Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

The number of investments into UK fintech fell 42% in Q2 2023 (127 deals) vs the same period last year. The amount raised dropped 82% to $639m according to Fintech Global Research.

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

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Funding 💸

Highlights below of deals since the last post in the fintech space across the UK & Europe.

🇪🇺Business finance startup Numarics raised a €10m seed round led by UBS.

🇪🇺Insurtech Qover raised a $30m Series C from Anthemis, Alven, Kreos Capital and Zurich Global Ventures.

🇪🇺Digital wealth solution Vestinda raised a pre-seed round from dPixel.

🇪🇺 Embedded fintech solution Lemonero raised a seed round from Societe Generale.

🇪🇺 Accounting provider Dougs Compta raised a €25m Series A from Expedition Growth Capital.

🇬🇧 Challenger bank Tandem raised £20m in debt from Quilam Capital.

🇬🇧B2B cross-border payment firm CAB Payments raised £355m through a listing on the LSE.

🌍 Unit21 raised a $45m Series C from Tiger and South Park Commons.

🌍 Payment infrastructure provider Gr4vy raised investment from the venture arm of Woolworths Group, W23, to expand into Asia.

🌍 EWA provider Clair raised a $25m round led by Thrive Capital and included Upfront Ventures and Kairos.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇪🇺 Investors in Qonto are said to have sold shares in the secondary market at a $3.3bn valuation, a cut of 30%.

🇪🇺 Turkish neobank Papara has acquired Spanish neobank Rebellion.

🇪🇺 Zurich Insurance is entering into a strategic partnership with insurtech Qover.

🇬🇧Neobank Revolut has launched in New Zealand. It also launched a robo-advisor in the US. It also launched Express Elixir in Poland to allow instant transfers without additional fees. The FT also reported it lost $20m in the US due to scams.

🇬🇧 Monzo has partnered with Qover to provide travel insurance for Monzo Premium accounts.

🇬🇧Neobroker Shares received a stock trading licence from French regulators, allowing it to launch in Europe.

🌍 Spend management platform Airbase is partnering with TravelPerk to offer its customers travel inventory and reporting insights.

🌍 Spend management platform Navan (FKA TripActions) partnered with Visa and Mastercard to allow customers to bring any corporate card to use its software platform through its new "Navan Connect" product.

🌍 Brex is back refocusing on startups after ditching SMBs a year ago.

Digital Assets ₿

🇪🇺Swiss based Web3 Foundation is calling for clearer regulation on how the EU plans to regulate web3 technology.

🇬🇧 The BoE has proposed a £10k-£20k limit on consumer holdings of a CBDC which has received backlash from UK Finance, the industry body, for potentially causing deposit flight from commercial banks. They would like a £5,000 limit.

🇬🇧 The FCA's new crypto marketing rules come into force on 8th October and the FCA has written to firms ordering them to comply or face criminal charges.

🇬🇧 Revolut is to stop offering Solana, Cardano and Polygon to its US customers after partner Bakkt delisted the tokens.

🌍 Fidelity has joined the plethora of providers filing paperwork for a spot bitcoin traded ETF following the likes of BlackRock, Invesco and WisdomTree. It later refiled the paperwork to include a "surveillance sharing agreement" to ease SEC concerns of manipulation.

🌍 Celsius has been given permission to liquidate its altcoin holdings and convert them to BTC and ETH as it prepares to distribute funds to creditors.

🌍 Crypto exchange Gemini has made a final offer in negotiations with bankrupt digital asset firm Genesis.

🌍 Lawyers working for creditors of bankrupt lender Voyager have earned $5.17m in fees from March to May.

🌍 Coinbase shares jumped after the Cboe and Nasdaq refiled applications for a bitcoin ETF from Fidelity, WisdomTree, VanEck, Invesco, Ark and BlackRock as it was named as a partner.

🌍 Kraken has been ordered to turn over user information to the IRS so it can check for underreported taxes.

🌍 Singaporean bank DBS has implemented a payment system for Chinese merchants that uses the e-CNY digital currency.

🌍 Circle is considering issuing a stablecoin in Japan after legislation took effect at the start of June.

🌍 Binance is hiring for a policy officer for the EU to try and placate policymakers and regulators which have been somewhat hostile.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇪🇺Deutsche Bank completed the IT integration of Deutsche Postbank this weekend, 11 years after the acquisition was completed.

🇪🇺 ABN AMRO has launched a new solution for trade finance from software provider CBA.

🇬🇧A new NatWest report on open banking concludes that all stakeholders need to work together to resolve economic obstacles holding back open banking. Suggestions include premium APIs, broader coverage and a multi-party system.

🇬🇧The Bank of England is considering requiring foreign banks to establish subsidiaries rather than just branches.

🌍 Goldman Sachs is looking to offload its Apple partnership as it withdraws entirely from the consumer market. American Express is in talks to take it over.

🌍 SVB has cautiously restarted lending operations.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🇪🇺A provisional agreement has been reached between European Parliament and Council for the European Union for a legal framework for the European Digital Identity.

🇪🇺 BBVA has launched a financial crime unit.

🇪🇺 CaixaBank has launched virtual account services for FX through its platform FXNow.

🇪🇺 Croatia has joined the TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) system, the European instant settlement platform allowing customers of the seven participating Croatian banks to benefit from instant payments.

🇬🇧Wise is offering its multi accounts and debit cards solution to third party customers through its Platform unit, starting in Australia and has signed ProSpend and Parpera.

🇬🇧ComplyAdvantage has teamed up with FullCircl to provide customers a combined KYC and AML tool for onboarding and ongoing monitoring.

🇬🇧EMI provider The Payment Firm is launching to offer payment solutions.

🌍 There are 57 early adopters that will be ready to go live when FedNow launches, according to the Federal Reserve.

🌍 Digital identity solution Socure has acquired document verification startup Berbix.

🌍 Belvo and FICO are partnering to help lenders expand credit access in Latam.

Payments 💰

🇪🇺The expansion plans of Cash App and Clearpay, both owned by Block (FKA Square) into European have been put on hold.

🇪🇺Synch Payments, a mobile payment system from Ireland's leading banks faces delays until next year after it was told it needs EU approval.

🇪🇺International payments firm Inpay has secured a Danish EMI licence and is the first Scandinavian firm to combine EMI, PSP and TPP

🇬🇧Checkout.com launches an optimised acceptance engine "Intelligent Acceptance", powered by AI.

🌍 Toast is adding a $0.99 fee for orders larger than $10 placed through its online channel to fund product investment and innovation for restaurants.

🌍 FIS has agreed to sell a 45% stake in Worldpay Merchant Solutions to PE firm GTCR who valued the business at $18.5bn.

Longer reads 📜

• Sharing Our Field Notes: The State of Generative AI in Financial Services - Sarah Hinkfuss, BCV
• The Evolution of Financial Advice - Ben Carlson
• Getting Personal with Finance Management Version 2.0 - Jas Shah
• Why Robinhood's acquisition of X1 was a total no-brainer - Samir
• AI and the automation of work - Benedict Evans
• Financial crime in fintech times - Mouro Capital
• Cash and Car Keys, Petrol and Payments - Dave Birch

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See you next week!