Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

Join us for the next edition of the London Fintech Breakfast, this time at the wonderful Canva office in Hoxton Square!

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

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Funding 💸

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

🇪🇺Digital asset infrastructure provider Hercle raised a $10m round from F-Prime, Fulgur Ventures and Exponential Science.

🇪🇺Regtech Formalize raised a $35m Series B from BlackFin Capital, West Hill Capital, Acton Capital and CIBI.

🇪🇺 AI for financial advisors Grasp raised a $7m Series A from Octopus Ventures and Yanno.

🌍 Wealthsimple has raised C$750m at a C$10bn valuation led by Dragoneer and GIC.

🌍 Mastercard is in late stage talks to buy crypto firm Zerohash for $2bn.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇪🇺 Dutch neobank Bunq was approved by FINRA to operate as a US broker-dealer, allowing them to buy and sell securities.

🇬🇧 Neobroker Robinhood is to offer futures trading to its UK customers.

🇬🇧 Embedded lender Liberis is launching a BNPL product.

🇬🇧 Neobank Starling has launched an AI tool to prevent scams.

🇬🇧 SMB neobank Zempler Bank is to partner with iwoca for SME lending.

🇬🇧 Monzo's CEO TS Anil is stepping down and will be replaced by a former Google executive.

🇬🇧 Lender Shawbrook's shares rise 6% on the first day of trading on LSE.

🌍 Latam neobank Nubank is partnering with OpenAI to launch ChatGPT Go, a subscription service.

Digital Assets ₿

🇪🇺 Coinbase is partnering with open banking platform Tink to enable crypto purchases via Pay by Bank in Germany.

🇬🇧 Equals Money and Railsr are to offer stablecoin payments through a partnership with BVNK.

🇬🇧 BaaS provider ClearBank has joined Circle's payment network.

🇬🇧 Crypto staking provider KR1 is to list on the LSE.

🌍 IBM launched a digital asset platform powered by DFNS.

🌍 Citi has partnered with Coinbase on digital asset payments for institutional clients. Asset manager Apollo has also partnered with Coinbase's asset management arm on lending products.

🌍 Coinbase reported strong Q3 earnings of $1.9bn, +58% yoy with transaction revenue +2x and its Base L2 blockchain hitting profitability.

🌍 DBS and Goldman Sachs have conducted the first OTC options trade involving crypto.

🌍 Stablecoin issuer Circle launched its blockchain Arc into public testnet supported by 100 institutional participants.

🌍 Tokenization provider Securitize is to go public via a $1.25bn SPAC.

🌍 Western Union is launching its own Solana based stablecoin in H1 2026.

🌍 JPMorgan executed the first blockchain-based private fund transaction.

🌍 Tether reported $10bn in profits for the year through Q3.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇪🇺 BBVA Germany is expanding its cash deposit capabilities by partnering with Paysafe.

🇪🇺 Santander reported its US-based digital banking business helped boost quarterly earnings.

🇬🇧 HSBC is to become a customer of ValidiFi for account verification and risk detection solutions.

🇬🇧 Barclays is acquiring Best Egg for $800m as it expands its US consumer banking presence.

🌍 Morgan Stanley is to acquire private shares platform EquityZen.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🇬🇧 Core banking platform Thought Machine signed General Bank of Canada as a customer.

Payments 💰

🇪🇺 Klarna has launched a global membership program including cashback, travel perks and lifestyle rewards.

🇬🇧 PSP Chekout.com secured a partnership with Uber,

🌍 PayPal is integrating Mastercard Agent Pay into its wallet. It will also embed its wallet into ChatGPT.

Regulatory Corner 🔎

🌍 The Fed is exploring creating skinny master accounts for select fintechs.

👍 👎 Have feedback for us? Let us know

See you next week!