Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

January is often one of the quieter months of the year for fintech, but as this edition of the newsletter shows, a lot is going on right now. 

In this week’s edition I’ve led with bet365’s partnership with Open Banking unicorn True Layer to offer Pay by Bank. Pay by Bank is a strong fit for iGaming as it can enable fast and secure deposits as well as withdrawals directly to a customer’s bank account. 

Notably, bet365 has made Pay by Bank its recommended payment option at checkout — starting with the UK and Germany, before rolling out to additional markets in the months ahead. This approach forms part of True Layer’s guidelines for accelerating Pay by Bank, and involves positioning Pay by Bank at the top of a merchant checkout and clearly highlighting it as the preferred payment option.

The goal is to nudge consumers to opt for Pay by Bank over cards. 

For bet365, this means lower fees. The user gets instant deposits with bank authentication and a smooth user experience. However, one question remains: many banks and card issuers have the ability for cardholders to block iGaming transactions. If Pay by Bank gains popularity, will Pay by Bank transactions come under pressure to also offer such a constraint too?

When it comes to fintech deals, the big story of last week in the US was Capital One’s acquisition of Brex for $5.15bn in cash and stock. The deal was agreed at a valuation significantly lower than Brex’s $12.3bn Series D funding round, however, it’s the largest bank-fintech deal in history (so far). Brex secured their EU Payment Institution license in August last year via their HQ in the Netherlands, but customers are still waiting for the wider rollout to take place. Hopefully the acquisition by Capital One will still see the company continue its EU roll out as planned, and eventually enter the UK market too.

In terms of funding, Europe is showing it can keep up with some of the big US deals. Last week French accounting software company Pennylane raised a $205m round, which valued the company at $4.25bn. And hospitality platform Mews raised $300m at a $2.5bn valuation. The company is expanding its payments offering with Mews Payments — their own gateway, along with a broader fintech play. Hotel software and payments have long relied on legacy systems, making this area ripe for disruption. 

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

• Matt Jones

👍 👎 Have feedback or news to share? Let me know on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Funding 💸

Highlights below of deals since the last post in the fintech space across the UK & Europe. Deal data powered by Dealroom.

Mews raised $300m for its hospitality management platform in a founding round led by EQT Growth, which valued the company at $2.5bn — the company will accelerate the expansion of its Mews Payments gateway and its broader fintech infrastructure

French accounting fintech Pennylane raised a €175m ($205m) in a Series E funding round led by TCV, which valued the company at €3.6bn ($4.25bn)

Insurtech Stoik closed a €20m Series A funding round co-led by Impala and Opera Tech Ventures

Danish fintech Embankment raised a €15m Series A funding round co-led by Smedvig Ventures and BlackFin Capital Partners

Crypto investment platform Finst raised an €8m Series A funding round led by Endeit Capital 

Italian crypto company CheckSig closed a €3.5m funding round with a pool of strategic private investors and selected companies participating in the raise  

Digital insurance platform Wrisk secured an undisclosed investment from Allianz, joining the Series B funding round, originally led by Mundi Ventures and QBN Capital

Challenger Banks 🚀

🇬🇧 Revolut launched a selection of premium features for Gen Z customers, providing over £400 in annual value to users of aged 13+ using Revolut Kids and Teens accounts

🇬🇧 Monzo is expected to give TS Anil an expanded role when he steps down as CEO next month

🇬🇧 Monzo launched a free tax tool for business account customers to meeting forthcoming Making Tax Digital (MTD) requirements 

🇬🇧 JN Bank has rebranded to thisbank and relaunched under new ownership with a focus on saving and lending products

🇪🇺 🇬🇧 Klarna launched peer-to-peer payments in thirteen European countries

🌍 Revolut is now likely to apply for a US banking licence directly, rather than acquire a local bank 

🌍 Sumitomo Mitsui are shutting down US digital bank Jenius

🌍 ​​Revolut applied for a banking licence in Peru

🌍 Brex was acquired by Capital One for $5.15bn in the largest bank-fintech deal in history 

Digital Assets ₿

🇬🇧 The FCA opened applications for a “stablecoin sprint” — fintechs, banks, and other stakeholders can apply to help shape policy and set standards for the future of payments 

🌍 Data from CoinGecko shows that more than half of all crypto tokens launched since 2021 are now inactive

🌍 Analysis from Eliptic revealed that the Central Bank of Iran has acquired US dollar stablecoins worth at least half a billion dollars

🌍 Around 36 million Ethereum tokens are now dedicated to staking, which is 30% of Ethereum’s total supply 

🌍 Flutterwave are teaming up with Turnkey and Nuvion to introduce embedded stablecoin wallets for merchants in Africa

Traditional Banking & Money Management 🏦

🇬🇧 Lloyds Banking Group introduced an AI academy in order to equip all 67,000 with AI skills 

🇬🇧 🌍 JP Morgan Chase acquired fintech startup WealthOS, which offers a modern core wealth platform, and will help the bank enhance their pension offering 

🇬🇧 Financial management app Emma launched a stocks and shares ISA account powered by Seccl

Infrastructure 🚧

🇪🇺 Worldline and YouLend launched cash advance to unlock capital for Europe’s SMBs 

🌍 Global crossborder payments platform Neema unveiled global Push-to-Card capability

Payments 💰

🇬🇧 🇪🇺 bet365 partnered with True Layer to launch Pay by Bank in order to deliver faster, and more secure, deposits and withdrawals

🇬🇧 🌍  Zepz acquired San Francisco based Pomelo to expand their solution set into cards, lending and credit 

🇪🇺 Revolut Pay has become one of the first EU payments methods compatible with Google’s Agent Payments Protocol (AP2)

🌍 Walmart backed OnePay are partnering with Klarna to allow customers to transform debit card transaction into BNPL loans 

🌍 Gr4vy are working with Ecommpay to deliver additional payment methods to their merchants via a single integration

🌍 PayPal announced the acquisition of Cymbio to accelerate agentic commerce push

🌍 Chinese tech giants including Alibaba, ByteDance, and Tencent, are upgrading their agentic commerce capabilities

🌍 Facial recognition payments are growing in South Korea with local fintech Toss Pay leading the way

Regulatory Corner 🔎

🇬🇧 The UK government has opened a consultation on interest paid under the Lawyers' Client Accounts Scheme, with potential implications for embedded finance

🇬🇧 The City of London Police have set up a new national fraud reporting service called Report Fraud — replacing the existing Action Fraud programme 

🇬🇧 The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) set out how its rules will apply to firms carrying out cryptoasset activities in the UK — including in relation to Consumer Duty and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)

🇬🇧 The Treasury Select Committee warned of a failure to tackle AI risks in the financial sector

🌍 The Australian Government has introduced new rules that compel many food and fuel businesses to accept cash payments

Longer Reads 📜

FinTech Outlook 2026: Key trends to watch - Taylor Wessing

2026 Priorities - Fintech Takes

Deciphering stablecoin transacted values and volume - Agenda: Payments

Crypto Isas are here — but are they a good idea? - Financial Times