UK bank Monzo valued at $5.9 billion in employee share sale

LONDON (Reuters) - British digital bank Monzo said on Friday employees had sold shares to a group of existing investors including Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, valuing the company at 4.5 billion pounds ($5.9 billion).

The share sale follows a previous fundraise in March when Monzo raised 340 million pounds at a 4-billion-pound valuation.

Monzo, which launched in 2015, is one of a handful of online-only digital banks that have started operating in Britain in recent years, although several have struggled to challenge the big high-street lenders.

As well as Singapore's GIC, StepStone Group was among the investors in the secondary share sale, Monzo said. It did not disclose how much in equity employees sold.

Monzo, which has more than 10 million customers and reported its first full year of profitability for the last financial year, plans to expand into Europe via Ireland and increase its presence in the United States.

European fintech valuations, which fell after the pandemic, have been recovering.

Britain's Revolut said in August it had secured a $45 billion valuation - up from $33 billion in 2021 - in a secondary share sale to new and existing investors.

($1 = 0.7652 pounds)

(Reporting by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)