London fintech lands “innovative” partnership with Virgin Money

Virgin Money has announced a new fintech partnership with London based Expend, adding an Expense Management service to its new business banking proposition.

The bank’s offering to business current account customers is being transformed with its digital-first proposition that will offer services, such as Expend, to help customers run their businesses successfully.

Expend has designed its service to be a “one-stop shop to empower SMEs and employees to submit and manage their expenses”. This saves businesses time, boosts efficiency and increases transparency in its business spending process.

The fintech launched in 2015 and has 20 employees. The platform has been designed to be completely scalable and has a range of features for all small businesses, in varying stages of the business lifecycle.

Graeme Sands, interim head of business banking at Virgin Money, said: “Expend offers a service that we know will provide real value to our customers. Businesses want to be able to do tasks quicker and more effectively – and this expense management service is exactly the kind of help many of them need.

“Working with our fintech partners is playing a vital role in transforming our business bank. We have a new market-leading current account for SMEs, M Account for Business, and there is a lot more to come in 2022. We’re really proud of the work we’re doing with our fintech partners, helping us to help our customers run their businesses in the best way.”

Johnny Vowles, founder and CEO of Expend, said: “This partnership with Virgin Money is a real statement of our intent to bring powerful spend and expense management tools into the hands of small and medium businesses.

“Being a part of this innovative project with Virgin Money is the perfect way for us to further our mission to truly automate complex processes for businesses to help maximise their time and money savings.

“Expend aims to help to close the gap between banking and accounting by simplifying things for businesses, helping companies to better understand their financial position, therefore enabling them to act upon that information efficiently.”