Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

Fintech deals in Spain grew 21% in the first half of 2023, defying the global trend of falling investment.

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

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Tweet of the week 🦉🏆

Funding 💸

Highlights below of deals since the last post in the fintech space across the UK & Europe.

🇪🇺Asset securitisation fintech GenTwo raised a $15m Series A led by Point72 Ventures.

🇪🇺AML solution Strise raised a $10.8m Series A from Atomico, Maki.vc, Curiosity VC and Sondo Capital.

🇪🇺B2B BNPL provider Treyd raised a $12m Series A from Zenith Venture Capital, J12 Ventures, Antler and Nineyards Equity.

🇪🇺 Stock trading information app Vickii raised a €1m seed round from angels.

🇪🇺Trade finance software Komgo raised a round from Emirates NBD.

🇪🇺 Insurtech AKUR8 raised $25m from BlackFin Capital Partners, Guidewire Software and FinTLV.

🇬🇧ID&V fintech OneID raised £1m from ACF Investors.

🇬🇧 Fintech lender Wayflyer raised $1bn in debt funding from investment manager Neuberger Berman.

🇬🇧AI credit analytics solution Tradeteq raised a $12.5m Series A from L&G Capital, Niya Partners, Interlock Partners, MS&AD Ventures and Victor Ganzi.

🇬🇧Neobank Kroo is looking to raise a £50m - £70m Series C.

🇬🇧 Carbon financing solution Opna raised a $6.5m Seed round from investors including Atomico, Tiny VC and angels.

🌍 Nigerian BaaS platform Anchor raised $2.4m from Goat Capital, FoundersX, Rebel Fund, YC and Byld Ventures.

🌍 Fincrime startup ThetaRay raised a $57m funding round from OurCrowd, Jerusalem Venture Partners and Portage Ventures.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇪🇺SMB fintech Friday Finance has sold itself to Pliant as it shuts down.

🇪🇺 Trading solution eToro has partnered with Bridgewise to launch a portfolio of stocks powered by AI.

🇬🇧BNPL provider Zilch is exploring an IPO on the London Stock Exchange.

🇬🇧 Atlantic Money has introduced fixed fee cross-border transfers for businesses in 29 countries

🇬🇧 Lender Lenkie announced they have reached the milestone of lending £10m to SMBs in the UK.

🇬🇧 Monzo has introduced a feature to help consumers with impersonations scams. Monzo customers can check their app when they receive a phone call from someone reporting to be from Monzo to check if it is a genuine call.

🇬🇧 Mortgage lender Perenna has received an unrestricted banking licence from the FCA and PRA.

🇬🇧 LHV Bank is upgrading its SME tech stack by partnering with Tuum.

🌍 Nubank is to offer personal loans in Mexico.

🌍 Invoice lending platform Waddle is to be acquired by The Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

🌍 Australian neobroker Upstreet is shutting down.

Digital Assets ₿

🇪🇺Kraken is rolling out PayPal deposits in the UK and Europe.

🇬🇧 The London Stock Exchange is to create a digital marketplace built using blockchain technology.

🇬🇧 The UK is developing a POC of a "Regulated Liability Network", a network based on a shared ledger for central bank money, commercial bank money and electronic money.

🇬🇧 The FCA is delaying new crypto marketing rules to give firms more time to comply.

🌍 Visa is bringing it USDC stablecoin settlement capabilities to the Solana blockchain through collaborations with Nuvei and Worldpay.

🌍 Coinbase is spinning up a lending service for institutional clients.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇬🇧 NatWest is to work with Icon Solutions to develop its payment modernisation strategy that incorporates ISO 20022 messaging.

🇬🇧 Barclays is rumoured again to be considering selling some of its merchant payment business.

🇬🇧 HSBC is working with Terra Quantum to test out the use of quantaum computing technology.

🌍 JP Morgan is partnering with MEA based commerce company Network International to expand its acquiring services in the region.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🇪🇺Core banking provider Temenos has rolled out an AI tool for classifying customer bank transactions.

🇪🇺Transaction enrichment solution Ntropy* partnered with Yapily to expand transaction enrichment across Europe.

🇬🇧Finastra has launched a new cloud-based loan documentation solution, LaserPro.

🌍 Payments infrastructure Astra expanded its partnership with Plaid to incorporate identity verification into payment authentication.

🌍 Plaid release a new version of Link which ties bank account connections to a phone number to improve conversion.

🌍 Stripe launched Enhanced Issuer Network, a set of partnerships with card issuers that integrates Stripe Radar to help reduce and detect fraud.

Payments 💰

🇪🇺JP Morgan is accelerating hiring in its Greek payment innovation lab.

🇪🇺 Payment solution Mangopay has partnered with B2B payment provider Kriya.

🇬🇧 Adyen has secured an UK banking licence enabling it to offer bank accounts, cards and cash advances to UK customers.

🇬🇧 Payment solution Paysafe partners with retail trading platform Eightcap to launch an embedded trading wallet.

🇬🇧Payment orchestrator APEXX Global is to integrate Klarna as a payment method.

🌍 Mastercard has strongly pushed back on previous reports it is set to increase fees.

🌍 Hyundai has launched an in-car payment solution for US drivers.

🌍 X (Twitter) has gained new MTL licences in Rhode Island and Mississippi.

🌍 The RBI has launched a new UPI digital payment suite focused on credit and offline payments.

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Longer reads 📜

• Displacing Systems Of Record: Systems Of Action As A Wedge To Integrate And Surround - Akash Bajwa
• Adyen's free fall - Part 2 - Govro12
• The best story of crypto the world has never seen - Samir
• 💰 BaaS, Compliance, and the Path Forward for Community Banks - Alex Johnson

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See you next week!

*I currently work at Ntropy