Digital challenger Starling has announced a new raft of board members and a $70 million funding boost from investor Harald McPike.

The digital bank, which is led by Anne Boden and is in the process of securing its UK licence, has appointed Oliver Stocken as chairman. His most recent executive role was as group finance director at Barclays, and he went on to become a non-executive director at Standard Chartered Bank and chairman of Stanhope Group Holdings.

He is joined on the Starling board by ex-FCA veteran Victoria Raffé, Ageas Insurance chairman Mark Winlow, former Lloyds CFO Steve Colsell, and QuantRes executives Marcus Traill and Craig Mawdsley, who will all be non-executive directors.

Meanwhile, QuantRes group owner Harald McPike said he could “not pass up” the opportunity to invest in one of the UK’s latest crop of digital banking challengers. He explained: “I share Starling’s vision of creating genuine positive change in peoples’ lives and will enjoy seeing a revolution in the banking experience. Mobile technologies continue to alter fundamentally our lives and expectations of how we manage them, but it seems that traditional banks are not able to adapt fast enough. Anne and her team bring strong capabilities, passion and determination to finally provide people a modern, mobile-first bank.”

Commenting on McPike’s investment, Boden added: “It was important to us to have an investor with not just the financial strength, but who also shared our ambition of empowering people with meaningful insight into their own financial information. With his background in algorithmic trading, risk management and technology, Harald sees the significant potential of technology in the retail banking sector. His commitment of $70 million is the catalyst needed to propel Starling’s launch.”

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