You come at the king, you best not miss - TWIF UK & Europe (26/02)

Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,We are on the lookout for a top BD/Partnerships talent with an interest in fintech to help scale our sponsorship efforts in Europe.

Please reach out if you are interested or know of someone that might be interested in joining the TWIF team!

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. Deal data powered by Dealroom.

🇪🇺 Embedded AR/AP solution Monite raised $6m from investors including Valar Ventures and existing investor Third Prime.

🇪🇺 Compliance fintech Spektr raised €5m from Northzone, Seedcamp and PreSeed Ventures.

🇪🇺 BNPL solution Zoodpay raised $20m.

🇪🇺 Life insurtech Embea raised a €4m seed round from Atlantic Labs and angels.

🇪🇺 Treasury management fintech Embat raised a €15m Series A from 4Founders Capital and angels.

🇪🇺 Financial infrastructure for crypto firms Januar raised an undisclosed amount from Third Prime Capital, Skyfall Ventures and others.

🇪🇺 Neobank Lunar raised €26.8m.

🇬🇧 Monzo is rumoured to be raising £350m at a near £4bn valuation.

🇬🇧 Fincrime startup Napier AI raised £45m from Crestline Investors.

🇬🇧 Reproductive health insurtech Juniper raised a £1.5m seed round.

🇬🇧 Recurring crypto payment fintech Superfluid Finance raised %2.1m from investors including Fabric Ventures, Multicoin Capital and others.

🇬🇧 Digital pensions provider Penfold has launched a crowdfunding campaign.

🌍 Canadian expense management company Float raised a CAD $50m credit facility from SVB.

🌍 Customer engagement platform for community banks Pulsate raised a $7.7m Series A round.

🌍 Capital One is seeking to acquire card network Discover for $35bn.

🇬🇧 White label VAT refund solution Revenir AI has launched.

🇬🇧 Investor Octopus has increased its stake in embedded wealth platform Seccl as its co-founders leave.

🇬🇧 Wise is calling on the Government to stop banks hiding the cost of FX fees it charges to SMEs which it claims cost them £2.8bn in 2023.

🌍 FINCEN, the SEC and the CFTC are investigating whistleblower claims against Cash App for failing to carry out proper KYC and AML checks.

🌍 Nubank reported a $1bn net profit for 2023, turning things around from a net loss in 2022.

🇪🇺 The ECB has tried to reassure banks concerned about deposit flight caused by a digital euro and that they should be more concerned about stablecoins and EMIs.

🇬🇧 Revolut is launching a crypto exchange for "advanced traders".

🌍 Sam Bankman-Fried may get a reduced sentence now it is more likely that FTX customers will be made whole due to the change in crypto prices.

🌍 A US judge signed off on Binance's $4.3bn plea deal.

🌍 Coinbase has urged the SEC to approve Grayscale's spot ether ETF.

🇪🇺 Deutsche Bank has been warned by regulators over its poor AML controls and could face fines.

🇪🇺 Turkey's Garanti BBVA has launched a contactless biometric Mastercard.

🇬🇧 Barclays is to close another 22 branches.

🌍 Banks in Singapore are being warned of the upcoming threat of quantum computing cyber threats.

🇪🇺 An activist investor in Temenos has called for the CEO to be removed but has rejected some of the claims released last week by Hindenburg Research. The company is also conducting an independent review of the allegations.

🇬🇧 OpenPayd is to offer TrueLayer's A2A payment solution to its BaaS customers.

🌍 Programmable assets fintech Xalts acquired Contour Network, a digital trade finance network.

🌍 Partner bank Lineage has been hit with a FDIC consent order and is looking to wind down its BaaS relationships.

🇪🇺 Adyen customers can activate a B2B BNPL solution through a partnership with Billie.

🇪🇺 Payment solution Numeral now supports Swift payments.

🇪🇺 Chaos at Klarna this week as Sequoia Capital retracted a request from Sequoia partner Matthew Miller to remove former employee and current Chairperson Mike Moritz from the board.

🇪🇺 Payment provider Mollie has launched Mollie Capital in the UK to provide retailers with £250,000 in growth financing.

🇪🇺 SoftPOS solution Softpay now supports Dankort wallet for payments in Denmark.

🇬🇧 BNPL provider Zilch is launching a "Pay over 3 months" zero-interest option for purchases larger than £75.

🌍 Restaurant software fintech Toast is cutting 550 employees.

🌍 The CFPB released data showing the higher interest rates on credit cards from the top 25 issuers irrespective of credit risk in an attempt to increase competition and reduce rates for consumers.

🌍 Block reported a 20% increase in Cash App Card MAUs, to 23 million and its BNPL Platform GMV was $8.6bn (+25% yoy). It also may face legal action from the CFPB.

🌍 Google is shutting its Google Pay app as it looks to simplify its digital wallet offering.

🇪🇺 The EU's new Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) is to set up shop in Frankfurt, beating out Dublin, Madrid and Paris.

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