OneBanx, the shared branch banking startup, has today closed its £1.25m fund raise on Crowdcube, having raised £1.28 million, comfortably in excess of its target.

Having rolled out its shared branch concept with three pilots in Central Scotland, the OneBanx team is now embarking on the next phase of its plans to create a national network of kiosks, in a bid to ensure that no community in the UK is left without access to cash or everyday banking services like deposits and bill payments.

It has already opened an Access to Cash Kiosk in partnership with TSB at a shopping centre in Nottingham and will shortly be unveiling two community kiosks with Newcastle Building Society. However, to really have any impact, OneBanx wants to mobilise communities up and down the country to demand that the banks who have collectively closed more than 5,000 branches since 2015 now club together to fund a OneBanx kiosk in their area.

A report released earlier this year warned that half-a-million people across Scotland are at risk of losing access to cash due to the current rate of bank branch closures.

According to the Scottish Affairs Committee’s Access to Cash report, more than half (53%) of Scotland’s bank branches have closed since 2015 – the highest percentage loss out of the UK’s four nations.

As part of the crowdfunding exercise, OneBanx has already raised more than £1m in pre-funding towards its target of £1.25m with a pre-money valuation of £12.5m. The shares offered were equivalent to 9.04% of the company at a price of £15.06.

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Duncan Cockburn, founder and CEO of OneBanx said: “With over 5000 bank branches having closed in the UK since 2015, the need for what OneBanx can offer communities is greater than ever.

“We have had amazing support from our existing shareholders, but as a business rooted in serving communities, we wanted to extend our shareholder base to include more communities and partners with a real stake in our business as we expand and grow.

“The warm reception we have received over the past few weeks is both encouraging and exciting. Now that there are 10 high street banks committed to funding shared infrastructure and thousands of kiosks or similar needed across the UK, there is a real opportunity here to make a difference for customers.”

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