A failed neobank based in Manchester has re-emerged as a profitable FinTech infrastructure provider.
In 2024 Frost, which combined digital banking with energy-switching tools, closed all retail customer accounts after five years of operation.
Despite attracting more than 18,000 users and processing tens of millions of pounds in transaction volume, changes in the market forced the business to rethink its future.
At the time, founder Paweł Ołtuszyk told BusinessCloud that it would instead provide its core banking technology and customisable mobile app to other financial institutions in a B2B pivot, and that its staff of 10 would remain in place.
Now the full reinvention of the company into Keel – a Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform shaped by first-hand operating experience – has been revealed.
Keel says it is emerging from stealth after reaching profitability and building traction with a growing roster of FinTech clients across multiple markets.
Andrew Jennings, an investor in Frost and managing director of Osun Capital, remains as a director of Keel. Jennings was named chief strategy officer when he contributed to a £1.1 million round of seed funding in 2022. A £1.87m crowdfunding fundraise then followed in 2023.
BusinessCloud has enquired as to whether Frost co-founder Edyta Sliwinska, who operated a dual role as head of marketing at Optimal Solicitors, is involved in the reinvented business.
In the last two years – operating in ‘stealth mode’ – the company has secured regulatory approval for a new business model and reworked its APIs for external use.
Since generating its first commercial revenue in 2024, Keel has gone on to deliver quarter-on-quarter growth and built a global client base spanning remittance, treasury, property and neobanking.
It says its customers include FinTechs backed by leading Silicon Valley investors, a Southeast Asian platform serving more than 750,000 users, and other regulated businesses looking to launch or scale financial products more efficiently.
Keel offers multi-currency accounts, virtual accounts, Visa card issuance across debit, prepaid and credit products under its own BIN sponsorship, open banking capabilities, and access to domestic and international payment rails including Faster Payments, BACS, CHAPS, SEPA, SWIFT, ACH and Fedwire.
The platform is designed to give FinTechs the core infrastructure needed to launch and operate financial products at scale, accessible through a single API.
The company’s platform also includes built-in KYC, AML, fraud detection and transaction monitoring capabilities.
Ołtuszyk, CEO of Keel, said of the change: “When the energy switching market stalled in 2022 and the price cap wiped out Frost’s core revenue stream, we knew we were at a crossroads.
“We had acquisition offers on the table, but instead of taking the easier route or trying to stretch a model that was no longer viable, we stepped back and looked at what had real long-term value.
“Other businesses were already asking to use the infrastructure behind Frost, and that gave us the conviction to rebuild around it. Still, we made a deliberate decision not to go looking for growth before finding product-market fit.
“We wanted to build in a strategic and sustainable way. That meant clients came before the marketing, and revenue came before scale. In the current market, that order increasingly matters.”