Tom Blomfield

Thomas Benjamin Blomfield (born 11 August 1985) is a British entrepreneur and a group partner at Y Combinator.

Early life Blomfield grew up in Buckinghamshire and attended Dr Challoner's Grammar School in Amersham. His first business was building a website for a local estate agent, whom Blomfield charged £250 for the webpage and £3 per house to be added upon receiving instructions. He decided after a few internships with law firms that he did not want to become a lawyer. working on "dog and cat food, baby car seats, frozen pizzas, debt collection, and one company that refurbished passenger airlines, plus a few pub chains". The company rose to prominence after receiving a £125,000 investment from Y Combinator. Blomfield stayed in Silicon Valley and during his three years at the company, it raised around £35 million of investment and hired 100 people. he left (keeping a "very small share" in the £50-100m valued company) which was at that point one of the first digital banking companies. He departed in early 2015 after reports of disagreements at Starling, telling the Financial Times that "he could not comment under the terms of his departure".

Monzo In 2015, he founded challenger bank Monzo. In its first fundraising round, the company raised "£1 million in 96 seconds". As of 2019 the company was built on the "lean start up concept", operating with no branches and instead offering accounts online which cost the company "about £20 to £30 to provide". In April, Blomfield announced he would forgo his salary for one year to help his company during the COVID-19 pandemic. In May, he announced that he was stepping down as CEO of Monzo and taking on the role of president of the company. In January 2021 he announced he was leaving the company permanently.

Recipe Ninja In March 2025 Blomfield launched Recipe Ninja, an AI recipe generation app created by "vibe coding." The app received media attention for generating recipes such as "Cyanide Ice Cream," "Thick White Cum Soup," and "Uranium Bomb."

Personal life Blomfield was born in Hong Kong. His father was an entrepreneur, having set up an engineering company in his mid-30s. He has been critical of the Silicon Valley business environment, calling it a "dystopia" due to its "wealth inequality and the lack of provision for homelessness and mental health". Blomfield said the British “know your place, don’t get too big for your boots” attitude stifles innovation.

Awards and recognition In 2013, he was recognised as one of the top five entrepreneurs under 30 by the European Commission.

He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2019 New Year Honours for services to Improving Competition and Financial Inclusion in the Banking Sector.