Stoa raises £1.8m pre-seed to give savers upfront perks on locked-up cash
July 6, 2026
Stoa, a London-based cash-management startup, has raised £1.8m ($2.4m) in pre-seed funding in a round co-led by Bespokeist Partners and Ingenii Capital.
The company is going after the large pool of cash that earns its holders next to nothing. Stoa points to more than £600bn sitting in low- or zero-interest consumer accounts in the UK, plus another £250bn in small-business reserves — balances that generate little for the people and firms that hold them while banks put the money to work. Its pitch is that savers should get something tangible back without having to spend the underlying cash.
The product centres on fixed-term deposits it calls Stoa Pots. Instead of waiting for interest to accrue, customers who lock cash away receive upfront perks and benefits from partner brands. Deposits are held with regulated banking partners and eligible funds are protected under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Once a customer connects their bank account through open banking, Stoa reads their spending and saving patterns to shape the offers on display, and the platform is built so banks and merchants can plug Stoa Pots into their own channels. The company is also developing Saving Score, which it bills as a savings-behaviour index meant to sit alongside the credit score.
The platform is already live in the UK for both consumers and businesses. Stoa was founded in 2025 by chief executive Mike Saraswat, who previously ran a London creative agency that worked with Starling Bank, SumUp and Klarna, and chief technology officer Sam Goodenough. The wider team draws on experience from firms including Octopus Investments, Starling Bank, Nationwide and Lloyds, and John Mountain, a Starling co-founder and its former chief executive, recently joined as an advisor.
Alongside co-leads Bespokeist Partners and Ingenii Capital, the round drew participation from Force Over Mass Capital and Fuel Ventures, as well as angels including Suneel Hargunani, formerly of Citi, and Rachel Sestini, a partner at Shaw Gibbs and co-founder of Canopy Capital. Stoa says the money will fund growth of the platform and support an expansion into the United States, where it intends to focus on small and medium-sized businesses.
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