This Week in Fintech UK & Europe (26/09)

Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,
Exciting times as fintech is going mainstream with a Netflix show about the Wirecard scandal.

Please find another week of fintech news, financings and exits below.
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Funding πΈ
Highlights below of deals since the last post in the fintech space across the UK & Europe.
πͺπΊ Equity management platform Ledgy raised a $22m Series B round led by NEA and included Sequoia and others.
πͺπΊ Turkish neobank Turan raised TRY 45m.
πͺπΊ Business payments fintech Julaya raised a $5m seed round led by Speedinvest.
πͺπΊNeobank Lunar raised β¬28.5m from investors.
πͺπΊEmbedded insurance provider hakuna raised a β¬4m seed round from Earlybird Ventures and others.
π¬π§ Monese has secured $35m of investment from HSBC to support the formers moved into BaaS.
π¬π§ Impact Investing platform Vested raised a β¬25k pre-seed round from Impact Shakers.
π¬π§ Lender Porthos & Co raised a Β£104k seed round from Techstars.
π¬π§ B2B payments provider Sequence raised a β¬19m seed round led by a16z, Passion Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Fin Venture Capital and others.
π¬π§ Digital mortgage platform Habito raised Β£5m from SBI Investment, Augmentum and Voluton Ventures.
π¬π§ Collaborative tax platform LocTax raised a $12m Series A from Index Ventures, Seedcamp and others.
π Fraud and compliance platform Sardine raised a $51.5m Series B led by a16z.
π Cross-border money transfer platform for freelancers Higlobe raised a $14m from investors including Battery Ventures, Raptor Ventures, Digital Currency Group and more.
π Capital markets risk provider AccessFintech raised a $60m Series C led by WestCap and included big banks BNY Mellon and BofA.
βΏ FTX is seeking to raise $1bn from investors at a $32bn valuation.
Challenger Banking π
π¬π§ Revolut has suffered a data breach, with 50,000 customer worldwide impacted. It also launched its BNPL product in Ireland and Revolut Pro, a set of business management tools for freelancers and self-employed.
π¬π§ Starling Bank investor Jupiter Fund Management is to sell its 7% stake at a significant discount to its recent Β£2.5bn valuation.
π Shares in Robinhood jumped 9% on news the SEC has scrapped plans to restrict PFOF.
Digital Assets βΏ
πͺπΊ Norway is to use the Ethereum as the technology for its CBDC sandbox.
πͺπΊ The ECB is to partner with Amazon, CaixaBank and others to develop a digital euro prototype.
π¬π§ The FCA has told consumers that FTX is operating in the country without proper authorisation.
π The White House has put together a framework for the βreasonable developmentβ of digital assets with a focus on tackling fraud.
π OFAC has issued new guidelines clarifying rules around usage of Tornado Cash that make not all transactions to be illegal.
π Coinbase and Lido Protocol have been responsible for 40% of the Ethereum networks new blocks in the post-merge proof of stake blockchain, raising concerns over centralisation. SEC Chair Gensler has hinted ether may now be a security.
π The SEC and Ripple have called for an immediate decision on whether sales of XRP violated securities law.
π Crypto market maker Wintermute has been hacked and suffered losses of $160m.
π The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has committed to rolling out a retail CBDC.
π Latest draft legislation on a proposed bill to regulate crypto would ban algorithmic stablecoins like TerraUSD for two years while a study is undertaken.
π Kraken CEO Jesse Powell is stepping down and will be replaced by current COO, David Ripley.
π Digital asset intelligence company Inca Digital has secured a government contract from DARPA.
Traditional Banking π¦
πͺπΊ Goldman Sachs is opening its Transaction Banking platform to its corporate customers in Europe.
πͺπΊ German credit specialist SWK Bank is partnering with Mambu to create a a BaaS offering to rival Solarisbank, as the incumbent BaaS provider switches strategies to card instead of account.
πͺπΊ Deutsche Bank is using AI to fraud risk score individual transactions for merchants.
π¬π§ Citi is closing its UK retail operations and will focus on wealth management.
π¬π§ Barclays Rise program will shift focus to supporting fintech talent that have recently been laid off.
π¬π§ Insurer Aviva has invested $10m into Anthemis Female Innovators Lab fund, a VC fund to back female fintech founders.
π American Express is hiring 1,500 tech workers by the end of 2022.
Fintech Infrastructure π§
πͺπΊ Open banking platform Nordigen has partnered with NeteraPay, a Czech fintech, to improve their KYC processes.
πͺπΊ Solaris has secured the ADAC credit card portfolio of 1.3m cards for the automobile club.
πͺπΊ Finastra and Visa are working on a BaaS collaboration to expand push payment product Visa Direct for faster cross border payouts.
π¬π§ Open banking platform TrueLayer announced its cutting 10% of staff
π¬π§ Fintech infrastructure providers Plaid, Truelayer and Yapily have launched a non-profit trade associated called Open Finance Association pushing for open finance in the UK and Europe.
π Open banking platform MX has rolled out product updates including broadening connectivity, adding a budgeting tool and a new SDK to allow developers to build a mobile banking app on top of its API platform.
Payments π°
πͺπΊ The European Commission has stopped a merger between Finland mobile payments app Pivo and MobilePay and Vipps to create one of the largest payments app in the Nordics due to competition concerns.
πͺπΊ Adyen is to launch Cash App Pay as a payment method to their US customers, the first time Squareβs payment method has been available outside of the Square ecosystem.
πͺπΊ Munich payments company Dock Financial has acquired a 10% stake in SME financing platform Compeon through a secondary sale.
π¬π§ PPRO has integrated BNPL provider Zip into its platform to grown their presence in the Australian e-commerce sector.
π¬π§ Checkout.com has launched βIntegrated Platformsβ a solution for marketplaces to build custom payment flows through APIs.
π Travel industry software platform Amadeus has partnered with BNPL provider Uplift to offer travellers new ways to pay.
π Zelle was a target for lawmakers for its fraud and scam issues.
Longer reads π
- Siting bank branches - Patrick McKenzie
- The Case for UK Banks - Marc Rubinstein
- CFPB's Buy Now, Pay Later Report Dropped. Now What? - Jason Mikula
- Hereβs Whatβs In the White Houseβs Crypto Reports - Nikhilesh De, CoinDesk
- Everything is Broken - Packy McCormick
- How Wise built the worldβs first cloud-based card processing - Valentin Kravtsov
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