Noggin HQ, a Newcastle fintech, has closed an oversubscribed £2.3m seed round and secured authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority to operate as a credit reference agency.

The licence lets Noggin supply lenders with its own credit assessments, built from a customer's banking transaction history rather than a conventional credit file.

Blackfinch Ventures led the round, with Oxford Capital and Bethnal Green Ventures returning after participating in Noggin's earlier £710,000 pre-seed round.

Angel investors included former TotallyMoney chief executive Alastair Douglas. Noggin says the FCA authorisation makes it one of only a handful of firms to become a UK credit reference agency in the past decade.

Co-founders Evangeline Atkinson and Laura Mills started the business after both were turned down for credit despite being in full-time work and paying rent and bills. A thin or non-existent credit file made it harder for lenders to see evidence that they could afford to borrow.

Noggin's technology is built to close that gap. With a customer's permission, it reads their banking transaction data directly and builds a picture of what they earn, spend and can afford.

The company began as a price-comparison platform for mobile contracts, phones and SIM deals, aimed at the same customers its founders were trying to help. It has since moved into supplying the underlying credit data itself, a shift that culminates in this month's FCA authorisation.

Atkinson and Mills, who grew up together in Newcastle, chose to base the company in the city rather than London, pointing to the region's pool of credit-risk expertise. Noggin operates from the Toffee Factory in Newcastle's Ouseburn Valley.

Atkinson said: "The UK credit market has changed. Consumers earn, spend and borrow in more complex ways than ever before, but much of the credit referencing infrastructure still reflects an older economy. Now that we're an authorised credit reference agency, we're energised to be supporting more nuanced credit checks for the consumers the system has historically underserved."

With the authorisation in place, Noggin's next step is moving from the lender pilots it has already run into wider market adoption, using the new funding to support that push.