Latest investments in Atom Bank will support cloud platform project

Atom Bank’s ongoing project to move to a cloud-based core banking platform will be boosted the company’s success in raising a further £50m.

Atom, which delivers its products and services through an app for mobile devices, received its banking licence in 2015 and opened its doors to the public in October 2016 following an initial invite-only launch.

Two years later, it committed to putting future products and services on a cloud-based platform developed by a group of former Google executives at a startup known as Thought Machine.

Thought Machine, set up by Paul Taylor, Google’s former head of text-to-speech, offers banks a cloud-based core banking platform known as Vault.

At the time of its public launch, the startup said its Vault system offered a real-time, high-volume architecture that could handle billions of transactions a day, with cryptographic security via a private centralised ledger and smart contracts to enable banks to launch new products quickly.

Part of the new capital raised by Atom will be used to move to Thought Machine’s Vault. “The new capital will be used to fund further growth and to continue the bank’s investment in technology,” said the bank.

Mark Mullen, CEO at Atom, said: “What is important to customers is good products, good service and good value, so that’s where we’ve spent the majority of our time and energy. We are growing our team here in the North East and will add 50 new roles this year to help us expand the range of products and services we offer, starting with instant access savings in the autumn. More than ever, we are convinced of the importance of Atom’s role to drive positive change in UK banking.”

Atom is not alone in moving to Thought Machine’s platform. In January, Lloyds Banking Group said it planned to move 500,000 customer accounts from its legacy IT onto Thought Machine’s Vault.