---
title: Fintech Flex Raises $70 Million to Bring Its Private Banking Platform for Business Owners to the UK
description: Flex raises $70M in a Series B1 at a company-stated $1.2B valuation, bringing its private banking platform to UK business owners.
author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-07-14T13:06:45.013Z
updated: 2026-07-14T13:10:13.527Z
canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/flex-70m-uk-private-banking-business-owners
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/flex-uk-launch.webp
categories: FinTech
content_type: Spotlight
region: London
publication: Sovereign Magazine
about:
  - type: Organization
    name: Flex
    description: Launched in 2023, Flex (a Flexbase Technologies, Inc. brand) is the AI Native “Private Bank” for high net worth business owners in the middle market. Flex is building the category-defining company solving this gap for high net worth business owners with a five-pillar strategy built around private credit, a business finance stack, a personal finance stack, payment solutions, and an ERP built for middle market businesses. Flex is the first platform that supports every step of their financial lives, from the moment they earn revenue to the moment they spend it personally. Visit www.flex.one .
    url: https://www.flex.one
    sameAs:
      - https://www.youtube.com/@FlexSuperApp
      - https://www.instagram.com/flexsuperapp
      - https://www.facebook.com/flexsuperapp/
      - https://www.linkedin.com/company/flex-super-app
---

Flex is launching in the UK on the back of a $70 million round, moving its private banking platform for business owners into territory where JPMorgan, Barclays and HSBC all run dedicated entrepreneur teams. The expansion, which the company calls Flex Global, lands while the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority are still drafting the rules for the stablecoin rails Flex plans to route money through.

## High Net Worth Banking Comes to the UK Market

JPMorgan Private Bank runs a Business Owners, Founders & Entrepreneurs practice and an Innovation Economy Group with a UK presence. Barclays operates a High Growth team built around entrepreneurs, and HSBC Private Bank markets the UK as a [top destination for global entrepreneurs](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/uk-crowned-best-hub-for-entrepreneurs-what-this-means-for-uk-s-economic-future). All three run relationship-led services aimed at personal wealth. Flex, founded in 2020, is entering that market as a software platform rather than a branch network.

The company's case for the timing rests on stablecoins. For two decades, Flex argues, fintech served two markets: mass-market banking for consumers, and corporate tools for venture-backed startups and large enterprises. It largely bypassed the high-net-worth business owner who operates across multiple entities, currencies and jurisdictions, because the rails to serve them globally did not exist. Over the past eighteen months, the company says, [stablecoin legislation in the US and Europe](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/eu-stablecoin-kill-switch-germany-italy-proposal) made those rails ready for enterprise use. It points to Visa's stablecoin settlement volume reaching a multibillion-dollar annualized run rate, and to real-economy stablecoin payment volume roughly doubling in 2025, the majority of it between businesses.

The UK's rules are less settled. The Bank of England and the FCA are working on a joint approach to systemic stablecoin issuers, with a draft Code of Practice targeted for the end of 2026. Coinbase and other industry players have pushed back on a Bank of England proposal to cap how much individuals and businesses can hold in stablecoins.

## Flex's Multi Currency Business Account Expansion

Flex raised $70 million in a Series B1, seven months after a $60 million Series B in December 2025. Halo Fund, co-founded by Ryan Smith and Ryan Sweeney, led the round, with Portage, Wellington, Crosslink Capital, 53 Stations, Titanium Ventures, Spice and Florida Funders also participating. Smith co-founded Qualtrics, which SAP bought for $8 billion and which later went private again in a $12.5 billion deal. He also owns the NBA's Utah Jazz and the NHL's Utah Mammoth. Sweeney is a general partner at Accel and led its 2012 investment in Qualtrics. Halo Fund launched as a $1 billion vehicle in 2025 and has backed a secondary stake in 1Password. Smith said entrepreneurs "all have the same problem: their business and personal financial lives are completely intertwined, but every bank treats them as two different customers."

Flex puts its valuation at $1.2 billion, up from a reported figure of around $500 million after the December round. The company says annualized revenue has tripled since December and is now in nine figures. With this round, Flex says it has raised $180 million in total equity and $300 million in total debt. The company plans to grow headcount from 110 employees to more than 200 by the end of the year.

