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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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This Week in Fintech UK & Europe (10/01)

This Week in Fintech UK & Europe (10/01)

Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

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


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Tweet of the week ๐Ÿฆ‰๐Ÿ†


Funding ๐Ÿ’ธ

There were 5 deals in the fintech space across the UK and Europe since the last post, with a total investment of $384m. Some highlights are below.

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ Crypto platform Sygnum raised a $90m Series B led by Sun Hung Kai & Company.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Payments provider CellPoint Digital raised $25m from Penta Capital and Toscafund Asset Management.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Payroll payments fintech PayFit raised a ยฃ287m Series E led by General Atlantic and included Accel, Bpifrance and Eurazeo.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง PrimaryBid is rumoured to be raising ยฃ110m round led by SoftBank that will value the company at $500m+.

๐ŸŒ Petal raised a $140m Series D led by Sand Hill Angels.

๐ŸŒ NFT marketplace OpenSea raised a $300m Series C led by Coatue and Paradigm at a 13.3bn valuation.

๐ŸŒ ย Fintech VC Ribbit Capital raised a $1.15bn Fund VII.

Challenger Banking ๐Ÿš€

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Pensions provider Penfold triped the number of pension transfers in 2021 and now has over 40,000 customers.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Affluent neobank Monument appointed former Barclays Business Banking exec Ian Rand as its CEO.

Digital Assets โ‚ฟ

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง British politicians are lobbying the government from stricter oversight of the crypto space, specifically against football clubs fan tokens

๐ŸŒ ย Chinaโ€™s CBDC wallet is now available on app stores as its launch at the Winter Olympics looms.

๐ŸŒ ย Central Bank of Bahrain is testing JPMorganโ€™s digital currency via the banks Onyx unit.

Traditional Banking ๐Ÿฆ

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Lloyds Bank is becoming a shareholder in loyalty app Bink, following in the footsteps of Barclays who is also a shareholder.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Nationwide customers are facing payment trouble again with customers complaining of not receiving incoming payments.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Virgin Money has partnered with Expend to add expense management to its product offering for businesses.

Fintech Infrastructure ๐Ÿšง

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ Nordic cross-border payments platform P27 is to replace Denmarkโ€™s current national clearing house run by Finance Denmark.

Payments ๐Ÿ’ฐ

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Adyen has launched an Android POS terminal providing merchants a one stop solution, putting it directly in competition with Block, Shopify and PayPal.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง POS startup KodyPay hired former Atom Bank exec Sophie Haagensen as COO.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Open banking platform Ecospend reported ยฃ2.5bn of transactions through its open banking technology. ย Ecospend ย was chosen to build HMRC new payment infrastructure.๐ŸŒ

Regulatory Corner ๐Ÿ”Ž

In collaboration with Kat Cloud

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง FCA rejected 20% of applications as it tightened its standards.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Consumer watchdog Which? is calling on HM Treasury to crack down on BNPL as its public consultation comes to an end. ย Specifically they call out the lack of consumer awareness that BNPL is credit.


Longer reads ๐Ÿ“œ


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