“Can a socially-branded UK challenger bank scale profitably by moving from BaaS rails onto its own PRA charter and lending book?”
Founded 2016 as B-Social — a social finance app centred on bill-splitting with a prepaid Mastercard debit card issued via PayrNet/Modulr. Rebranded to Kroo in 2020 and pursued a full UK banking licence, granted in June 2022. Since then Kroo has migrated from the third-party e-money rails onto its own PRA-regulated balance sheet, launched current accounts, overdrafts and personal loans, and moved into bridging-loan forward flow deals — evolving from a prepaid neobank wrapper into a full-stack chartered UK challenger bank.
Kroo discloses Kroo Bank Ltd (in-house) as its banking provider, according to the Embedded Finance Index 2026.
Kroo does not disclose a bank charter of its own; its banking services are provided through Kroo Bank Ltd (in-house).
Kroo moves money over Faster Payments.
Kroo's cards are issued through PayrNet (legacy) and Kroo Bank Ltd (in-house) on the Mastercard network.
Kroo's lending and capital products are provided by Kroo Bank Ltd (in-house).
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 5 layers in Kroo's stack: Money movement (Faster Payments); Banking / BaaS (Kroo Bank Ltd (in-house)); Card issuing (PayrNet (legacy) and Kroo Bank Ltd (in-house)); Card network (Mastercard); Lending (Kroo Bank Ltd (in-house)).
Kroo is founded in 2016 and headquartered in London, United Kingdom.
Kroo has raised £75M+ (pre-Series C) in total (latest round: Series C (targeted, 2023)).
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Kroo and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.