Starling Acquires Ember to Help Businesses Digitize Tax Filing

British digital lender Starling Bank is set to acquire U.K.-based tax and bookkeeping FinTech Ember.

The acquisition, announced Tuesday (Aug. 19), will integrate Ember’s software with Starling’s app and online bank, helping small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) manage their finances, including things like bank transactions and tax submission.

This comes ahead of “Making Tax Digital,” a mandate from the U.K.’s revenue department requiring businesses to report their taxes online beginning next April.

“We created Ember to take the pain out of accounting for small businesses – to help people make faster, clearer financial decisions without the stress,” Daniel Hogan and Aaron Shaw, co-founders of Ember, said in a news release.

“Making Tax Digital has created a real call to action for SMEs and Ember provides the solution to this. Our deal with Starling Group will mean that we’re setting a new standard for how banking and accounting should work together — seamlessly integrated and refreshingly simple.”

According to the release, Starling, which owns a 9% share of small business banking, plans to integrate Ember’s government-approved software by the end of the year.

Ember already serves customers of companies including HSBC, Revolut, Barclays and Lloyds, though its software will become exclusive to Starling Bank customers in 2026.

Research by PYMNTS Intelligence has examined the way SMEs, or small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), are turning to digital innovations from FinTechs to smooth operations.

“SMBs represent a massive volume of daily transactions across sectors, from retail and manufacturing to services and logistics,” PYMNTS wrote last year. “Digitizing these transactions through better payments systems could drastically improve efficiency, cash flow, and transparency for businesses.”

The PYMNTS Intelligence report, “End the Wait: SMBs and the Protracted Challenge of Delayed Payments,” looks into whether a new array of digital transformation could bring about the end of an ongoing and chronic problem facing SMBs: delayed payments.

The report found that ineffective cash flow management, mentioned by 60% of SMBs as a major challenge, worsens the threat of business failure.

At the same time, just 5% of small business owners have fully automated their accounts receivable (AR) and accounts payable (AP) processes, even though doing so can offer the insights and growth opportunities they seek.

“Automation is critical for reducing manual intervention in payment processes,” PYMNTS wrote. “Many SMBs still rely on manual invoicing and reconciliation, which is both time-consuming and prone to errors. By offering digital tools that automate these tasks, payment providers can help SMBs streamline their operations and reduce the friction that slows down transactions.”

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