMortgages). In 2022 it acquired Yobota — originally a sister company — to bring cloud-native core banking in-house and position itself as a Banking-as-a-Service provider operating under its own PRA banking licence. This dual strategy — direct consumer products plus a BaaS licensing platform powered by Yobota — set it apart from pure-play challengers. In July 2025 the group was acquired by Shackleton, closing the independent chapter.