Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

Join us for the next London FinTech Breakfast: AI Edition. Your morning dose of coffee, connections, and cutting-edge ideas. Don’t miss out!

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.

🇪🇺 Italian SME financial management solution Tot raised a pre-Series A round of €7m led by CDP Venture Capital.

🇪🇺 Italian SMB fintech Aidexa raised a €12m round.

🇪🇺 Fraud startup SEON raised an $80m Series C from Creandum, IVP, Hearst Ventures, Firebolt Ventures and Sixth Street Growth.

🇪🇺 Financial platform for SMEs Seapoint raised a $3m round from Frontline Ventures.

🇪🇺 Wealthtech Finary raised a €25m Series B from SpeedInvest, YC, LocalGlobe, and Hedosophia.

🇪🇺 Lender Defacto raised a €16m round from Citi, Northzone, Global Founders Capital, Headline and more.

🇪🇺 Insurtech Seyna raised a €10m round from Elaia Partners, White Star Capital and 115k.

🇬🇧 BNPL provider Leanpay raised a £4.5m Series B.

🇬🇧Bank data aggregator Spenditures raised a £2.1m Series A.

🇬🇧Wealthtech Chip Financial raised a £6m round from Channel 4 Ventures.

🌍 Saudi embedded fintech Hala raised a $157m Series B.

🌍 Saudi open banking fintech Spare raised a $5m round.

🌍 Spend management solution Extend raised a $20m round.

🌍 Sales tax startup Nuneral raised a $35m Series B round.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇪🇺 Neobroker Trade Republic is expanding its products into wealth management through partnerships with Apollo and EQT to invest in private markets.

🇬🇧 Cross-border payment firm Wise signed Upworks as a customer.

🇬🇧 HR and business software platform Rippling has secured an FCA authorisation as an Electronic Money Institution.

🇬🇧 Revolut is reportedly working on building AI agents for its sales and customer service teams. It is also reported to be looking to raise funding at a $75bn valuation and is reporting a 46% increase in revenues.

🇬🇧 UK fintech marketplace ClearScore tripled its profits to £18.8m for 2024.

🇬🇧 Neobank Starling unveiled a new brand and identity, also formally dropping the "Bank" from its name.

🌍 Spend management solution Jeeves has launched stablecoin payments to cut cross-border costs for businesses.

🌍 Neobroker Robinhood is to provide its customers with access to private markets.

Digital Assets ₿

🇪🇺 Santander's digital bank Openbank is rolling out crypto trading in Germany.

🇪🇺 Deutsche Borse subsidiary AnchorNote announced an off-exchange settlement solution BridgePort.

🇬🇧 The Bank of England has proposed a cap on the value of stablecoins individuals and companies can hold.

🌍 Digital asset trading firm QCP secured a digital asset licence in Abu Dhabi.

🌍 Crypto exchange Binance is to work with investment firm Franklin Templeton to develop digital asset products.

🌍 Blockchain-based lender Figure went public at $25 per share. Crypto exchange Gemini also IPO'd at $28 and raised over $400m at a $3bn+ valuation.

🌍 Stablecoin issuer Tether is launching a US stablecoin.

🌍 DBS, Franklin Templeton and Ripple are to work on merging tokenized collateral with stablecoins.

🌍 WisdomTree has launched a tokenized private credit fund.

🌍 Coinbase announced Base network is exploring issuing a native token. Coinbase also partnered with Google to bring stablecoin payments to AI apps and added USDC lending with Morpho.

🌍 Global cross-border payments provider MoneyGram launched a stablecoin-based app.

🌍 US exchange Nasdaq is seeking to tokenize US stocks and is asking for the SEC to bless its efforts.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇬🇧 Metro Bank has paid £24m to settle a software infringement case.

🇬🇧 Lloyds Bank announced its customers had used PayPoint stores to deposit £1m in the first month of the service.

🌍 JP Morgan and Plaid have signed an extended data access agreement which will see the data aggregator pay for data after JP Morgan recently announced its decision to charge.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🇪🇺 Pay by Bank firm Trustly is partnering with card issuer Episode Six to enable US merchants to accept bank payments through card networks.

🇪🇺 Open banking solution Tink signed mobile payment platform Vipps MobilePay as a customer for its Pay by Bank solution

🇬🇧 Open banking platform TrueLayer has launched Verified Payments.

Payments 💰

🇪🇺 Klarna is set to provide Apple Pay users with BNPL loans at instore checkouts in US and UK.

🇪🇺 Adyen signed luxury goods giant LVMH as a customer,

🇬🇧 Payments firm Modulr reduced its annual losses to £11m for 2024 compared to £13.9m in 2023 as revenue increased moderately.

🇬🇧Payments fintech Navro secured a Washington DC money transmitter licence.

🇬🇧 Payments firm SumUp is seeking a $15bn valuation in its upcoming IPO.

🌍 Stripe has launched its lending business, Stripe Capital, in Australia.

🌍 Zelle operator Early Warning Services (EWS) is exploring stablecoin initiatives. It also hit 2 bn transactions in H1 2025. Zelle is also rolling out SMB tags to direct payments straight to eligible bank accounts without needing an email address or phone number.

🌍 Cross-border transfer solution Remitly introduced Remitly One, a financial membership option.

🌍 PayPal has introduced payment links for sending money and crypto. It is also seeking to drive revenue from its ad business with data.

🌍 Google unveiled a new agentic payment protocol AP2. It also signed a multi-year collaboration with PayPal on agentic shopping and frictionless commerce

🌍 Block announced it has reached 1 million customers for its Cash App debit card which has BNPL capabilities.

Longer reads/listens 📜

• Agentic Commerce – I’ve Seen a Lot of “Revolutions”. This One Feels Different. - Tom Noyes
• Stripe Is Building A Blockchain: Can Openness Survive Branded Rails? - Christian Catalini
• Not All Tokens Are Equal: The Legal Wrappers Behind Tokenization - Giorgio Giuliani

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See you next week!