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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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TrueLayer earns its Stripes - TWIF UK & Europe (23/10)

TWIF UK & Europe - The latest fintech news across the UK and Europe

TrueLayer earns its Stripes - TWIF UK & Europe (23/10)

Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

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

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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 Climate fintech Cloover raised a €7m pre-seed round.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Digital wealth solution Flanks raised a $8m Series A led by Earlybird Venture Capital and included JME Ventures and 4Founders Capital.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ SME lender iwoca raised Β£200m in debt from Barclays and Varde Partners.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Lender Uncapped raised a €230m debt facility from Fortress.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§Insurtech Bikmo raised a Β£3.4m Series A from Puma Private Equity.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Cap table management solution Globacap raised a $21m Series B from CoinShares Ventures, CBOE Holdings, QBN Capital and Moore Strategic Ventures.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Financial service data science platform Auquan raised a $3.5m seed round from Episode 1 Ventures, Neotribe and Stage 2 Capital.

🌍 US investing app Stash raised a $40m round led by T Rowe Price.

🌍 International credit bureau Nova Credit raised a $45m Series C.

🌍 Digital identity provider Prove raised a $40m round led by MassMutual Ventures and Capital One Ventures.

🌍 Insurance payments solution Iink raised a $12m Series A from Headline, Chartline Capital Partners, Motley Fool Ventures and SilverCircle.

🌍 Enterprise cashflow management solution Statement raised a $12m seed round from Glilot Capital, Citi, Mensch Capital, Titan Capital and Operator Partners.

β‚Ώ DeFi exchange SynFutures raised a $22m Series B led buy Pantera Capital.

Challenger Banking πŸš€

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Lender Creditshelf is rumoured to be in talks with rival Teylor about an acquisition after a deal with Goldman Sachs faltered.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Digital mortgage broker Habito recorded its first monthly profit.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Invoice finance provider Accelerated Payments has partnered with Funding Friends to give SMEs better access to working capital.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Digital wallet Curve has partnered with payment solution Nuvei to provide card acquiring and alternative payment methods.

🌍 Nubank has applied for a Mexican bank licence as it looks to enter the market.

🌍 Gig worker benefit fintech Catch has relaunched with a focus on heath benefits.

🌍 Financial literacy for kids solution Till Financial has partnered with Astra Finance.

🌍 Robinhood partnered with Capitalize to enable 401(k) rollovers.

🌍 Global credit decisioning platform Uplinq is collaborating with EY.

Digital Assets β‚Ώ

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί The EU has adopted rules that let tax authorities share data on individuals digital asset holdings.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί The EU data protection watchdog is recommending increasing the privacy of a digital euro.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί The ECB has launched a two-year prep phase for the introduction of a digital euro.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Binance is stopping onboarding new UK customers while it finds a partner that can meet the FCA's new crypto asset promotion rules.

🌍 The former CEO of bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital faces a fraud lawsuit from the CFTC.

🌍 Coinbase is arguing against a recent IRS proposal to define crypto brokers and tell them how they and their customers should pay tax.

🌍 The SEC has decided not to appeal a court ruling that it was wrong to reject Grayscale's bitcoin ETF.

🌍 California passed a Digital Financing Assets Law to create a regulatory framework for crypto.

🌍 After false reports that BlackRock's spot ETF was approved, the company confirmed it was still under review.

🌍 FTX has floated a proposal to return up to 90% of creditor holdings.

🌍 The Basel Committee that oversees banking supervision will require banks to disclose their exposure to crypto assets.

🌍 Binance.US users are no longer allowed to withdraw USD from the platform but instead can convert to stablecoin or other assets and withdraw them due to lack of a banking partner. It's main international entity signed partnerships with payment providers to enable Euro transactions.

🌍 New York AG has sued Gemini, Genesis and Digital Currency Group from defrauding investors of over $1bn.

🌍 Stock clearing company Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has agreed to acquire Securrency.

🌍 FinCEN has proposed new rules that would force crypto mixers to increase transparency on who is using their services.

🌍 Circle upgraded its crypto wallet to allow merchants to pay customer's transaction fees.

Traditional Banking 🏦

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί BNP Paribas has launched a fintech solution for payments in marketplaces via a collaboration with Startup Studio 321.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Rabobank has added fraud protection through payment solution SurePay.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Barclays suffered a online banking outage earlier this week.

🌍 Citi have partnered with spend management solution Navan on a T&E solution for the banks corporate clients.

🌍 The WSJ reports that Goldman want to completely exit its partnership with Apple as it looks to fully retreat from consumer finance.

🌍 JP Morgan have launched a Pay-by-bank solution running on ACH rails. The bank also selected Trulioo to provide identity verification.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί BNPL firm Scalepay is to issue cards through Marqeta.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ The FCA has imposed customer onboarding restrictions on payments firm Modulr.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Companies House data show that TrueLayer lost Β£40m in 2022 (down from Β£78m the previous year) with revenues only Β£4.1m (+56% yoy). Yapily lost Β£21.5m in the same period, up from Β£8.4m.

🌍 Fiserv signed a data-sharing partnership with Plaid to allow Fiserv's customers of bank and credit unions to use Fiserv's AllData Connect to share financial information with apps on Plaid's network.

🌍 Australian banks and payment organisations have come together to create ConnedID, a digital ID service that lets Australians use their bank to verify identities with third parties.

🌍 The BIS has issued a harmonised ISO 20022 data requirements to quell the inconsistent application of the standard across countries.

🌍 Mastercard has partnered with Worldpay and Zip for open banking.

🌍 Bank software provider Backbase is partnering with Atomic to enable direct deposit and income verification to banks and credit unions.

🌍 The CFPB released its new 1033 open banking rules, providing much to talk about at Money 2020.

🌍 Marqeta has partnered with Motive to enable card issuance.

🌍 Card issuer Galileo has launched a spend management solution.

Payments πŸ’°

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ B2B BNPL provider Mondu received a licence from the FCA and is now live in the UK.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Stripe is to provide European merchants with open banking payment option through a partnership with TrueLayer.

🌍 Australia is looking to regulate digital wallet providers like Apple and Google through the RBA which also regulates payment services.

🌍 Payments company Block acquired musician focused fintech Hifi.

🌍 The UAE is to establish its own domestic card scheme and real-time payment system in order to decouple its dependence on Visa and Mastercard.

🌍 The Fed is exploring reducing the debit card fees merchants are charged which were fixed 13 years ago at $0.21 + 0.05%.

🌍 Square has launched new generative AI features to assist businesses including a menu generator, AI backgrounds, personalized emails and more.

🌍 Global payments firm Airwallex acquired Mexican PSP MexPago.

Regulatory Corner πŸ”Ž

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ The FCA has fined Equifax Β£11m for a cyber security breach.

🌍 The CFPB and FTC are alleging TransUnion violated the FCRA through its rental screening tool for failing to have accurate information.


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