Former Barclays chief Jenkins raises £40m for tech platform 10x Banking

A former chief executive of Barclays has secured a £40m capital injection for the banking technology platform he launched a decade ago.

Sky News understands that 10x Banking, which was founded by Antony Jenkins and counts JPMorgan Chase among its backers, will announce on Tuesday its first major fundraising since 2024.

The money, a combination of debt and equity, is coming from AshGrove Capital, a firm specialising in software investments.

10x was set up by Mr Jenkins following his exit from Barclays, and has struck deals to power the digital operations of major banks including Australia's Westpac and Chase UK.

The company has now reached the milestone of serving more than 10 million live customer accounts and expects to be profitable on an EBITDA basis this year.

Its latest capital injection is its first since January 2024, and comes as rapid changes in artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities promise to displace established banking software systems.

"Applied AI works in two directions for us," Mr Jenkins said.

"It raises the pressure on every bank to modernise the technology underneath them, because you cannot put AI to work effectively on a core built for another era.

"And it makes what 10x does more valuable, because a modern, AI-ready core is what lets a bank actually use AI."

He added: "Every bank wants to be an AI bank, but almost none can be, on a forty-year-old core.

"That is the opportunity in front of us."

10x said it had struck deals with over ten new financial institutions in the last 12 months, and increased annual recurring revenue (ARR) by over 30% during the same period.

It declined to say at what valuation the new equity had been raised from AshGrove Capital.

"10x Banking has built one of the most compelling technology platforms in core banking today," said Phil Fretwell, co-founder and managing partner of AshGrove Capital.

"Delivering a cloud-native platform at enterprise scale is exceptionally difficult, yet 10x has already proven its capabilities across millions of live accounts and with some of the world's leading financial institutions.

"We believe the company is well positioned to benefit from powerful industry tailwinds as banks continue replacing legacy systems with more flexible, real-time and AI-ready infrastructure."

10x also counts BlackRock, the world's biggest asset manager, among its shareholders.

Mr Jenkins's premise for establishing the business was that banks' transition to digitally led services was delivering poor results for customers and shareholders.

He had been installed as chief executive of Barclays as it dealt with the fallout from the Libor rate-rigging crisis of 2012, but left three years later amid unrest on its board over the pace of its transformation.

(c) Sky News 2026: Former Barclays chief Jenkins raises £40m for tech platform 10x Banking