This Week in Fintech UK & Europe (10/01)

Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,
Please find another week of fintech news, financings and exits below.
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Tweet of the week ๐ฆ๐
Funding ๐ธ
There were 5 deals in the fintech space across the UK and Europe since the last post, with a total investment of $384m. Some highlights are below.
๐ช๐บ Crypto platform Sygnum raised a $90m Series B led by Sun Hung Kai & Company.
๐ฌ๐ง Payments provider CellPoint Digital raised $25m from Penta Capital and Toscafund Asset Management.
๐ฌ๐ง Payroll payments fintech PayFit raised a ยฃ287m Series E led by General Atlantic and included Accel, Bpifrance and Eurazeo.
๐ฌ๐ง PrimaryBid is rumoured to be raising ยฃ110m round led by SoftBank that will value the company at $500m+.
๐ Petal raised a $140m Series D led by Sand Hill Angels.
๐ NFT marketplace OpenSea raised a $300m Series C led by Coatue and Paradigm at a 13.3bn valuation.
๐ ย Fintech VC Ribbit Capital raised a $1.15bn Fund VII.
Challenger Banking ๐
๐ฌ๐ง Pensions provider Penfold triped the number of pension transfers in 2021 and now has over 40,000 customers.
๐ฌ๐ง Affluent neobank Monument appointed former Barclays Business Banking exec Ian Rand as its CEO.
Digital Assets โฟ
๐ฌ๐ง British politicians are lobbying the government from stricter oversight of the crypto space, specifically against football clubs fan tokens
๐ ย Chinaโs CBDC wallet is now available on app stores as its launch at the Winter Olympics looms.
๐ ย Central Bank of Bahrain is testing JPMorganโs digital currency via the banks Onyx unit.
Traditional Banking ๐ฆ
๐ฌ๐ง Lloyds Bank is becoming a shareholder in loyalty app Bink, following in the footsteps of Barclays who is also a shareholder.
๐ฌ๐ง Nationwide customers are facing payment trouble again with customers complaining of not receiving incoming payments.
๐ฌ๐ง Virgin Money has partnered with Expend to add expense management to its product offering for businesses.
Fintech Infrastructure ๐ง
๐ช๐บ Nordic cross-border payments platform P27 is to replace Denmarkโs current national clearing house run by Finance Denmark.
Payments ๐ฐ
๐ฌ๐ง Adyen has launched an Android POS terminal providing merchants a one stop solution, putting it directly in competition with Block, Shopify and PayPal.
๐ฌ๐ง POS startup KodyPay hired former Atom Bank exec Sophie Haagensen as COO.
๐ฌ๐ง Open banking platform Ecospend reported ยฃ2.5bn of transactions through its open banking technology. ย Ecospend ย was chosen to build HMRC new payment infrastructure.๐
Regulatory Corner ๐
In collaboration with Kat Cloud
๐ฌ๐ง FCA rejected 20% of applications as it tightened its standards.
๐ฌ๐ง Consumer watchdog Which? is calling on HM Treasury to crack down on BNPL as its public consultation comes to an end. ย Specifically they call out the lack of consumer awareness that BNPL is credit.
Longer reads ๐
- India Stack vs Open Banking - Myself and Manjor Pahwa
- Sushiswap: the Dusk of the Samurais - Luca Prosperi, Dirt Roads
- The Inside Story of How Indiaโs Crypto Exchanges Were โInspectedโ by Tax Agencies - Amitoj Singh, Coindesk
- How Shopify Outfoxed Amazon to Become the Everywhere Store - Brad Stone
- First BaaS Unicorn and 4 Other Predictions for Fintech in 2022 - Brad van Leeuwen
- Londonโs Fintech Boom Opens the Door for Dirty Money - Donal Griffin
- What Jack Dorsey doesnโt get about Web3 - David Hoffman, Bankless
- Which fintechs might go public in 2022? - John Reynolds
- Futuristic Predictions for the Fintech Industry by 2050 - Fintech Magazine
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See you next week!

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