Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

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

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Tweet of the week 🦉🏆

💼 Open Role Spotlight

Come find your place on the team at the most inspiring fintech startups! Browse open roles on This Week in Fintech’s job board.

Funding 💸

There were 19 deals in the fintech space across the UK and Europe since the last post, with a total investment of $549m. Some highlights are below.

🇪🇺 Expense management platform Circula raised a €12m Series A led by Alstin Capital and included Peak Ventures and Storm Ventures.

🇪🇺 Revenue financing platform Wayflyer raised a $150m Series B co-led by QED Investors and DST Global.

🇪🇺 Crypto analytics platform Dune raised a $70m Series B led by Coatue.

🇬🇧 Sustainable investment app Etcho raised a £280,000 pre-seed round from angel investors and via Crowdcube.

🇬🇧 Cross-border payments fintech NALA raised a $10m seed round led by Amplo and included Accel, Bessemer and angel investors.

🌍 FTX raised a $400m Series C funding at a $32bn valuation.

🌍 Solana crypto wallet Phantom raised a $109m Series B

🌍 Plaid announced their second FinRise accelerator cohort which includes Dollarito, Kaoshi, Perch, Portabl and Pyroscope

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇪🇺 Neobank Northmill has acquired Moreflo as it looks to move into B2B payments.

🇪🇺 Neobank Bunq has partnered with Birdee to let users invest their cash.

🇬🇧 Revolut announced free P2P transactions between US customers and Mexico and launched in Ireland.  The neobank also started to offer pet insurance.

🇬🇧 Founders of fintechs Checkout.com, Bought by Many and Oaknorth met with the government regarding listing reforms to encourage more tech firms to list in London.

🇬🇧 Mortgage platform Kensington is being fought over by Starling Bank and Barclays.

🇬🇧 The National Literacy Trust is starting a campaign of financial literacy for young people in the UK with the support of Experian.

🇬🇧 UK lender Shawbrook Bank has built an in-house pricing tool using AI which is 5x quicker.

🇬🇧 Monzo has publicly launched in the US after running a private beta.  It was also reprimanded by the CMA for failing to disclose credit limit charges and announced three-month paid sabbaticals for staff.

🌍 Shares in Robinhood fell over 15% after it missed estimates for its Q4 results.

Digital Assets ₿

🌍  Google Cloud has launched a Digital Assets Team to explore blockchain platforms.

🌍 DeFi protocol Wonderland voted its treasury manager out after it was revealed to be Michael Patryn, a co-founder of exchange QuadrigaCX who was convicted of financial crimes.

🌍 Solana Pay, a collaboration between Solana, Circle (USDC) and Phantom wallet, has been announced to enable merchants to accept and settle USDC for payments online and offline.

🌍 Crypto lending platform Genesis is to offer loans using NFTs as collateral.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇬🇧 Lloyds has signed JCT600, a car dealership, as its first retailer for its new PayFrom Bank A2A product for customers who want to buy a vehicle online.

🇬🇧 HSBC is investing $100m in green technology projects.

🇬🇧 Barclays is partnering with Rainmaking to launch Rise Start-Up Academy, an accelerator targeting early-stage fintech founders.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🇪🇺 Solarisbank and Contis have completed their partnership, creating a entity with a combined €100m in revenue.

🇬🇧 Tink released its “Income Check” product in the UK which enables lenders to verify an applicants income using open banking technology.

🇬🇧 Modulr has partnered with Ripple to offer RippleNet customers an alternative to correspondent banking in the UK and Europe.

🇬🇧 Bud is working with TotallyMoney to incorporate open banking technology into credit scoring.

🇬🇧 OneBanks Hub, the shared bank branch hub is partnering with Answer Pay to offer Request to Pay solutions to low-income customers to benefit from direct debit discounts that were previously out of reach.

Payments 💰

🇪🇺 Worldline is hiring 5,000 new staff as it accelerates its geographical expansion.

🇪🇺 PayPal is launching its BNPL “Pay in 30” service in Germany.

🇬🇧 Pell Capital has launched a contactless card project, Oratio Project, for the homeless so they can take donations.

🌍 Square announced that purchases are 20% larger for Square merchants when shoppers use Afterpay, the BNPL provider it acquired. It has also hired a manager for its European expansion and is hiring in Berlin.

🌍 Bolt CEO has stepped back into a new role of executive chairman.

🌍 During its Q4 earnings call, PayPal mentioned 4.5m accounts were closed due to being “illegitimate”, with shares falling 25% as a result of that and earnings missing expectations.

🌍  Zelle announced 49% increase in transaction volumes in 2021, with business payments seeing a 162% increase.

Regulatory Corner 🔎

In collaboration with Kat Cloud

🇬🇧 FCA staff have voted to take industrial action over pending pay cuts.

Longer Reads 📜

• Will BNPL eat merchant’s lunch? - Myself
• iPhone Acceptance - Mobeewave pt 2 - Tom Noyes
• Missed it by That Much: Where the Fed's Digital Currency Proposal Goes Wrong - George Selgin
• Mortgages are a manufactured product - Patrick McKenzie
• Fintech enters the era of distribution - Alex Johnson
• How to build a Neobank - Ben Milne
• Venture capital’s new race for Europe - Sebastian Mallaby
• Crime and NFTs: Chainalysis Detects Significant Wash Trading and Some Money Laundering In this Emerging Asset Class - Chainalysis
• The Coinbase model: profit from the crypto assets it lists - Miles Kruppa, FT

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See you next week!