Monzo heads to Spain (18/05)

Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

Welcome to the new readers who’ve joined us since last week. (Photo credit: Florian Wehde on Unsplash)

A couple of weeks back, I mentioned that Revolut is opening its first store in Spain. Rather than a traditional branch, the role of the Barcelona location is brand-building and showcasing Revolut’s products.  

Now the UK’s other OG neobank is making a move in Spain.

After pulling out of the US market, and launching in Ireland earlier this year, Monzo is planning to launch in Spain later in 2026. With offices in both Barcelona and Madrid, the bank has around 50 staff in place so far.

Further hiring is planned. Monzo’s careers page shows a variety of open positions in Spain — everything from Credit Risk to Engineering, and also a Senior Writer role.

In other Monzo news, the bank has extended its partnership with newly promoted Coventry City football club, who will be playing in the Premier League next season for the first time in 25 years. 

Coventry City are managed by former Chelsea captain and England International Frank Lampard

For the past two seasons, Monzo has been the main shirt sponsor for the club, and extending the partnership for the Premier League will open up even bigger fan-focused marketing plays. (Earlier this season there were Coventry City shirt giveaways linked to Monzo’s 1p savings challenge — which proved to be a huge hit.)

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

Thanks for reading,

- Matt

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

Paymentology raised $175m to grow its issuer processing offering, in a round co-led by Apis Partners and Aspirity Partners.

Elliptic raised $120m to scale its blockchain compliance solution — the round was led by One Peak, with participation from Nasdaq Ventures, Deutsche Bank and the British Business Bank, which contributed £13m including capital from the British Growth Partnership Fund I.

Embat raised a €30m Series B to expand its AI-powered treasury management system. The round was led by Cathay Innovation, with participation from existing investors Creandum, Samaipata, 4Founders, and Venture Friends.

Adfin raised an $18m Series A funding round to build finance automation for businesses. The round was led by Index Ventures, with participation from Visionaries Club and new investors Stéphane Kurgan, former COO of King, and Andrey Khusid, founder of Miro.

PANTA raised a £3m Seed round led by Index Ventures. The company aims to modernise the global index investing industry by digitising manual processes.

🇬🇧 Revolut is set to offer wealth management services after gaining FCA approval

🇬🇧  Revolut is incentivising staff to bring in more business banking clients

🌍 Visa unveiled Tap to Confirm ID technology and has deployed it to its first banks 

🇬🇧 Tap Global launched Tap Earn yield in the UK market, allowing users to earn a variable yield on selected stablecoins, Bitcoin, and Ethereum

🌍 Digital Asset, the company behind the Canton Network blockchain, is targeting a $2bn valuation in an a16z-led raise expected to close in the coming weeks

🌍 Moonpay acquired Solana trading platform DFlow in a reported $100m deal

🇬🇧 Zilch is working with Visa and Thredd to deliver flexible payment technology that will allow multiple payment options to sit behind one card or digital credential

🌍 Google added Affirm and Klarna to Google Pay's AI shopping checkout, built on the Universal Commerce Protocol.

🇪🇺 Mistral AI is discussing its answer to Anthropic’s Mythos model with European banks, many of which do not have access to Anthropic’s latest model

🌍 OpenAI partnered with Plaid to allow users to connect bank accounts and ask questions, including those related to spend analysis and future financial analysis 

🌍 EY retracted a study used by its cybersecurity division in Canada after finding AI hallucinations and fake footnotes 

🌍 Datacentres use 6% of the electricity supply in the UK and the US, according to the International Data Center Authority (IDCA)

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McKinsey report on shopping in the age of AI (interesting to consider the implications for payments and wider fintech)