Evangeline Atkinson

Evangeline Atkinson co-founded Noggin HQ in Newcastle with Laura Mills and is its chief executive. Noggin HQ Ltd was incorporated in May 2021, according to Companies House. The childhood friends started the business after both were declined for credit despite being in full-time work and paying rent and bills. Atkinson’s background spans data engineering, political campaigning and research for international human rights cases, according to Tech Funding News, which named her among 25 women shaping tech and venture capital in March 2026.

Credit decisions from bank data

Noggin HQ uses permissioned bank transaction data to show whether a person can afford to repay, rather than relying only on their borrowing history. That matters for people with thin credit files, limited borrowing histories or time spent living abroad, who can look risky to traditional scoring even when their bank data shows they can afford repayments. The company cites a figure of 3.2 million UK adults declined credit in the two years to May 2024.

A new credit reference agency

In August 2026 Noggin HQ received credit referencing authorization from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which lets it supply its cashflow-based credit data to FCA-authorized lenders. The company says this makes it one of only a handful of businesses licensed as a UK credit reference agency in the past 10 years.

Alongside the authorization it closed an oversubscribed £2.3m seed round led by Blackfinch Ventures, with Oxford Capital, Bethnal Green Ventures and angel investors including Alastair Douglas, former chief executive of TotallyMoney. It follows a £710,000 pre-seed round led by Oxford Capital. The money is to take the business from pilots into wider use by lenders.

“The UK credit market has changed,” Atkinson said. “Consumers earn, spend and borrow in more complex ways than ever before, but much of the credit referencing infrastructure still reflects an older economy.”

Why it matters to UK lenders

For UK lenders, a new licensed credit reference agency adds a regulated data source that may widen who they can approve without loosening risk standards. Because it holds FCA authorization, its data can feed directly into regulated lending decisions rather than sitting alongside them. For the lending software vendors, brokers and comparison sites that sit between lenders and applicants, cashflow data is likely to become a standard input. It is also core financial infrastructure being built in the North East rather than London.

Atkinson has turned a personal experience of being declined into regulated credit infrastructure, a slow and demanding route for a seed-stage company. With FCA authorization in hand, Noggin HQ now has the license it needs to sell directly into lending decisions.