Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

Please find another week of fintech news, financings and exits below.

👍 👎 Have feedback or news to share? Let me know on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Tweet of the week 🦉🏆

Funding 💸

Highlights below of deals since the last post in the fintech space across the UK & Europe. Deal data powered by Dealroom.

🇪🇺BaaS provider Solaris is close to raising a €100m urgent funding round.

🇪🇺 SME credit management startup Recovr raised a €1.1m seed round.

🇪🇺 Payment solution NORBr raised a €3m round from Alstin Capital and Portfolion.

🌍 Embedded credit card platform Cardless raised a $30m round.

🌍 AI-powered wealthtech Range raised a $28m Series B.

🌍 Lender R2 raised a $9 Series A from Y Combinator, Endeavor Catalyst, Gradient Ventures, Hi Ventures and Cometa.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇪🇺 EPI has enrolled 14 million users to its new Wero wallet.

🇪🇺 Spend management provider Spendesk launched its own financial services arm.

🇬🇧 Mortgage lender MQube is releasing its AI chatbot to a number of its lending partners.

🇬🇧 Neobank Revolut is planning an AI assistant, mortgages, ATMs and a business credit card product in 2025.

🇬🇧 Alternative lender ThinCats announced it has provided £2bn in funding for mid-sized SMEs.

🇬🇧 Neobank Monzo has hired a Group CFO and UK CFO as rumours of an IPO circulate.

Digital Assets ₿

🇪🇺 Dutch financial inclusion fintech Qash launched its stablecoin linked credit card in Colombia.

🇪🇺 Crypto onramp Request Finance has purchased a VASP licence from Pay.so.

🇪🇺 Bitpanda has extended its crypto offering to 500+ coins.

🇪🇺 Tether is to shut down its euro stablecoin EURT as it fails to comply with MiCA.

🇬🇧 The UK is to finalise its crypto regulatory framework in early 2025.

🌍 The CFTC has recommended expanding the use of non-cash collateral through the use of DLT technology under existing rules.

🌍 Digital asset prime broker LTP is partnering with exchange Bitstamp to provide liquidity and credit for institutional-grade crypto trading.

🌍 Binance has increased its compliance staff headcount 34% in a year.

🌍 Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald has taken a 5% equity stake in Tether.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇪🇺 Santander is to build a new global SME platform for international trade.

🇪🇺 UniCredit is buying its domestic rival Banco BPM for €10.1bn.

🇪🇺 Italy's Banca Investis launched a gen AI "digital junior banker" to provide customers with real-time investment advisory.

🇪🇺 Deutsche Bank is enabling cash withdrawals and deposits at 12,500 locations in Germany through a partnership with Paysafe

🇬🇧 Barclays have been fined £40m by the FCA for failing to disclose arrangements with Qatari entities during the financial crisis.

🇬🇧 HSBC has launched Flexipay, a flexible payment solution available at the POS for the banks merchants partners. The bank also stopped personal banking payments from Russia and Belarus and launched a platform for business to manage domestic and international payments.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🇬🇧 Open banking provider Tell.money signed fintech Monese as a customer.

🇬🇧 Core banking platform 10x Banking has partnered with ID&V solution Alloy.

🇬🇧 Financial software provider Finastra is investigating a data breach impacting its internally FTP platform.

🌍 Embedded payments fintech Treasury Prime released a compliance analytics dashboard.

🌍 Evolve, AMG National Trust, American Bank and Lineage, partner banks of bankrupt BaaS provider Synapse have been hit with lawsuits.

Payments 💰

🇪🇺 PSP Worldline has signed Garanti BBVA as a customer for its instant payment solution.

🇪🇺 Adyen has partnered with spend management provider Spendesk to provide embedded financial services to SMBs.

🇪🇺 BNPL provider Klarna has signed Lenovo as a customer. It also reported Q3 profits of €18.7m and is hiring engineers for a tech hub in Poland.

🇪🇺 Payment provider Mollie has partnered with PayPal to enhance payments for marketplaces.

🇬🇧Payment provider Checkout.com is expanding its presence in Japan.

🇬🇧 Worldpay has launched instant refunds in the UK.

🌍 Stripe is buying back shares at a $70bn valuation.

🌍 Payment provider Finix has introduced a fraud prevention tool powered by Sift.

Regulatory Corner 🔎

🇬🇧 The FCA fined Macquarie Bank £13m for fictions trades.

🌍 President-elect Trump is considering sweeping changes to the CFPB to curtail its power and funding.

Longer reads/listens 📜

• Is Chicago’s Don Wilson the smartest man in trading? - Costas Mourselas , FT
• X-Border Payments: State of the Market, 2024 -Flagship Advisory
• Crypto Exchanges, Retail Brokers and the Fight for Day Traders - Crossover Markets
• Are Digital Assets Up to Speed for Institutional Trading? - Michael Shashoua
• Why Digital Wallets Fail? - Trupti

👍 👎 Have feedback for us? Let us know

Follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn for more fintech content

See you next week!