Dozens, a current account with savings tools and investments, will close its doors on 31 August after and changing to a B2B model.
The company stated that all of its customers’ money is safe. All funds are kept in segregated accounts. However, customers will need to make arrangements to transfer the money into an alternative account before the end of the month.
Dozens launched in 2019 and claims to have been the first company to use both an e-money and MiFID II licence to offer spending, saving and investing in one place. By the end of the first year, it had 25,000 customers, however, the growth slowed with the global pandemic.
In an announcement Dozens said, “Little did we know, a once-in-a-century global pandemic was around the corner. Covid hit when we were still a very early-stage company. Overnight we lost both investment and B2B deals worth millions of pounds. Our focus immediately switched to survival mode – simply looking after our employees and customers for as long as we could to provide some form of stability at a time when everything was so uncertain.”
The company made it through 2020 and 2021. It launched services for Apple Pay, Google Pay, direct debits and standing orders, and signed partnerships with ClearBank, Marqeta and Visa.
Unfortunately, the market has changed from the one it launched in 2019.
It stated that the domino effect of Covid means there is less money in the system. The supply chain disruption, war in Ukraine and cost-of-living crisis has adjusted how people use their money.
Another challenge is that there is less money going into the consumer side of FinTech. Finally, Dozens said the borrowing is going up, making it harder for companies that don’t rely on lending struggling.
“There is money out there for startups like us to introduce ‘buy-now-pay-later (BNPL)’ and flexible overdraft type products, and you will continue to see these popping up in many places. But for us as a business, and what we set out to do, it’s not a route we are willing to take. We are here to develop a successful new banking business model, not seek success at cost to our customer (the same reason why despite having the licences and the platform capabilities to do so, we never enabled crypto trading for our customers).”
As a result, the FinTech has closed Dozens and will focus on a B2B model. By doing this, it hopes to have more resources available for technological innovation. It will also have the time to focus on building a self-sufficient business.
However, it ended on a positive note. In the announcement Dozens said, “We’d like to thank all our customers wholeheartedly for your support, for believing in the Dozens mission and backing it by entrusting this relatively small startup with your money. For that we are forever grateful.”
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