[getmetheswan]

I can't comment on the UK eco-system, but things are definitely more difficult in the US.

You first have to convince a prepaid provider to work with you. You'll need runway for this. You then have to convince a bank to back your card program. For this you also need runway. And if you get through that and start developing, you are immediately on a clock since card program fees are substantial when they kick in.

Let's say it takes you 6 months to get from scratch to launch and fees are waived up to that point. I'd guesstimate you now need a minimum of 25K retained users on your card program to cover costs. If you have a conversion rate of 5%, that means 500K downloads. And that's before factoring in churn.

The PiggyBank team raised 100K. They were two people and iOS only. It is a stretch to think they could achieve all of this before running out of cash.

I am with Johnie and a few others - the lesson is to try something less ambitious first and use success there to raise money to build something more ambitious.