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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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Valuations down- (01/05)

Valuations down- (01/05)

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.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί KYB and identity orchestrator Bits Technology raised a €4m seed round led by Unusual Ventures.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Digital bank software provider Plumery raised a $4.5m seed round from Headline Ventures, Seedcamp, Better Tomorrow Ventures and others.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§Digital mortgage platform Tembo raised a Β£5m round from Lone Ventures.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Property fintech Wayhome raised a Β£8m Series A led by Allianz and Augmentum Fintech and also included Volution, Love Ventures and Cur8 Capital.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Crypto custody provider Zodia Custody raised a $36m Series A led by SC Ventures and SBI Holdings.

🌍 Three former Amex Ventures investors launched Versey Ventures, a $78m fund to back early-stage fintechs.

🌍 Closed loop digital wallet provider Ansa announced their $5.4m seed round from Susa Ventures, Cambrian Ventures, TWIF's own The Fintech Fund and angels.

🌍 Savings app Super.com raised an $60m Series C led by Inovia Capital. as well as a $25m debt facility.

🌍 Digital identity solution IDPartner raised a $3.1m seed round led by Abstract Ventures.

β‚Ώ DeFi and CEFI credit markets infrastructure provider Credora raised a $6m round from S&P Global and Coinbase Ventures.

Challenger Banking πŸš€

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί N26 is cutting 4% of staff, some 71 employees.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Investment company Schroders has reduced the valuation of its Revolut stake in one of its funds by 46%, implying a valuation for the fintech of $17.7bn, down from $33bn. It also reduced its valuation of its Atom Bank stake by 31%.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Neobroker Freetrade is to increase the cost of its monthly subscription plans in the near future but offering an annual plan at the equivalent rate of existing, lower monthly rate.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ New payment operations fintech Apron launched from a former Revolut and Cash App employee.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ The CEO and founder of payments and tax fintech Paddle is stepping down.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Monzo launched savings accounts for businesses with a 1.5% interest rate and no minimum deposit.

Digital Assets β‚Ώ

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί France has said that existing crypto providers could see their MiCA applications get fast-tracked.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί ECB board member Fabio Panetta has said that merchants should be obliged to accept a future digital euro.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Austrian bank Raiffeisenlandesbank wants to become the first European bank to offer crypto and other digital assets to its clients.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Deutsche Bank subsidiary DWS has pull out from investing in crypto solution Tradias.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§Standard Chartered has declared the crypto winter over and predicted bitcoin will reach $100k but the end of 2023.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Savings and investment app Moneybox is shelving its plans to offer crypto.

🌍 Crypto exchange Gemini is to open its first office in Asia, selecting India as the location.

🌍 Money market funds from Franklin Templeton that record share ownership on the blockchain are seeing inflows after crypto-friendly banks shut down.

🌍 Coinbase has obtained a Bermuda licence to operate as a digital asset exchange as it seeks to expand internationally. It has also asked a federal court to force the SEC to respond to its request for formal rules on digital assets.

🌍 Do Kwon, founder of Terra blockchain, will be indicted for passport forgery after being arrested in Montenegro and attempted to escape to Costa Rica.

🌍 The Solana Foundation is measuring its carbon emissions in real-time and claims to be the first major blockchain network to do it.

🌍 A exchange for crypto bankruptcy claims, OPNX, founded by executives from 3AC, published a list of investors this week but swiftly saw investors distancing themselves from the project.

🌍 Yuga Labs, creators of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs has won a trademark lawsuit against two artists that created a ripoff NFT series based on BAYC.

🌍 A three way auction has emerged for bankrupt lender Celsius Network with Techcrunch founder Michael Arrington and the Winklevoss twins.

🌍 Binance has lifted restrictions it placed on Russian citizens and has allowed ruble deposits and other currencies from Russian bank cards. It also pulled out of its $1bn deal to buy Voyager Digital due to the regulatory environment.

🌍 Visa is hiring software engineers for its "ambitious crypto product roadmap".

🌍 Phantom, the Solana wallet, has gone multichain by expanding to Ethereum and Polygon.

Traditional Banking 🏦

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί ABN Amro has partnered with Swedish financial literacy provider Gimi to create a financial literacy app designed for kids.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Chase has increased the rate it pays on current account balances to 1%.

🌍 First Republic Bank is cutting 25% of workers after seeing unprecedented deposit outflows and could seek a rescue from FDIC.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Revolut has created its own connection to SEPA to allow it to clear its own € transactions.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Thought Machine has integrated the services of MQUBE, a digital mortgage lending platform.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Issuer processor Global Processing Services, known as GPS, is rebranding as "Thredd".

🌍 Loyalty platform Triple and receipt data provider Banyan have partnered to enable SKU level card-linked offers.

🌍 Sardine has partnered with Fortress Trust to improve the safety and security of blockchain payments.

Payments πŸ’°

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Klarna has released an AI-powered shopping feed for consumers.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Payment solution Paysend is opening an office in Dublin.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§Executives from both Klarna and Block (formerly Square) have criticised the UK's BNPL regulation plans as being "outdated".

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Payment orchestrator Br-dge launched Vault, a network tokenisation product to improve security for merchants.

🌍 American Express reported earnings that showed spending among younger cardholders increased doubt digits but also provisioned $1.1bn for credit losses.

🌍 Payment provider Elavon has partnered with California Restaurant Association to provide its payment services to the CRA's 22,000 members.

🌍 Shopify is partnering with B2B payment provider Melio to create Shopify Bill Pay, a business bill payment solution embedded in the Shopify's commerce platform.

🌍 A US appeals court has upheld an earlier ruling stating that Apple cannot prohibit links to enable payments outside of the App Store.

🌍 Stripe has added new features to its Revenue and Finance Automation products to provide key financial metrics and deliver automated accounting statements.

🌍 Citi credit card holders have an instalment option when paying with Amazon Pay.

Regulatory Corner πŸ”Ž

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ The FCA is warning of money laundering schemes using the Post Office and has outlined new measures to tackle the problem.

🌍 The CFPB has fired an employee that sent personal information of more than 250,000 Americans to a person email account.


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