This Week in Fintech UK & Europe (17/01)

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
๐ผ Open Role Spotlight
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Funding ๐ธ
There were 20 deals in the fintech space across the UK and Europe since the last post, with a total investment of $1.8bn. Some highlights are below.
๐ช๐บ Business neobank Qonto raised a $550m Series D co-led by Tiger Global and TCV.
๐ช๐บ Digital assets platform SEBA Bank raised a CHF 110m Series C led by Altive and included Alameda Research, FTX, Julius Baer Group and more
๐ช๐บ Crypto exchange Firi raised NOK 60m round from Schibsted.
๐ช๐บ ย Loyalty solution for banks Cake raised a โฌ4.6m round led by Truffle Capital and included Freshmen, Seeder Fund and SambrInvest.
๐ฌ๐ง Checkout.com raised a $1bn Series D, becoming the UKโs highest valued fintech at $40bn, from Altimeter, Blossom Capital, Coatue, Dragoneer, DST Global and more.
๐ฌ๐ง Global Processing Services has added $100m of equity investment from Temasek and MissonOG.
๐ฌ๐ง Fintech Farm, a neobank technology provider, raised a $7.4m Seed round led by Flyer One Ventures.
๐ฌ๐ง Fashion embedded finance platform Responsible raised a $6.6m seed round led by Barclays
๐ฌ๐ง Circular economy fintech Twig raised a $35m Series A led by Fasanara Capital.
๐ฌ๐ง Travel fintech Fly Now Pay Later raised $75m in debt from Atalaya Capital as it seems US expansion.
๐ Alto IRA raised a $40m round led by Advance Venture Partners and included Coinbase Ventures, Acrew Capital, Unusual Ventures and others.
๐ Brex confirmed its $300m round and $12.3bn valuation.
๐ Zero Hash raised a $105m Series D.
Challenger Banking ๐
๐ช๐บ N26 is looking to create 350 jobs in Brazil as it expands its presence and tries to circumvent the customer growth limits it faces in its domestic market. ย It received a banking license in Brazil a year ago.
๐ฌ๐ง Starling Bank has removed all of its paid advertising on Facebook and Instagram until the platform tackles fraudulent advertising.
๐ฌ๐ง Wise shares nosedived after analysts downgraded the stock due to overly optimistic long-term growth expectations.
๐ฌ๐ง After securing its Lithuania banking license, Revolut has launched as a bank in 10 European countries and now offers deposit protection.
๐ฌ๐ง Tandem Bank acquired UK based lender Oplo to broaden its lending products and creates a business with ยฃ1.2bn in assets and 171,000 customers.
Digital Assets โฟ
๐ช๐บ The BIS has tested an integration of a wholesale CBDC settlement across the core banking systems of Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Hypothekarbank Lenzburg and UBS which saw the the settlement of interbank, monetary policy and cross border transactions as part of Project Helvetia.
๐ฌ๐ง UKโs parliament has launched a crypto and digital assets group filled with MPs from across the aisle to help create a regulatory framework.
๐ฌ๐ง Checkout.com will be using its new war chest to expand its Web3 strategy to help merchants navigate and bridge the gap between fiat and crypto. It already provides the backend to Crypto.com and MoonPay.
๐ฌ๐ง A House of Lords committee, The Economic Affairs Committee, have said there does not appear to be a case for a UK CBDC.
๐ ย New York Stateโs financial services regulator has appointed a virtual currency chief.
๐ ย Five US banks, New York Community Bank (NYCB), NBH Bank, FirstBank, Sterling National Bank, and Synovus Bank, have come together to form The USDF Consortium, as they plan to mint a stablecoin.
๐ ย Visa is partnering with ConsenSys to build crypto on-ramps with existing payment rails with the card networks CBDC Payment Module allowing central banks to distribute CBDCs via commercial banks and create CBDC-linked cards.
๐ ย Crypto exchange Gemini has acquired digital asset platform BITRIA as it makes a push into asset management.
๐ ย Celebrity Kim Kardashian and former boxer Floyd Mayweather are facing a lawsuit in California federal court for making โfalse and misleading statementsโ while promoting a cryptocurrency.
Traditional Banking ๐ฆ
๐ Citigroup are reportedly taking the extreme step of sacking any US employees who have not been vaccinated by January 14th unless they have an exemption.
๐ Goldman Sachs is launching a new credit card with General Motors, taking over from Capital One as the issuer and sees Goldman expanding further into the retail market.
Fintech Infrastructure ๐ง
๐ช๐บ Digital transformation is putting huge pressure on the IT infrastructure of financial services firms according to a survey of executives across North America, Europe and APAC. ย This could be why the PRA is looking into cloud tech as per the below.
๐ฌ๐ง The Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) is four years old this week and celebrates adoption across almost 4m consumers and 600,000 SMBs.
๐ฌ๐ง The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) is asking cloud computing companies used by financial services companies for access to more data to help combat cyberattacks.
๐ฌ๐ง Open banking platform Ecospend is partnering with BaaS provider Contis to provide the latterโs customers with A2A payment capabilities.
๐ฌ๐ง Railsbank has built a white label BNPL product for merchants so they do not have to partner with BNPL platforms. ย It will be available in the UK and Germany in 2022.
๐ US Bank is using TCHโs RTP networkโs Request for Payment solution to power is consumer bill pay experience.
Payments ๐ฐ
๐ฌ๐ง Global payments platform Apexx Global is expanding to the US to try and offer merchants a compete payments solution as the BNPL market expands and merchants consider their options.
๐ฌ๐ง BNPL provider Zilch is launching in Europe through a partnership with Mastercard.
๐ ย PayPal has confirmed it is exploring a USD backed stablecoin dubbed โPayPal Coinโ.
๐ ย Apple is to allow third party payment options in South Korea with a reduce service fee to comply with a new law from September 2021.
๐ Visa has announced Visa Acceptance Cloud, building on its โTap to Phoneโ solution, which will let acquirers, PSPs, POS manufacturers and IOT platforms move payments processing into the cloud.
Longer reads ๐
- Money in the metaverse - Anna Wiener
- TPG:A tale in five trades - Marc Rubinstein
- BNPLs: Businesses Needing Provided Legibility - Patrick McKenzie
- Chris Adelsbach year end summary on his 65 angel investments in fintech
- BNPL is the new overdraft - Alex Johnson
- Jack Dorsey and the Unlikely Revolutionaries Who Want to Reboot the Internet - WSJ
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See you next week!

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