Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

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

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Tweet of the week 🦉🏆

Funding 💸

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

🇪🇺SME lender Silvr raised a €230m in debt from Channel and Citi.

🇪🇺 SME lender TP24 raised a £345m debt facility from Barclays and M&G Investments.

🇪🇺Neobank Pluto Bank raised a pre-seed round.

🇬🇧 Alternative property lender Kuflink raised a £35m debt facility from European Risk Capital and Paragon Bank.

🇬🇧 Climate fintech Sylvera raised a $57m Series B led by Balderton alongside Index Ventures, Insight Partners, Bain, Salesforce Ventures, Speedinvest, Seedcamp, LocalGlobe, Fidelity Strategic Ventures and 9Yards.

🇬🇧 Insurtech Tractable raised a $65m Series E round led by SoftBank Vision Fund.

🌍 Egyptian payment solution Flash raised a $6m seed round led by Addition.

🌍 Payment solution Thunes has raised a Series C extension which included Visa, EDBI and Endeavour catalyst.

🌍 Bank operating system CapStack raised $6m from investors including Cowboy Ventures, Cambrian Ventures, Fin Capital, Alloy Labs and more.

🌍 Content creator neobank Karat Financial raised $40m Series B from USV, Commerce Ventures, GGV and others and $30m in debt from TriplePoint Capital.

🌍 Financial planning fintech Runway raised a $27.5m Series A led by Initialized Capital.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇪🇺Raisin is expecting deposits to surpass €50bn this year.

🇪🇺 Corporate spend management solution Payhawk has secured a EMI licence in Lithuania.

🇪🇺 Neobank N26 is looking for partners as it seeks to add stock trading and crypto into its app. It also has denied rumours it is pulling out of Brazil and putting its subsidiary up for sale. Regulator BaFin has extended its AML controls on the bank due to deficiencies in its systems still being present.

🇪🇺 Dutch neobank Bunq reported it has reached 9m customers and €4.5m in deposits.

🇬🇧 Alternative investment platform Darksquare launched.

🇬🇧 Wise has reported 33%+ yoy growth in customers and 66%+ increase in income yoy.

🇬🇧 Starling Bank has signed as a customer for Napier's AML solution.

🇬🇧 Open banking loyalty app loyalBe is shutting down its consumer offering to pivot to a B2B product.

🇬🇧 Pension provider Smart Pension is acquiring Evolve Pensions, taking its AUM to £4bn.

🇬🇧 15 of the largest UK fintechs are demanding a review of legislation on hidden bank fees for international payments.

🌍 Fintech Earnest and Nova Credit have partnered to offer private student loans to international students in the US.

🌍 US neobank Greenwood is being sued by founders of a company it acquired last year for failing to pay earn-out.

Digital Assets ₿

🇪🇺 Soc Gen's crypto division SG Forge is the first company to receive a crypto licence in France.

🇪🇺 Bitpanda has reached 20m customers.

🇪🇺 France's Financial Markets Authority has criticised the SEC due to its heavy handed crypto regulation.

🇬🇧 The UK Treasury has rejected proposals to regulate crypto as gambling.

🌍 Coinbase has introduced a encrypted messaging service through its Coinbase Wallet product, in collaboration with XMTP. It is also shutting its Borrow program that allowed fiat loans of up to $1m against BTC holdings.

🌍 WSJ reports that Binance has laid off over 1,000 staff.

🌍 Canadian crypto firms WonderFi, Coinsquare and CoinSmart have merged.

🌍 The FSB has published a global regulatory framework for crypto to recommend ways to strengthen oversight and supervision.

🌍 Florida governor and potential presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has said he would ban CBDCs if elected.

🌍 Nasdaq has halted its plans for a digital asset custody service due to the "shifting business and regulatory environment".

🌍 NYDIG has claimed that spot EFTs for Bitcoin could increase the demand for BTC to $30bn.

🌍 Prime Trust has been put into receivership by a judge in Nevada.

🌍 The digital yuan has surpassed $250bn in transactions in the 1.5years since launch.

🌍 FTX is suing former CEO and founder Sam Bankman-Friend for $1bn.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇪🇺 Deutsche Bank has been fined $186m by the US Fed for failing to remedy AML concerns with its controls.

🇪🇺Nordea is acquiring the Norwegian personal and private banking customers of Danske Bank.

🇬🇧 TSB experience an IT glitch that locked users out of its online banking and mobile apps.

🇬🇧Lloyds Bank has added a car leasing feature to its mobile app.

🇬🇧Halifax Bank is integrating solar panel sourcing, installation and aftercare into its services in a trial.

🇬🇧 Virgin Money is cutting 30% of its branches, leaving it with only 91.

🌍 Bank of America reported 83% of its customers have adopted digital channels.

🌍 Goldman's consumer unit hit 5.8% in charge offs as it continues its retreat from the retail market.

🌍 Capital One has seen the losses in its credit card portfolio pass pre-pandemic levels. Its Q2 30-day delinquency rate hit 3.7%.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🇬🇧ComplyAdvantage has launched a KYB solution.

🌍 International payment messaging organisation Swift has completed a pilot between several banks to process instant payments across different currency areas.

🌍 Plaid and Nuvei are deepening their partnership to expand bank-based payments.

🌍 The Federal Reserve announce that its instant payment system FedNow is live.

Payments 💰

🇬🇧 Mastercard is rolling out the Consumer Fraud Risk system, an AI powered fraud tool, in the UK alongside nine of the largest UK banks.

🇬🇧Klarna is to provide UK customers struggling with repayments access to debt advice in preparation for the new Consumer Duty rules in the UK.

🇬🇧PayPoint UK, a PSP, is facing legal action for anti-competitive practices.

🌍 Vehicle payment solution Car IQ has partnered with Visa to enable cars to transact directly with merchants and banks in its network.

🌍 Block (FKA Square) has sued Mastercard and Visa over interchange fees.

🌍 Toast has reversed its decision to add a $0.99 fee to online orders after its restaurant customers were not happy.

Regulatory Corner 🔎

🇬🇧Two brothers behind a large P2P investment fraud have been sentenced to 8 years in prison for fraud and money laundering

🇬🇧 The FCA are to implement a permanent digital sandbox.

🇬🇧 The FCA has proposed new guidelines on marketing of financial products on social media in a clampdown on "finfluencers".

Longer reads 📜

• Brex’s Second Act - Mario Gabriele
• Money Stuff: Branches Make Bank Runs Harder - Matt Levine
• Separating Payment and Identity - Tom Noyes
• The Merchant Payment Process, Revoloopholes and the Mandela Effect - Jas Shah

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See you next week!