McColl’s Caledonian launches Aspire business account

Jim McColl

Jim McColl’s Caledonian Holdings, the AIM quoted firm focused on building a financial services group, said its subsidiary Aspire Commerce Group Limited has completed the commercial launch of its “enhanced multi-currency business current account proposition” including the Mastercard World Business Debit Card.

“The launch represents a key commercial milestone identified in the company’s £612,000 fundraising announced on 13 August 2026, which was undertaken in part to accelerate Aspire’s business account and debit card rollout and progress its trade finance pipeline,” said Caledonian.

“With the enhanced proposition now commercially available, Aspire’s focus will move to growing its customer base through direct and partnership-led distribution, increasing transaction volumes and converting its existing trade finance opportunities into recurring revenues.”

Caledonian said eligible business customers can apply for trade finance directly alongside their day-to-day account activity, with facilities of up to £5 million for periods of up to 120 days.

“Muloot Money is the trading name of Aspire’s international multi-currency financial services platform for business customers,” said Caledonian.

“The enhanced proposition is designed to reduce the need for internationally trading businesses to use multiple providers for their everyday account, payments, foreign exchange, card and working-capital requirements, by bringing these services together through an integrated platform.

“Businesses can hold and manage multiple currencies, send and receive domestic and international payments, manage foreign exchange and use the Mastercard debit card for day-to-day expenditure. For eligible customers, trade finance can be accessed alongside the account, enabling funding for import and export transactions to be linked more closely with daily cash-flow management.

“The platform is also capable of supporting white-label deployments, either for individual services such as onboarding, cards and foreign exchange, or as a broader account and trade finance proposition, providing Aspire with additional routes to market …

“Caledonian acquired Aspire on 1 June 2026 as the cornerstone operating business within its strategy to build an integrated financial services group. The commercial launch of the enhanced business current account proposition is an important step in expanding Aspire’s support to SME’s via its proprietary fintech solutions.”

Jim McColl, Executive Director of Caledonian Holdings plc, said: “This is exactly the type of commercial milestone we said the August 2026 fundraising would unlock. Aspire now has a commercially available proposition bringing together a multi-currency business account, international payments, foreign exchange, a Mastercard debit card and access to trade finance through one wholly owned platform.

“Importantly, this is not a platform development announcement; the infrastructure is built, the debit card is live and the focus now moves to growing the customer base, increasing transaction volumes and accelerating the trade finance pipeline into revenue.

“We believe the combination of day-to-day business financial services with integrated access to trade finance is a genuine differentiator for Aspire and an important step in building a revenue-generating operating business within Caledonian that has the ability to scale via organic customer acquisition and a partnership program that is driven by superior infrastructure.”

Aspire CEO Adam Rigler said: “Internationally trading businesses are often forced to use separate providers for accounts, payments, foreign exchange, cards and working capital. Muloot Money has been designed to bring those services together in one environment, supported by a UK-based team that understands the needs of growing businesses.

“The launch of the Mastercard debit card completes an important part of that proposition. Our attention now is on commercial rollout, customer acquisition and helping more businesses use the platform to manage and finance their trade.”

Caledonian added: “Aspire Payments Limited is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority as a Small Electronic Money Institution to issue electronic money and provide payment services under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 (FRN 900883).

“The Muloot Money Mastercard World Business Debit Card is issued by Transact Payments Limited pursuant to a licence from Mastercard International Incorporated.”