10x Banking raises £40m backed by AshGrove Capital and BlackRock
This article covers 10x Banking, a fintech startup, and its £40m growth funding round to scale its cloud‑native core banking platform for incumbent banks and new entrants. The capital is intended to accelerate commercial expansion and support banks and building societies seeking to replace legacy core systems with real-time, AI-ready infrastructure.
10x Banking has raised £40m in a growth funding round to further scale its cloud-native core banking platform for incumbent banks and new entrants, a sign that demand for real-time, AI-ready banking infrastructure remains strong.
Why it matters
The raise matters because banks and building societies are under pressure to replace legacy core systems that struggle with real-time processing, rapid product iteration and machine-learning-driven features. 10x Banking says it is already EBITDA-positive, serves more than 10 million live accounts, has onboarded over 10 financial institutions in the past year and grew annual recurring revenue by more than 30 percent — metrics that suggest enterprise customers are voting for modern core platforms with their commitments and budgets.
Those performance indicators add urgency to banks’ migration plans. Replacing a core system is costly and complex, so vendors that can demonstrate live scale and shorter time-to-market are better placed to win contracts as digital competitiveness and AI capability become board-level priorities.
Inside the product
10x Banking provides a fourth-generation, cloud-native core that aims to remove constraints imposed by batch-oriented legacy systems. The platform is designed for real-time account servicing, continuous product delivery and richer data access to support AI-enabled banking features such as personalised offers and fraud detection.
The company lists global institutions among its customers, including Westpac and Chase UK, highlighting its ability to operate at enterprise scale across markets. Founded in 2016 by former Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins, the business is headquartered in London, has an office presence in Sydney and holds B Corp certification.
Who are the investors?
The round brings a new backer into 10x’s cap table: AshGrove Capital, a firm that focuses on high-growth B2B software and services across Europe. The announcement also notes prior support from global investors such as BlackRock and J.P. Morgan.
AshGrove said it was attracted by the company’s revenue growth, disciplined cost management and customer retention and expansion. The capital is earmarked to accelerate commercial expansion, including sales and go-to-market capabilities, as 10x targets a broader set of banking customers and geographies.
In the announcement, Phil Fretwell, Partner at AshGrove Capital, said:
10x Banking has built one of the most compelling technology platforms in core banking today. Delivering a cloud-native platform at enterprise scale is exceptionally difficult, yet 10x has already proven its capabilities across millions of live accounts and with some of the world's leading financial institutions. We believe the company is well positioned to benefit from powerful industry tailwinds as banks continue replacing legacy systems with more flexible, real-time and AI-ready infrastructure. With a proven platform and deep domain expertise, we see a significant opportunity for 10x to continue expanding its role in the next generation of banking technology.
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Founder perspective
In the announcement, Antony Jenkins, Founder, Chair & CEO at 10x Banking, said:
Financial institutions have a clear ambition to innovate, but many remain constrained by infrastructure that was not built for real-time, digital banking. We created 10x to remove those constraints, enabling financial institutions to launch products faster, serve customers in real time and compete more effectively. Our platform is now proving its value at significant scale. AshGrove's investment is a strong endorsement of the progress we have made and will help us meet growing demand from banks around the world.
In the announcement, Nadir Guessoum, CFO at 10x Banking, said:
We are thrilled to partner with AshGrove, with their investment strengthening our balance sheet and supporting our strategic growth priorities. Achieving EBITDA profitability while continuing to grow ARR demonstrates the commercial progress we have made, and AshGrove's investment reinforces confidence in the business and our strategy.
The bigger picture
This deal sits within a broader wave of fintech infrastructure financing where investors are focusing on companies that can deliver enterprise-grade, cloud-native systems to legacy incumbents. The pressure on banks to modernise — from regulators, customers and competition from challenger banks — is driving sustained demand for vendors that can prove production scale and commercial traction.
The funding also underscores continued investor appetite for UK-founded fintechs that combine UK market credibility with international client deployments. As banks in the UK and Europe plan multi-year core replacement programmes and experiment with AI use cases, vendors such as 10x will be closely watched for their ability to convert technical capability into repeatable, global commercial wins.
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