Capital on Tap marked its tenth anniversary on June 17, 2022 with more than 200,000 small-business customers across the UK and US. Its announcement paired the milestone with a rebrand and product changes, including discounted gift-card redemption using reward points. Later-filed group accounts add historical financial context to the wider card business and its rewards programme. [S01] [S02] [S03]
From lending to a business-card platform
The company began offering fixed-term loans in 2012 and introduced its business credit card and spending-management platform in 2017. By the anniversary, it reported more than £4 billion of cumulative card spending. That lifetime transaction value is distinct from annual income earned by the provider. [S01]
The consolidated accounts of New Wave Capital Limited, which trades as Capital on Tap, report total income of £89.451 million for the year ended March 31, 2022, compared with £53.826 million for the previous year. Total income combines net interest income with net fee and commission income. The accounts cover UK, US and Spanish operations, and were approved on September 29, 2022 and listed as filed on January 7, 2023. They are later evidence about the period preceding the anniversary. [S03] [S04]
Group total income before the anniversary
Total income in the consolidated accounts, after interest expense and net of fee and commission expense.
GBP million
Tap or hover for details. All values are also available in the data table.
Source
Consolidated UK, US and Spanish operations; 2021 is restated for IFRS. Accounts were approved after the June 2022 announcement and filed later. These are annual accounting amounts, not cumulative card spending, funding raised, gift-card sales or forecasts.
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| Category | Total income |
|---|---|
| Year ended March 2021 | 53.826 GBP million |
| Year ended March 2022 | 89.451 GBP million |
Income growth did not translate into a statutory profit that year. The group reported a £42.618 million loss after tax for 2022, against a restated £25.525 million profit for 2021. These were its first accounts under UK-adopted IFRS, with the comparative year restated. The directors attributed much of the loss to higher expected credit-loss provisions as the loan book expanded and economic assumptions worsened, alongside the developing US operation. The accounts distinguish those statutory results from management’s adjusted performance measures. [S03]
The US business launched in March 2021 with WebBank as issuer and lender, and more than 12,000 small businesses joined in its first year. WebBank’s contemporaneous announcement also confirms the April 2022 move into an Atlanta headquarters and the $200 million facility supporting US growth. The facility is funding capacity, rather than company revenue or reward spending. [S01] [S02]
The reward choice behind the rebrand
The Q2 2022 changes included discounted gift-card redemption, a new mobile app, an updated website and a move from yellow to black cards. The gift-card option gave cardholders another use for points alongside cashback and travel. Neither the company’s release nor WebBank’s counterpart provides a complete historical redemption-rate table or a quantified change in gift-card usage. [S01] [S02]
The accounts show the scale of the reward programme before those Q2 changes: loyalty-points expense rose from £6.257 million in the year ended March 2021 to £14.869 million in the year ended March 2022. This is a directly reported cost across the group’s reward schemes, rather than a measure limited to the newly announced gift-card option. [S03]
Loyalty-points expense before the product update
Recognised cost of loyalty points across the group’s cardholder reward schemes.
GBP million
Tap or hover for details. All values are also available in the data table.
Source
Costs are shown as positive magnitudes. This accrual-based measure reflects points earned and expected redemption, not cash paid or gift-card redemption alone. Both financial years ended before the Q2 2022 product changes, so the chart does not measure their effect.
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| Category | Loyalty-points expense |
|---|---|
| Year ended March 2021 | 6.257 GBP million |
| Year ended March 2022 | 14.869 GBP million |
The accounting policy recognises reward expense when customers earn points, using the points’ monetary value and an expected redemption rate informed by past redemptions and reviewed annually. Recognised expense therefore differs from points actually redeemed or cash paid during the year. The figures establish the programme’s financial scale before the product update without attributing the increase to an option introduced later. [S03]
The customer and cumulative spending milestones describe the wider business-card platform. They do not count gift-card purchasers, identify the proportion choosing gift cards or measure merchant sales arising from those redemptions. The anniversary records the company’s position in mid-2022; the later-filed accounts supply a separately dated view of the preceding financial year. [S01] [S03]
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Suzie Elis
Suzie Elis covers gift card products, digital gifting and distribution for Gift Card News.