90. Yonder

Founders: Tim Chong, Theso Jivajirajah and Harry Jell
Founded: 2020
Website: yondercard.com

It can sometimes feel like you’re back taking a school exam when trying to access credit. Particularly now, with interest rates so high, the poor number of incentives to sign up to a credit card leaves many customers feeling short-changed.

Yonder is setting out to rebuild people’s trust in credit by delivering a unique rewards system that it says will prioritise the user, not the provider.

Reward credit cards are not a new idea. However, many can promise a lot and deliver a little. Despite only launching in 2022, our judges were impressed to see that Yonder has already partnered with significant names like Secret Cinema, restaurants like BAO, and even fellow Startups 100 Index 2023 winner, HumanForest.

It can sometimes feel like you’re back taking a school exam when trying to access credit.

Members can then exchange their points for fully paid meals that Yonder tells us are worth an average of 2.5% cashback (around 4x higher than American Express).

Disrupting what its founders describe as the “archaic” method of credit checks in the UK, the London-based startup also uses a modern Open Banking system to review eligibility. People can apply for a Yonder card without needing a credit score, increasing accessibility for those who are new to the UK and struggle to demonstrate a thorough credit history.

Members can then exchange their points for fully paid meals

At the moment, Yonder is only available for London members. Last year, Yonder raised a £20 million seed round from Northzone and LocalGlobe in 2022, which will no doubt play a part in its plans to expand internationally.

“Our vision is for members to be able to move anywhere in the world and their financial history will follow them seamlessly,” says Chong. “We are a credit card now, but that’s just the start.”