Thought Machine company profile: valuation, funding & revenue

This Thought Machine company profile covers the company's valuation, revenue, funding rounds, investors and history. Thought Machine works in fintech, with a focus on core banking software. It was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Its latest valuation on record is US$2.7 billion (May 2022). Every figure links to a public source, and anything the company hasn't disclosed is marked as such.

Revenue

Funding history

Thought Machine timeline

Key dates from the sources on this page, oldest first. Metric snapshots are listed after the funding events.

• 2014 — Thought Machine is founded in London by Paul Taylor (CEO).
• May 2022 — Series D: US$160M, valuing the company at US$2.7B. Investors: Temasek (lead); Intesa Sanpaolo, Morgan Stanley, Eurazeo, ING, JPMorgan Chase, Lloyds Banking Group, SEB.

Investors

Overview

Thought Machine builds core banking software, the central system that records customers' accounts, balances, transactions, interest and fees. Every bank depends on its core system, yet many large banks still run cores written decades ago in old programming languages on mainframe computers. These systems are reliable but expensive to change, making it slow to launch new products. Thought Machine's platform, Vault Core, is a cloud-native core banking system that lets banks define products, such as current accounts, loans and mortgages, as code using "smart contracts", and run them on modern cloud infrastructure.

The company was founded in London in 2014 by Paul Taylor, a former Google engineer who had previously founded a speech technology company acquired by Google. In May 2022 it raised a US$160 million Series D led by Temasek at a US$2.7 billion valuation, roughly double its previous valuation, according to FinTech Global. Investors in that round included several of its bank customers, among them JPMorgan Chase, Lloyds Banking Group, Intesa Sanpaolo and ING. Later filings and reports showed further smaller raises and continued losses, so the 2022 valuation should be read as historical.

Products

• Vault Core: a cloud-native core banking engine where financial products are defined in configurable code.
• Vault Payments: a payments hub that connects banks to payment schemes.
• Product library: templates for common banking products that banks can customise.
• Migration and partner network: consulting partners that help banks move from legacy cores.

Funding

Thought Machine raised early funding from investors including Lakestar and later from strategic bank investors. Its 2022 Series D of US$160 million, led by Temasek, included Intesa Sanpaolo, Morgan Stanley, Eurazeo, ING, JPMorgan Chase, Lloyds Banking Group and SEB, and valued it at US$2.7 billion. Tech.eu reported in October 2025 that it had raised a further £45 million as losses increased, and data providers list additional funding in 2025. We have not found a disclosed valuation for those later raises.

Business model

Thought Machine sells software licences and subscriptions to banks, typically in multi-year contracts, priced based on accounts and usage. Core banking projects are large and long, often taking years to deploy fully. This creates sticky, long-term relationships once live but means revenue grows slowly and depends on successful implementations.

Competition

Thought Machine competes with established core banking vendors such as Temenos, FIS, Fiserv, Finastra, Oracle and Infosys Finacle, and with cloud-native rivals such as 10x Banking, Mambu and Zafin. Some banks, especially digital banks like Revolut and Starling, build their own cores. Thought Machine's advantages are its modern architecture, product flexibility and list of tier-one bank customers.

Thought Machine at a glance

Thought Machine is a London core banking software company founded in 2014 by former Google engineer Paul Taylor. Its Vault Core platform lets banks build and run products on modern cloud infrastructure. It raised a US$160 million Series D led by Temasek at a US$2.7 billion valuation in May 2022, with major banks among its investors.

Timeline

• 2014: founded by Paul Taylor.
• 2018–2020: wins major bank customers including Lloyds Banking Group and JPMorgan Chase.
• 2021: raises a Series C and becomes a unicorn.
• May 2022: raises US$160 million at US$2.7 billion.
• 2023: cuts staff amid slower market conditions.
• 2025: raises further funding as losses increase, according to reports.

Why banks modernise their cores

Legacy core systems make it hard for banks to launch new products quickly, offer real-time services, or integrate with fintech partners. They are expensive to maintain, and the engineers who know older programming languages are retiring. Regulators also want banks to have resilient, well-understood systems. At the same time, replacing a core is one of the riskiest projects a bank can undertake: failures can lock customers out of accounts. Banks often modernise gradually, launching new products on a new core while migrating old ones over time.

Smart contracts in banking

In Vault Core, banking products are defined by smart contracts: pieces of code that specify how interest is calculated, when fees apply and what happens at each stage of a loan. This is unrelated to blockchain smart contracts despite the shared name. Defining products as code lets banks create new products quickly and test them thoroughly. It also requires banks to build engineering skills, which can be a change for organisations used to configuring vendor software.

Who funds Thought Machine

Thought Machine's investors include Temasek, JPMorgan Chase, Lloyds Banking Group, Intesa Sanpaolo, Morgan Stanley, ING, SEB and Eurazeo.

Who uses Thought Machine

Thought Machine's customers include large banks such as JPMorgan Chase and Lloyds Banking Group, along with other banks in Europe, Asia and North America.

Valuation context

Thought Machine's 2022 valuation predates its later smaller raises and reported losses. Our guides to the largest UK startups and the largest private fintech companies provide context.

Risks

• Long sales cycles: core banking deals take years to close and implement.
• Losses: reports indicate continued losses.
• Implementation risk: problems at a major bank could damage its reputation.
• Competition: incumbents and cloud-native rivals compete intensely.
• Dated valuation: the last disclosed valuation dates from 2022.

Questions for banks

• Which products would you launch first on a new core?
• How will you migrate existing accounts?
• Do you have engineering capacity to build products as code?
• Which partners will support implementation?

How a bank migrates to a new core

Core banking migrations are typically gradual. A bank might first launch a new digital product, such as a savings account for a new brand, on Thought Machine's Vault Core, running alongside its legacy system. Once the new platform proves reliable, the bank moves additional products and customer segments over time. Each migration involves mapping data, testing calculations and running parallel systems to check results match. This process can take several years for a large bank. Thought Machine works with consulting partners and system integrators that provide the large teams needed for such projects. Successful migrations become reference cases that help win other banks, while delays can slow revenue and strain relationships.

What to watch

Watch new tier-one bank wins, implementation milestones, profitability and any new priced funding.

Takeaways

Banks can modernise their cores with cloud-native technology. Founders can see how selling to banks requires patience and credibility. Investors should treat the 2022 valuation as historical.

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from the public sources below. Where sources disagreed, we used the company's own announcement or a primary news report. Private-company data changes; check the date beside each figure.

1. FinTech Global