"Middle-market business owners are one of the most important and underserved customers in finance globally," said Zaid Rahman, chief executive and co-founder of Flex. The owners he describes have vendors spread across countries such as the US, Poland and Brazil, keep accounts in more than one currency, and move between two or three providers and layers of fees just to do business outside their own country.

Flex's site, flex.one, lists five product areas: business finance, personal finance, payments, private credit and ERP. The company says it operates across 76 countries and 32 currencies today, with $0 wire fees in local currency and foreign exchange priced around 1 percent. Flex Global adds what the company describes as stablecoin payment rails and wallets in more than 100 countries, institutional dollar accounts for foreign business owners who need access to the world's reserve currency, and private credit in more than 20 countries. Flex's own framing is that the winners in stablecoin payments will be the companies that make the rails invisible, so that an owner paying a vendor in Warsaw or Mexico City never handles the settlement layer directly.

Rahman co-founded the fintech with Hadi Solh in October 2020 as Flexbase, a contractor credit card offering 60-day interest-free financing for construction firms. Both grew up around family construction businesses. The company rebranded from Flexbase to Flex in 2023, but the origin still shows in the customer base: Flex says its three largest business categories by logo count are construction, wholesale and multinational businesses.

## The Business Banking App Gap Flex Is Targeting

Flex's customers are business owners with roughly $3 million to $100 million in annual revenue, a band it says sits between two existing markets. Business banking apps such as Mercury and Brex built their customer base among earlier-stage, venture-backed startups. Traditional private banks, including the JPMorgan, Barclays and HSBC entrepreneur teams, generally qualify clients by liquid net worth rather than the revenue of an operating business. Owners who have most of their wealth tied up in their company can fall outside that threshold even if the business itself generates significant cash flow. Flex puts the US population of such owners at roughly 350,000, driving 40 percent of private-sector payroll, and estimates around 3 million worldwide.

Sovereign [covered Flex's push into this gap](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/fintech-flex-builds-a-3-billion-fintech-banking-america-s-forgotten-middle-market) in February, when the company's annualized payment volume had grown to $3 billion. Flex now says that figure has crossed $10 billion, growing roughly four times year over year. About 30 percent of entrepreneurs surveyed by Barclays this year cited access to private finance as a constraint on growth. Flex is betting that AP and AR automation, along with integrations with QuickBooks, Xero and NetSuite, will pull those owners toward a single platform instead of splitting business banking, personal banking and credit across separate providers.

**About Flex**

Launched in 2023, Flex (a Flexbase Technologies, Inc. brand) is the AI Native “Private Bank” for high net worth business owners in the middle market. Flex is building the category-defining company solving this gap for high net worth business owners with a five-pillar strategy built around private credit, a business finance stack, a personal finance stack, payment solutions, and an ERP built for middle market businesses. Flex is the first platform that supports every step of their financial lives, from the moment they earn revenue to the moment they spend it personally. Visit www.flex.one .

[Website](https://www.flex.one)

## FAQ

**Q: What does Flex do?**
Flex runs a private banking platform, which it describes as an AI-native private bank, for middle-market business owners with roughly $3 million to $100 million in annual revenue. It combines business finance, personal finance, payments, private credit and ERP tools, including AP/AR automation and integrations with QuickBooks, Xero and NetSuite.

**Q: Which private bank is best for business owners?**
JPMorgan, Barclays and HSBC each run dedicated teams for entrepreneurs and business owners, but they typically qualify clients by liquid net worth. Flex positions itself as an alternative for owners whose wealth is tied up in an operating business rather than held as liquid assets.

**Q: What is considered high net worth in banking?**
Private banks generally set entry thresholds based on liquid net worth or investable assets, not business revenue. That is the gap Flex says it is targeting: owners of $3 million to $100 million revenue companies who may not clear a private bank's liquid net worth bar even though their business generates substantial income.

**Q: How does Flex bank work?**
Flex says it operates across 76 countries and 32 currencies, with $0 wire fees in local currency and roughly 1 percent foreign exchange. It plans to expand to more than 100 countries by running international transfers on stablecoin rails, which it says will let customers move money in minutes rather than days.