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The Front Page of Global Fintech

The the largest fintech community in the world. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on the latest in news opinions, and all things financial technology.

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Year of the dragon - TWIF UK & Europe (08/01)

The latest fintech news across the UK and Europe

Year of the dragon - TWIF UK & Europe (08/01)

Happy New Year TWIF UK & Europe friends,

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

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Tweet of the week πŸ¦‰πŸ†


Funding πŸ’Έ

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

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Private markets investment solution Crescenta raised a €3.5m pre-seed round from K Fund, FJ Labs and All Iron Ventures.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Spanish neobank Myinvestor raised a €45m round from Nortia Capital, Arama Futuro Family Office.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Payment operations fintech Formance raised a $6.6m round.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Treasury solution Vitt raised $16m from SpeedInvest and BTV.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Lender Updraft finalised a Β£250m forward flow arrangement with Jefferies and Santander as well as raising Β£22m in equity led by Quilam Capital.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Crypto baas solution Fiat Republic raised a $7m seed round from Seedcamp, Speedinvest, Credo Ventures, Fabric Ventures and more.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Car repair payment solution Bumper raised a Β£40m Series B.

🌍 MENA based BNPL solution Tamara raised $340m co-led by SNB Capital and Sanabil Investments.

🌍 MENA BNPL fintech Tabby raised a $700m debt round from JP Morgan and extended its Series D round by $50m.

🌍 Charley Ma (ex Ramp, Plaid and Alloy) and Mahdi Raza (ex Robinhood) launched Exponent Founders Capital.

Challenger Banking πŸš€

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Dutch neobank Bunq is preparing for a launch in the UK. It also launched an AI chatbot.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Neobank Revolut finally reported 2022 earnings which saw revenue +45% to $1.1bn but profits down 78% to Β£5.8m due to an increase in admin expenses. It is not immediately pursuing a US banking licence but will in the long-term.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ HSBC has increased the size of its "Growth Lending" fund b Β£100m due to high demand.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Neobank Monese lost Β£30.5m in 2022 and has warned of its going concern.

🌍 PFM Monarch Money is expanding to Canada to capitalise on the shutting down of Mint.

🌍 Digital wallet Cash App has introduced Savings, a separate savings account and round ups.

Digital Assets β‚Ώ

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Circle has secured a Digital Asset Service Provider registration in France.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί The ECB is seeking vendors to provide services for a digital euro.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί The EBA is to study the impact of the crypto market and crypto companies on the banks it regulates.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Ripple was approved as a Virtual Asset Service Provider in Ireland.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Revolut is limiting its crypto buying functionality for UK business customers due to FCA guidelines on marketing of crypto.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ A Digital Securities Sandbox has received 19 applications from despite the exclusion of unbacked crypto assets.

🌍 The Financial Accounting Standards Board has changed its rules to allow corporations holding digital assets to recognise their "fair value", not just their impairment.

🌍 Representatives from BlackRock, Nasdaq and the SEC met to discuss spot bitcoin ETFs for a second time, increasing speculation of their approval. BlackRock also added Jane Street and JP Morgan as authorised participants.

🌍 3AC founders have had $1.1bn in assets frozen by a court in the British Virgin Islands.

🌍 Digital Currency Group (DCG) CEO Barry Silbert has resigned as chairman of Grayscale, the asset management portco of DCG.

🌍 Visa has partnered with SmartMedia Technologies to create a web3 loyalty offering for brands to enable consumers to earn digital rewards.

🌍 US asset manager Fidelity filed a registration with the SEC for a spot bitcoin ETF.

🌍 India banned 9 crypto exchanges including Binance and Kraken.

🌍 Paxos has received approval to expand to the Solana exchange.

Traditional Banking 🏦

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Banco Santander is attempting to combat Facebook Marketplace scams with a custom scam warning and asking if they have seen the item in person and the payment not made if they haven't.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ HSBC is to launch Zing, a money transfer service to take on Wise. The bank is also among the companies interested in Tesco's banking unit.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ JP Morgan's UK neobank Chase is aiming to be profitable in 2025.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Core banking software provider Mambu is integrating payment solution Numeral's product into its offering to its customers.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Open banking service provider D*One, a unit of ClearScore, is to power the consumer underwriting of lender Salad Money.

🌍 Lending software solution nCino has deepened its partnership with Salesforce.

🌍 Non-profit industry body Financial Data Exchange (FDX) has updated its API version to v6 to include two way fraud notifications, a account opening use case and an endpoint for sending employment and income data.

🌍 The CFPB is being urged to increase data protection in its new open banking rules by industry groups The Clearing House Association and Bank Policy Institute.

🌍 Card of file update solution Knot API partnered with Astra to make it easier to manage switching cards.

Payments πŸ’°

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί EPI has completed its first A2A instant payment POC from a German bank to a French bank.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Phase 1 of the rollout of non-sweeping VRP is to occur in Q3 2024.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ New PSR rules on APP fraud protections will come into force in October this year which include a potential Β£100 excess for consumers and the cost of reimbursement split 50:50 between sending and receiving firms.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ 25% of UK BNPL users were charged a late fee according to research.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ The UK Government released its Future of Payments review. Check out my highlights πŸ‘‡

🌍 Visa has acquired a majority stake in Mexican payment processor Prosa.

🌍 Apple, Visa and Mastercard have been accused of limiting competition in the POS market.

🌍 Affirm is extending its partnership with Walmart which will see the BNPL solution offered at self-checkout kiosks in 4,500 stores.

🌍 The CFPB is turning its attention to card acceptance costs and wants to see more competition to drive down costs.

🌍 PayPal is making its unbranded checkout, powered by its Braintree platform, a "strategic imperative".

🌍 Uber's business arm has partnered with both Brex and Ramp to help automated matching of Uber receipts.


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