Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

I am looking for a rockstar Head of Revenue for TWIF UK & Europe. An ideal candidate has a strong network in fintech across Europe with sales/partnerships background and importantly a community mindset. Please reach out if you are interested or know anyone that might be!

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

Sponsored Content 

In the "Future of fintech in Africa 2023" report, Kora and Finextra compile expert insights from a range of firms, including Cloud Africa, Data Scientists Network, JUMO, Mojaloop Foundation, TymeBank, and Yoco, and provide predictions for the future of fintech in Africa. Get the report

Tweet of the week 🦉🏆

Funding 💸

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

🇪🇺Payment orchestrator Craftgate raised $1m from Hepsiburada and D4 Ventures.

🇪🇺A2A payment provider Trustly raised SEK 15m from Nordic Capital.

🇪🇺Finance platform for SMEs Finiata raised €20m in debt from Fasanara Capital.

🇬🇧 Savings account technology provider Sync Savings raised a pre-seed round.

🇬🇧 Multi-entity accounting and financial management platform Translucent raised a £5m seed round led by Chalfen Ventures and LocalGlobe.

🌍 Corporate spend platform Ramp raised $300m at a $5.8bn valuation (down from $8.1bn in 2022).

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇪🇺Telco Orange has sold its Romanian banking operation to local player Alpha Bank.

🇪🇺 N26 has integrated iDEAL for its Dutch customers.

🇬🇧 Neobroker Lightyear is launching UK business investment accounts, giving companies with a sole director access to stocks, funds and ETFs. It is also partnering with BlackRock to access its money market funds.

🇬🇧 Zopa Bank reported narrowing losses as operating income surged over 180% and expects profitability in the next year.

🌍 Shares in Nubank fell after 8% after news that the CEO and co-founder sold some shares.

🌍 Digital mortgage solution Better.com went public via a SPAC.

🌍 Yahoo has acquired neobroker Commonstock.

Digital Assets ₿

🇪🇺 Research has shown that Slovenia has been ranked as the EU's most crypto-obsessed country.

🇬🇧The UK is implementing a "travel rule" on 1st September to curb money laundering which requires firms to identify the names of people behind transactions but has the crypto industry asking for more clarity.

🌍 Mastercard is launching a partner program for CBDC which includes Ripple and Consensys.

🌍 Coinbase is suspending USDT, DAI and RAI stablecoins in Canada after the country put tighter restrictions on exchanges. Other exchanges like Binance already decided to leave the Canadian market.

🌍 Crypto investment advisor Titan Global paid a $1m fine to the SEC for misleading investors with advertisements about performance metrics.

🌍 Coinbase bought a minority equity stake in USDC issuer Circle and closed the Consortium, a self-governance group. USDC is to launch on six new blockchains in the coming months.

🌍 Tornado Cash founder Roman Semenov was added to the US sanctions list and co-founder Roman Storm was arrested by the FBI and IRS.

🌍 FTX looks to enlist Galaxy Digital to help manage its crypto holdings.

🌍 Solana has integrated its Solana Pay with Shopify as a payment option for e-commerce.

🌍 Binance is to discontinue its debit card in Latam and MEA.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇬🇧The FCA has been given the power to fine banks for failure to comply with access to cash rules.

🌍 Goldman Sachs is reportedly seeing a sale of its mass-market investment advisory business.

🌍Citi is refreshing its retail banking suite and establishing "relationship tiers" instead of account packages.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🇬🇧GoCardless has renewed its partnership with Xero to allow its SMB accounting customers to get their invoices paid quickly.

🌍 Income verification provide Pinwheel is to become the preferred provider for direct deposit switching services for Plaid, who also partnered with Atomic.

Payments 💰

🇪🇺 Klarna has hit 100m EU customers with UK leading growth with GMV +26%.

🌍 Tap to Pay on iPhone is coming to JP Morgan's US merchant customers, with Sephora one of the first to make use of it.

🌍 New Jersey has passed a law that limits the fee merchants can impose on credit card payments and mandated that merchants disclose the surcharge clearly.

🌍 Starbucks is testing out a "scanless pay" technology for drive through customers that uses the geolocation on the Starbucks app.

Sponsored Content 

In the "Future of fintech in Africa 2023" report, Kora and Finextra compile expert insights from a range of firms, including Cloud Africa, Data Scientists Network, JUMO, Mojaloop Foundation, TymeBank, and Yoco, and provide predictions for the future of fintech in Africa. Get the report

Longer reads 📜

• Why BaaS still represents huge opportunity - Samir
• Fintech, AI, and the Challenges with Compliance, Fraud, and Risk - Cowboy Ventures
• Pleo's PLG Journey with Haresh Bajaj (VP Product Growth) - Akash Bajwa
• DOJ Probe – Network Tokenization – 2023 - Tom Noyes

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See you next week!