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This Week in Fintech UK & Europe (21/03)

This Week in Fintech UK & Europe (21/03)

Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

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Please find another week of fintech news, financings and exits below. If you are reading this but haven’t already subscribed, click below 🙏

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Funding 💸

There were 6 deals in the fintech space across the UK and Europe since the last post, with a total investment of $200m. Some highlights are below.

🇪🇺 Payments platform Payrails raised a $6.4m round led by a16z.

🇬🇧 Playter raised a $1.7m seed round co-led by Fin Capital and 1818 Ventures.

🇬🇧 Oakbrook Finance raised £142m from Atalaya Capital, Hive Learning and JP Morgan.

🌍 Bain Capital Ventures launched a $560m crypto fund.

🌍 ConsenSys raised a $450m Series D from Softbank, Microsoft, Temasek and others.

🌍 Singapore Regtech outfit Silent Eight raised a $40m Series B led by HSBC.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇪🇺 UK fintech leaders are meeting in Belfast for the first Northern Ireland Fintech Symposium, hosted by FinTech NI.

🇪🇺 Stock plan management platform Global Shares has been sold to JP Morgan.

🇪🇺 Fellow Finance is closing its P2P product and will focus exclusively on becoming banking.

🇬🇧 Revolut successfully raised €10m for Red Cross Ukraine from its customers and matched the donation itself. It also hired Victor Stopa to run its German business.

🇬🇧 Flux expanded its Flux Offers platform with a partnership with Fidel API.

🌍 Fractional alternative asset marketplace Otis has been acquired by Public.com.

Digital Assets ₿

🇪🇺 The EU has rejected a plan to ban proof of work crypto mining whilst approving the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA) proposals.

🇬🇧 Revolut CRO Alan Chang is setting up a crypto firm and is seeking to raise $100m.

🇬🇧 HSBC is partnering with The Sandbox, a metaverse startup, to develop new experiences on a plot of land that it has  purchased.

🌍  Yuga Labs, the group behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club, has acquired the IP behind CryptoPunks and Meebits, creating an NFT powerhouse.

🌍  Luno, the exchange bought by Digital Currency Group, has launched a crypto and web3 investment arm.

🌍 Meta is planning on bringing NFTs to Instagram.

🌍 The Terra community is divided on how its Anchor protocol maintains its high yield payouts of 20%.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇪🇺 Bank of Ireland is hiring 100 new tech staff as it accelerates its digital transformation project.

🇪🇺 German savings banks and Volksbanks are switching their Girocards from the outgoing Maestro system to Mastercard co-branded cards.

🇪🇺 An AML pilot among 9 Estonian banks organised by Salv, an Estonian regtech, prevented €3m making it into the hands of criminals through data sharing.

🇪🇺 Santander was forced to compensate clients for restricting access to online banking to those with a mobile phone.

🇬🇧 NatWest is utilising AWS to help understand its customer data to better anticipate their needs.

🇬🇧 HSBC are launching video calls for new investors as part of its My Investment service whilst also closing 69 more branches.

🇬🇧 TSB customers have reported duplicated payments being taken from their accounts.

Payments 💰

🇬🇧 Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) came into effect this week in the UK which will require 2-step verification for online purchases of over €30.

🇬🇧 Citizens Advice found that 8% of people turned to BNPL to cover basic purchases like food and toiletries in the past six months.

🇬🇧 Hargreaves Lansdown is partnering with US payment company Bottomline to utilise its cloud-based payment platform to receive and distribute client funds.

🇬🇧 After last year’s increase in contactless limit increased from £45 to £100, the average contactless spend has increased 30%.

🌍 American Express has filed trademarks for its logos and products which indicate plans for NFTs and cryptocurrency services.

Regulatory Corner 🔎

🇪🇺 German prosecutors have charged Wirecard executive Markus Braun in relation to the firms collapse last year.

🇬🇧 The FCA are shutting all crypto ATMs in the UK.

🇬🇧 The CMA has clarified the uses for Sweeping which exclude e-commerce purchases, moving money to accounts to purchase crypto or FX or investment products.

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