Money Squirrel has announced its partnership with Moneyhub, a data and payments FinTech supporting the recent launch of the company's financial management app for SMEs.

Money Squirrel's Open Banking platform, which aims to help businesses manage their finances and cash flow by depositing money into savings accounts, launched in the UK last month.

Money Squirrel uses Open Banking technology and offers a range of services including automation of savings for future payments, automatic VAT calculation, allocation of funds and the ability to earn interest rates on funds earmarked for future spending.

Moneyhub's Open Banking-enabled API technology powers the platform, providing the automation of saving future future VAT payments into interest accounts.

Founder and chief executive of Money Squirrel Andreea Daly says that the new technology has been "critical" to launching its app.

"Having founded a business, I’ve experienced the frustrations of managing cash flow – spending countless hours calculating VAT and budgeting for future expenses," continued Daly. "Therefore, we know first-hand how having the technology to remove these frustrations can unlock so much potential for businesses.”

The development of Open Banking platforms and solutions is on the rise in the UK, with current platforms offering solutions for cash management and online payments currently including GoCardless, Plaid, Tink and Bud.

At the end of July, Open Banking Limited (OBL) announced that over 10 million consumers and small businesses are using Open Banking technology in the UK.

The implementation agency estimates that the Open Banking ecosystem is already worth over £4 billion to the UK economy, which it says has attracted investment and facilitated the creation of almost 5000 skilled digital jobs across the country.

OBL said that the growth of Open Banking, which first launched in 2018, has been driven by competition, suggesting that when one company focuses on rolling out the model their direct rivals tend to follow suit.

---