Following on from the successful launch of M-Track earlier this year, Marketplace is the next step in the ecosystem that Virgin Money is developing, offering digital services to help customers run their businesses successfully. Where M-Track provides customers with a snapshot view of their business, putting them in control, saving them time and allowing them to understand gaps, Marketplace is the digital destination where those gaps can be filled by bringing in additional services from a range of fintech partners.

Marketplace launches with five partner services covering a cross section of small business needs:

• Expend provides an all-in-one platform for business expenses, enabling small businesses and their employees to save time and improve accuracy by eliminating manual data entry and giving full visibility across company spending, as it happens.
• Accelerated Payments offers a new take on invoice financing, helping businesses plan and better manage their cash flow.
• Superscript provides flexible monthly insurance cover giving small businesses and self-employed professionals the freedom to adjust cover as things change.
• untied helps businesses stay on top of their taxes whether that’s registration, knowing their deadlines, keeping records, finding ways to save tax, filing self-assessment tax returns, and even paying HMRC.
• BrightHR is a HR platform that helps managers banish paperwork and take things digital. Whether it’s staff absences, timesheets, or health and safety reports, BrightHR can streamline and simplify processes.

Marketplace also provides information about Virgin Money products and services, helping businesses to save, borrow or manage their foreign currency needs.

Graeme Sands, Head of Business Lending & Products at Virgin Money, said: “Marketplace brings our customers together with carefully selected partner companies that can help them run their business. We know that small business owners are time poor and are looking for new ways to navigate the changing world around them, so we’re working hard with innovative fintech partners who are helping us to help our customers run their businesses in the best way.”

Johnny Vowles, founder and CEO of Expend, said: "We are delighted to have been selected by Virgin Money as one of five digital service providers for their business current account customers.

“Like Virgin Money, we are powered by innovation, and we are looking forward to helping Virgin Money customers automate their business expense processes with our smart technology.”