UK digital challenger Starling Bank has announced that it is expanding into the business market with the upcoming launch of business banking accounts.

The Starling for Business account will initially be designed for entrepreneurs, sole-traders, and small business owners. The aim is to offer a fast, secure, and flexible way of managing business finance from users’ mobiles. Registration for interested customers is now open ahead of an anticipated live date in early 2018.

Like the current account, the Starling for Business account will be free to set up and start using. Customers will also benefit from other features from the current account, including same day set up, 24/7 customer service and connectivity to the Marketplace so customers can link to their essential invoicing and accounting services. There will also be categorised transactions to help to arrange users’ expenses and accounts.

Features such as payment services, including real-time Faster Payments and international payments, will also be available.

Starling for Business will initially open to a closed group of testers towards the end of 2017. Customers in this group will be able to share and discuss the features they use most and any they would want added during this phase of early testing.

Anne Boden, CEO and founder of Starling Bank said: “At the heart of Starling Bank is an understanding of our customers and their passions. For a large number of our customers, that passion is a side hustle or small business that they run alongside their nine-to-five. What’s therefore become apparent is that a hugely underserved group of people exist who need more than a personal current account but aren’t quite a small business.

“This is what we are hoping to solve here by developing Starling for Business. Developing the tools and features that work for these entrepreneurially-minded and driven customers has therefore become a key goal for us in the next 12 months.”

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