The secretive billionaire backer of one of Britain’s biggest fintech firms was set to pay up to $150m for a private flight around the moon, it has been revealed.

A court battle has shown that Harald McPike, a majority shareholder in Starling Bank, put down a $7m deposit towards Space Adventures’ lunar mission. The Virginia-based company offered McPike, an adrenaline junkie who has skied to the North and South Poles and scaled some of the world’s highest peaks, a chance to “become the first private citizen to circle the moon”.