Thought Machine secures £30mn from unnamed Tier 1 bank

Thought Machine has raised £30mn from an unnamed Tier 1 bank, taking total funding for the UK core banking technology company to £80mn, according to Finextra. The financing adds fresh capital for a vendor whose reported revenue and recurring software base have both moved above the $100mn mark.

Finextra reported that the investor was not identified beyond its status as a Tier 1 bank. The term is commonly used in banking technology markets to describe large institutions with complex operations, high transaction volumes and demanding regulatory and resilience requirements.

Thought Machine sells core banking technology, the systems banks use to record accounts, process deposits and loans, manage product rules and connect customer channels to ledgers. Replacing or upgrading a core platform is typically a multi-year project because it affects the operational infrastructure that sits behind retail and commercial banking services.

According to Finextra, the fundraising follows Thought Machine passing $100mn in total revenue for the financial year ending December 2025. That represented a 57% increase from the prior year, Finextra reported.

The company’s annual recurring revenue also exceeded $100mn as of the second quarter of 2026, according to the report. ARR is a software measure that annualises contracted recurring income, and is closely watched by investors because it indicates the scale of subscription or long-term contracted revenue that may repeat over time.

Finextra attributed the ARR growth to multi-year commitments tied to several migrations by Tier 1 banks. Those agreements can be commercially significant because large-bank core migrations often involve long implementation schedules, extensive testing and broad integration work across payments, customer records, compliance tools and digital channels.

The company’s losses also narrowed, falling from £70mn to about £12mn, according to Finextra. The report did not name the period used for that comparison.

Thought Machine’s customer list includes 18 of the world’s largest financial institutions, Finextra reported, naming Lloyds, JPMorgan Chase and Intesa Sanpaolo among them. In total, the company has signed 68 banks worldwide, according to the report.

The financing comes as established banks continue to invest in technology renewal, particularly in core systems that were often built over many years and can be costly to alter. For software suppliers such as Thought Machine, large-bank wins can support recurring revenue growth, but implementation risk and long sales cycles remain central features of the market.

Finextra has also reported several recent Thought Machine partnerships, including work with BCA Syariah to modernise Islamic finance, Afin’s use of the platform for a UK digital bank serving Africans, Ethos’s Shariah-compliant banking services, and Mastercard naming Thought Machine as a core banking partner. Finextra also reported job cuts at the company in October 2023.

This story draws on original reporting from Finextra Research.