Keel, a Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform based in Manchester, is officially stepping into the public eye after operating quietly for the past two years. The company emerges from stealth having already achieved profitability and secured a growing roster of fintech clients across multiple international markets.
Originally founded in 2019 under the name Frost, the business began as a consumer neobank that integrated digital banking with energy-switching tools. Frost successfully attracted more than 18,000 users and processed tens of millions of pounds in transaction volume before shifting market dynamics forced a major corporate reinvention. Keel has now been entirely reworked into an infrastructure provider shaped by that first-hand operating experience.
A strategic pivot to sustainable infrastructure
Over the last two years, Keel secured regulatory approval for its new business model and fully adapted its APIs for external use. Operating as an FCA-authorised Electronic Money Institution with Visa Principal Membership, the platform generated its first commercial revenue in 2024 and has since delivered consistent quarter-on-quarter growth.
Paweł Ołtuszyk, co-founder and CEO of Keel, explained that the company reached a critical crossroads in 2022 when the energy switching market stalled and wiped out Frost’s core revenue stream. Despite having acquisition offers on the table, the leadership team chose to step back and focus on creating long-term value based on incoming external demand for Frost’s underlying infrastructure.
“We made a deliberate decision not to go looking for growth before finding product-market fit,” Ołtuszyk stated. He emphasized the company’s focus on building in a strategic and sustainable way, noting that securing clients took precedence over marketing, and achieving revenue came before attempting to scale.
Integrated capabilities for a global client base
Now publicly available, Keel provides a highly integrated model designed to drastically reduce operational complexity for its users. Accessible through a single API, the platform offers multi-currency and virtual accounts, open banking capabilities, and Visa card issuance across debit, prepaid, and credit products under its own BIN sponsorship. Additionally, it provides broad access to major domestic and international payment rails, including Faster Payments, BACS, CHAPS, SEPA, SWIFT, ACH, and Fedwire.
Crucially, Keel also embeds regulatory compliance directly into its offering, providing built-in KYC, AML, fraud detection, and transaction monitoring capabilities. This comprehensive, single-platform approach has already attracted a global client base spanning the neobanking, remittance, treasury, and property sectors. Currently, Keel’s customers include fintechs backed by prominent Silicon Valley investors, as well as a Southeast Asian platform serving over 750,000 users.
