Select audience

Choose the option that best describes your role.

Search British Business Bank
Popular Search placeholder

British Business Bank invests £15m in Stream

Press release 21 January 2026

The British Business Bank has invested £15 million into Stream (formerly Wagestream), the financial wellbeing platform and workplace finance provider, as part of a $90 million Series D funding round. This follows a £7 million investment in 2024. 

The latest round is led by Sofina alongside Balderton, Latitude, Northzone, Smash Capital, Ascension Ventures, and Better Society Capital.

Stream helps people to take control of their financial wellbeing. Offered through employers, the platform helps members to earn, learn, save, spend and borrow on their own terms, all in one smartphone app. This has a positive impact on the companies they work for – creating more engaged, productive and loyal teams. Globally, four million people now have access to the Stream platform through 2,000 brands.

The funding will fuel the continued expansion of Stream’s product offering. Following the acquisition of pensions technology company Zippen in July 2025, Stream began rolling out its first pensions product in the UK - Find and Combine - to capture the estimated £31.1 billion in unclaimed pensions assets. 

The investment will also support Stream’s international growth, specifically in the US. The US business already supports one million employees across major brands including New Balance, Hilton and Dollar General - and plans to further scale its network of integration partners. 

This announcement follows the company’s September 2025 rebrand from Wagestream to Stream, marking its evolution into a multi-product workplace finance platform. 

Leandros Kalisperas, Chief Investment Officer at British Business Bank, said: 

UK fintech has long been an outlier, and its strong foundations are now compounding into real momentum. To maximise economic impact, fast growing UK companies like Stream need access to deep pools of growth capital to compete globally. That is where the Bank is increasingly focusing its efforts. We will need to increase our direct investments into scale ups at this critical stage alongside the greater amount of our capital that will be helping private sector managers to launch larger, growth stage funds.

George Mills, Investment Director at British Business Bank, said:

Since our initial investment in early 2024, Stream has gone from strength to strength and expanded its financial wellbeing offering to include savings accounts and fair loan products. These new services should help the company both to accelerate growth and to improve the financial wellbeing of the millions of workers that already use the platform.

Peter Briffett, co-founder and CEO of Stream,

Stream pioneered the workplace finance category to address a fundamental injustice: the ‘poverty premium’, which forces everyday workers to pay more for essential financial services. By partnering with employers, we’ve delivered meaningful change at scale - saving workers over $200 million on essential services. This investment will allow us to deepen that impact - expanding into long-term security through pensions - and scale internationally so that even more people can benefit.

Further Information

If you are a journalist and have a media enquiry, please contact mediaenquiries@british-business-bank.co.uk.

Notes to editors

About the British Business Bank

The British Business Bank is the UK government’s economic development bank. Established in November 2014, its mission is to drive economic growth by helping smaller businesses get the finance they need to start, scale and stay in the UK. In doing so, we help capture the economic value of innovation for the UK and create jobs and prosperity for people across the country.

The British Business Bank’s core programmes support £23bn 1  of finance to almost 64,000 2  smaller businesses.

British Business Bank plc is a public limited company registered in England and Wales, registration number 08616013, registered office at Steel City House, West Street, Sheffield, S1 2GQ. It is a development bank wholly owned by HM Government. British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. With the exception of BBB Investment Services Limited they are not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority or the Financial Conduct Authority. BBB Investment Services Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. A complete legal structure chart for the group can be found at british-business-bank.co.uk. 

The transaction described above does not constitute or imply any endorsement, warranty or recommendation by the UK government, the British Business Bank plc, its subsidiaries or any other party in respect of Stream or its products or services. 

About Stream

Globally, four million people now have access to the Stream platform through 2,000 brands - across the U.K., Europe and U.S. - making it a leading workplace finance provider. Offered through employers, the platform helps members to earn, learn, save, spend and borrow on their own terms, all in one smartphone app.

Stream Platforms Ltd is a B corporation, built with a social charter to provide fair financial services.

Quick links

Latest news