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. Deal data powered by Dealroom.

🇪🇺 AI insurtech MarvelX raised a $6m round led by EQT Ventures.

🇪🇺 Budgeting app GoDutch raised a €1.2m round from angels.

🇪🇺 Corporate pension solution Penzilla raised a €3.2m round from Motive Partners, Delin Ventures, Arcadian Ventures and others.

🇪🇺 Credit risk management solution Tinubu Square raised a $45m round from Morgan Stanley.

🇬🇧 Primary capital markets fintech RetailBook raised a £4.5m round led by Augmentum Fintech.

🇬🇧 Zopa Bank raised £80m through a bond listing.

🌍 Investing app Stash raised a $146m round led by Goodwater Capital.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇪🇺 B2B lender Froda partnered with business bank Wamo to launch card based lending.

🇬🇧 Monzo is lining up bankers for its upcoming IPO. It also launched a new tool to allow customers to cancel a mistaken bank transfer.

🇬🇧 Allica Bank has integrated with QuickBooks.

🌍 Spend management solution Jeeves has launched a tool to combat corporate travel payment fraud in Brazil.

🌍 Latam neobank Nubank has rolled out tap-to-pay Pix in its app.

🌍 Neobroker eToro raised $620m in an upsized IPO, jumping nearly 30% on its debut.

🌍 US neobank Chime files for its US IPO.

Digital Assets ₿

🇪🇺 Crypto exchange Gemini received an Investment Firm Licence from Malta.

🇪🇺 Germany shut down and seized $38m assets from crypto exchange eXch.

🌍 Meta is looking into stablecoins for payouts and is in talks with digital asset firms.

🌍 Crypto exchange Coinbase is to be included in the S&P 500. It also announced that criminals bribed contractors and stole some customer data.

🌍 Robinhood is to acquire Canadian crypto service WonderFi for $180m.

🌍 Digital asset prime broker FalconX selected Standard Chartered to provide banking services.

🌍 Crypto exchange Crypto.com has obtained a restricted dealer registration in Canada.

🌍 Crypto custodian Anchorage Digital is to acquire stablecoin issuer Mountain Protocol.

🌍 US digital asset custodian BitGo has secured a MiCA custody licence.

🌍 Tokenization provider Ondo announced that it completed a transaction for its OUSG token using Kinexys Digital Payments by JP Morgan.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇪🇺 Italian bank Unicredit has signed a 10 year deal with Google Cloud for a digital transformation project.

🇪🇺 Goldman Sachs is considering expanding its Marcus retail bank to Ireland and Germany.

🇪🇺 BBVA has almost quadrupled the number of ChatGPT Enterprise licences it uses. The bank also processed the first Request to Pay between European banks with CaixaBank

🇪🇺 ING Belgium has launched a "check the call" fraud feature, following in the footsteps Monzo.

🇪🇺 Swedbank received SEK 12.5m in fines from SFSA for security shortcomings.

🇬🇧 Lloyds Bank has selected Moneyhub as their data enrichment partner.

🌍 Bank of America is investing in 150 new branches by 2028.

🌍 Citigroup is to offload its wealth alternatives platform to iCapital.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🇬🇧 BaaS provider ClearBank has partnered with open banking platform Ozone API.

🇬🇧Cross-border transfer platform Wise has signed Raiffeisen Bank as a customer.

🇬🇧 Infrastructure provider Konsentus launched its fully managed VoP service.

🇬🇧 BaaS provider Bank of London faces regulatory probe after its auditor raised concerns about its future.

Payments 💰

🇪🇺 Payment solution Mollie has expanded into Portugal.

🇪🇺 Payment provider Adyen and JCB launched card-on-file tokenization.

🇪🇺Payment provider Enfuce rolled out a new compliance and security standard.

🇬🇧 Payments solution GoCardless has signed Giacom as a customer as is integrating with its billing platform,

🇬🇧 BNPL payment solution Zilch has surpassed 5 million customers.

🇬🇧 JPMorgan has withdrawn its UK lawsuit against Greek fintech Viva Wallet.

🇬🇧 Payment solution myPOS has partnered with YouLend to offer financing solutions to its SME customers.

🌍 BNPL provider Affirm is to become a payment option for Costco customers online.

🌍 Stripe has partnered with Verifone to offer unified commerce with Verifone hardware.

🌍 Block reported disappointing profit growth in Q1 for Cash App.

🌍 The CFPB has rescinded its NBR Rule.

Longer reads/listens 📜

• Stablecoins: Near-Term Predictions - Tom Noyes
• The Cybercriminals Who Organized a $243 Million Crypto Heist - The New York Times
• Why Every European Card Scheme Dies - Simon Taylor
• 💰 Everyone Wants To Be The FICO of Cash Flow Data - Alex Johnson
• Strategic Bets in Retail Payments - Tom Noyes
• Why Choosing Dfns Over Fireblocks - Dfns
• A guide to stablecoins: What, why, and how - a16z

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See you next week!