The archive · Money & Fintech · Strategic decision · 2016-2026
TrueLayer's open-banking bet lands: eBay invests and adds Pay by Bank at checkout
Founded in 2016 on UK open banking rails, TrueLayer has eBay investing and taking Pay by Bank at checkout as 2024 revenue hit £20.3M.
TrueLayer
What the business is
TrueLayer runs an open banking network: APIs that let businesses read bank account data and accept account-to-account payments, sold as verification, payouts and its Pay by Bank checkout product.
How it started
Co-founders Francesco Simoneschi and Luca Martinetti founded TrueLayer in 2016 and spent the next decade building open banking APIs in the UK — first letting businesses read account data, then letting them take payments directly from bank accounts.
What happened
By fiscal 2024 revenue had grown to £20.3M from £12.4M in 2023, and the pre-tax loss narrowed from £55.6M to £38.6M. Stripe, Tiger Global, Tencent and Temasek were among its investors. In February 2026 eBay introduced Pay by Bank for UK buyers at checkout through TrueLayer and eBay Ventures made a strategic investment of undisclosed size — the first public round since a 2024 $50M raise that reportedly ended TrueLayer's unicorn status.
How it ended up
Still running and scaling: the eBay checkout rollout is TrueLayer's highest-profile merchant win, revenue roughly doubled between 2023 and 2024, and the PSD3-era regulatory calendar is expanding the same open banking rails it operates.
Background
TrueLayer was founded in 2016 by Francesco Simoneschi and Luca Martinetti to build the API plumbing of open banking: systems that let businesses read bank account data and, later, take payments straight from bank accounts. Northzone, an early backer, describes it as Europe's leading open banking network.
The bet was that regulator-forced open banking would mature from a compliance exercise into a payment rail that shoppers actually choose at checkout. By fiscal 2024 the thesis showed in the numbers: revenue of £20.3M, up from £12.4M in 2023, and a pre-tax loss narrowed to £38.6M from £55.6M. Investors included Stripe, Tiger Global, Tencent and Temasek, and Amazon and Ryanair were among the merchants already taking TrueLayer payments.
In February 2026 eBay introduced Pay by Bank for UK buyers at checkout through TrueLayer — shoppers authorise the payment in their own banking app and eBay never sees their login details — while eBay Ventures made a strategic investment of undisclosed size. eBay's vice president of product called it an important step in diversifying the payment mix with a secure, real-time option.
The timing mattered: PSD3 and the accompanying Payment Services Regulation took effect in the EU on 1 July 2026, extending mandatory data sharing beyond payment accounts to savings, investment, insurance and pension accounts by January 2028. FinanceX, reporting on that deadline, named TrueLayer among the open banking networks for which the mandate is a scale unlock.
What has to be true
- TrueLayer bet on neutral infrastructure rather than a consumer brand: banks and merchants could plug its APIs in without handing over their customer relationships.
- eBay gave the demand-side proof at mass-market scale, framing Pay by Bank as a way to diversify its payment mix with a secure, real-time option.
- The regulatory calendar widened the same plumbing: PSD3/PSR made open finance mandatory by January 2028, so the network TrueLayer already operates faces deadline-driven expansion of data sources.
- Its economics improved as the bet matured: revenue rose from £12.4M to £20.3M while the pre-tax loss fell from £55.6M to £38.6M, evidence the network model was gaining scale before the eBay deal.
What can be applied
A compliance API becomes a business when it sits under a real transaction: TrueLayer's decade of data plumbing paid off once an eBay-sized checkout said yes.
Aftermath
As of September 2026 TrueLayer is an active, scaling business: eBay's UK checkout offers Pay by Bank, and PSD3/PSR — in force in the EU since 1 July 2026 — extends mandatory data sharing to savings, investment, insurance and pension accounts by January 2028, a widening FinanceX expects to reward networks like TrueLayer. In the UK, TrueLayer is part of the UKPI consortium funding a commercial variable recurring payments scheme, with VRPs already 16% of UK open banking payments. The company's most recent public figures remain fiscal 2024: £20.3M revenue and a £38.6M pre-tax loss.
Sources
- TrueLayer lands eBay "strategic investment"
- eBay introduces Pay by Bank at checkout and makes investment in TrueLayer
- PSD3 Day Zero: Europe's Banks Rewire the Rails While 61% Aren't Ready
- TrueLayer - Northzone portfolio
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe what you are building, and see who is betting on the same thing.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card