Cheers to Fintech- (27/03)

Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

ICYMI, we announced our next London Happy Hour last week.  Sign up here!

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

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

🇪🇺Embedded finance fintech Monite has raised an additional $5m in its seed round, doubling the size of the round, led by Third Prime.

🇪🇺 B2B payments provider Two raised a €18m Series A led by Shine Capital and Antler.

🇪🇺 DeFi carbon offsetting fintech carbonABLE raised a €1.2m round led by Ethereal Ventures.

🇪🇺 Securities trading platform NPEX raised a €2m round from Icecat.

🇪🇺 Tax fintech TaxDown raised a €5.8m seed round co-led by JME Ventures and Base10 Partners.

🇪🇺Fintech marketplace HeavyFinance raised a €3m seed round from Practica Capital.

🇪🇺 VAT and accounting solution Kontolink raised a €1m round from angels.

🇪🇺 Savings marketplace Raisin raised €60m led by M&G Catalyst and included Goldman Sachs and others.

🇪🇺 Digital banking services provider ID Finance raised a €30m convertible note from Kingsway Capital.

🇬🇧 SME lender Recognise Bank has raised £25m from its largest investor PV27 in order to grow its lending book.

🇬🇧 Wealth management infrastructure provider InvestEngine raised a $1.3m round from Invesco.

🌍 BNPL provider Tamara secured a $150m debt facility from Goldman Sachs.

🌍 TTV Capital raised a sixth fund, closing $250m to invest in early stage fintech.

🌍 HR software provider Rippling raised a $500m Series E from Greenoaks.

🌍 Earned wage access provider Rain raised a $66m Series A equity round led by QED and $50m in debt from Sound Point Capital.

🇪🇺 Neobank Bunq, after recently announcing its first quarterly profit, has announced it surpassed €2.3bn in deposits.

🇪🇺 B2B BNPL provider Mondu has launched in the UK.

🇪🇺 Former founder of business neobank Penta has launched Pile, a treasury startup for startups and VCs.

🇬🇧 UK stock trading firm CMC Markets has found that searches related to stock trading have increased 200% since 2004 as well as increased interest in related podcasts.

🇬🇧Neobroker Lightyear has launched a "Portfolio Insights" feature for users to better understand what they are invested in.

🇬🇧 Digital wealth manager Moneyfarm has launched thematic portfolios for customers to choose from; technology and innovation, demographic and social shifts, sustainability, and multi-trend which combines all three.

🇬🇧 Digital bank Kroo has increased the interest it is paying on current accounts to 3.33%.

🇬🇧 Neobank Allica Bank has warned that PRA changes to capital rules would increase the risk-weighting of secured SME loans to increase and could result in £44bn of SME lending being at risk.

🇬🇧 Alternative lender Iwoca has partnered with CRIF to launch instant credit decisions for loans up to £25,000 using open banking data.

🇬🇧 Money-saving app Snoop has called in bankers to explore a sale or a new capital raise.

🇬🇧 Fintech Sipstar has launched an app and debit card for people with dementia to spend money safely.

🌍 Neobroker Robinhood faced angry customers who were unable to exercise their put options on SVB and resulted in the company extending the expiry dates of the options.

🇪🇺 Crypto firms in Belgium are required to add 'Virtual currencies, real risks. The only guarantee in crypto is risk.' as a disclaimer to their advertising.

🇬🇧 Digital asset custody firm Copper is making redundancies in its enterprise business.

🇬🇧Crypto trade association CryptoUK has expressed "deep concerns" about the moves by banks to limit purchases of crypto.

🇬🇧 Ziglu is looking to raise £2m at a £10m valuation, a far cry from the $170m Robinhood was reported to pay  in the now cancelled acquisition.

🌍 Coinbase has partnered with Standard Chartered to enter the Singapore market. The crypto exchange is also exploring creating an offshore platform for institutional clients. The exchange is also heading to the US Supreme Court and separately received an SEC Wells Notice.

🌍 Nubank has partnered with Polygon to expand its crypto based loyalty program Nucoin.

🌍 Circle has chosen Cross River Bank as its commercial banking partner after moving away from Silvergate Bank. The stablecoin issuer is also calling on the Federal Reserve to back its stablecoin and has chosen France for its EU HQ.

🌍 The FDIC has quashed reports that any buyer of Signature Bank would have to stop doing business with crypto companies.

🌍 Digital wallet Stables is to issue a Mastercard that will allow users to spend USDC at merchants in store and online.

🌍 Flagstar Bank, a subsidiary of Bancorp, is to acquire the non-crypto assets of Signature Bank.

🌍 Celebrities including Jake Paul and Lindsay Lohan have been charged by the SEC for illegally promoting crypto tokens without disclosing they were paid to do so.

🌍 Crypto fugitive Do Kown was arrested in Montenegro.

🇪🇺 BBVA is setting up an innovation unit in Colombia to serve entrepreneurs and tech companies.

🇬🇧 NatWest is making its digital ID service available to other businesses after signing a deal with OneID.

🌍 JP Morgan has launched a real-time liquidity sweeping solution to allow customers to fund payments with existing liquidity seven days a week. It is also buying investment analytics platform Aumni.

🇪🇺 Cybersecurity firm Baffin Bay has been acquired by Mastercard.

🇪🇺SAP Fioneer is launching an embedded finance platform to connect FIs and SAP users to develop embedded finance solutions.

🇬🇧 ClearBank is partnering with Code First Girls to recruit more female coders into its ranks.

🇬🇧 Payments provider GoCardless has integrated with Zapier to support the automation of workflows relating to payments.

🇬🇧 BaaS provider Griffin has partnered with Cable as it looks to build out its financial crime control framework.

🌍 The CFPB is investigating companies that track and collect consumer data to understand their scope and business practices to inform whether its Fair Credit Reporting Act rules reflect reality.

🌍 Card issuer Apto Payments is partnering with Sardine to provide the latter's fraud prevention capabilities to it's clients launching card programs.

🇬🇧 Checkout.com is to enable instant money transfers via Mastercard Send in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore. The payment provider has also launched a card issuing product.

🇬🇧 Consumer payments fintech Curve is bringing wearable payments to its customers through a partnership with Digiseq.

🇬🇧 Payment provider Pay.com is expanding to the US with the help of Cross River.

🇬🇧 14 of the largest UK PSPs have been asked to provide data on APP scam performance to the PSR to provide greater transparency.

🇬🇧 MangoPay has acquired Irish orchestration service WhenThen.

🌍 Shares in Block (formerly Square) hit the skids by over 20% as famed short seller Hindenburg Research put out a report alleging fraud, mismanagement and accounting failures.

🌍 Visa and Mastercard have settled a class-action lawsuit and agreed to pay $5.6bn to 12m merchants after fifteen years of legal challenges relating to fees charged.

🌍 ACI Worldwide is in talks to be acquired by PE firm Motive Partners.

🌍 Indian mobile payments company PhonePe has secured a $200m investment from Walmart.

🌍 Card networks have come under pressure from Democrats over pausing their work on creating a MCC for gun retailers.

🌍 Fast food company Panera Bread is trailing Amazon's palm reading technology.

🌍 JP Morgan is to pilot biometric payments with US retailers, allowing consumers to scan their palms or face, at the upcoming Miami Grand Prix.

👍 👎 Have feedback for us? Let us know!See you next week!