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The Front Page of 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 (27/06)

This Week in Fintech UK & Europe (27/06)

Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

Please find another week of fintech news, financings and exits below. If you are reading this but havenโ€™t already subscribed, you can click below ๐Ÿ™

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Funding ๐Ÿ’ธ

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

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ Klarna is rumoured to be seeking to raise funds at a $15bn valuation, ย a third lower than its last round.

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ Turkish payments fintech Param raised an undisclosed amount at a $200m valuation.

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ Lender Scramble Up raised a pre-seed round of $150k

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ Payment orchestration fintech Formance (formerly Numary) raised a $3.1m seed round from Hoxton Ventures, Frst, YC and angels.

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ German BaaS provide Solarisbank is rumoured to have raised โ‚ฌ40m from existing investors and also to be seeking new funds with some private equity firms becoming interested.

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ Credit data provider Fido raised a โ‚ฌ30m Series A from Fortissimo Capital and AVG.

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บFinancial planning service Folio raised a $5m round.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง BNPL provider Playter raised $55m in debt and equity.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Insurance policy management software Instanda raised a $45m Series B from Dale Ventures.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Insurance underwriting technology Artificial Labs raised a ยฃ9.5m Series A led by Force Over Mass Capital.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Home lender StrideUp raised ยฃ280m in funding for a new shared ownership mortgage for first time buyers.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡งFamily savings app Beanstalk raised a ยฃ657k seed round on Seedrs platform.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง B2B BNPL provider Hokodo raised a $40m Series B from investors included Anthemis, Notion Capital and Mosaic Ventures.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง SumUp raised โ‚ฌ590m at an โ‚ฌ8bn valuation, down from its previous โ‚ฌ20m valuation earlier this year.

๐ŸŒ API infrastructure provider Prime Trust raised a $107m Series B.

Challenger Banking ๐Ÿš€

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ Property lender Estategugu has lent โ‚ฌ100m in its Lithuania market, and over โ‚ฌ580m across all markets to over 3,000 projects.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Revolut is stopping unlimited free trading for Metal subscribers and instead offering 10 free trades per month. It is also launching a BNPL product in Ireland.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Monzo is still pursuing its crypto plans despite market turmoil, co-founder Jonas Templestein said.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง InvestEngine, an ETF investment platform, announced it reached ยฃ70m in AUM from over 10,000 customers.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Starling Bank has reached 3 million current accounts, which includes its near 500,000 SMB accounts.

๐ŸŒ Spend management fintech Brex is to stop serving its SME clients from August.

Digital Assets โ‚ฟ

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ Bitpanda is laying off 730 employees.

๐ŸŒ Crypto exchange FTX is buying Canadian crypto trading startup Bitvo as it enters the country. The exchange also bailed out Voyager Digital and BlockFi with credit facilities.

๐ŸŒ Goldman Sachs is looking to buy assets of Celsius Network if it goes into bankruptcy.

๐ŸŒ Crypto staking service Lido Finance is questioning its dominant position and may scale back depending on community voting, for the benefit of Ethereumโ€™s security.

๐ŸŒ Coinbase is facing a class-action lawsuit over its promotion of TerraUSD and announced it is closing its Coinbase Pro product, with all functionality migrated to Coinbase.com.

๐ŸŒ Solana lending protocol Solend pushed through emergency powers to take over a users wallet to prevent a margin call but then reversed course after public backlash. It is partnering with Mango Markets to share this userโ€™s debts.

๐ŸŒ Babel Finance is working with counterparties to shore up its liquidity situation.

๐ŸŒ The mining difficulty of Bitcoin fell by 2.35%.

๐ŸŒ Horizon Bridge was hacked for $100m.

Traditional Banking ๐Ÿฆ

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ Irelandโ€™s competition authority, the CCPC, has given the green light for Irelandโ€™s banks to create a new payment app.

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ German bank Berenberg seems to be requiring employees to go back to the office 5 days a week.

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ Italian bank Sella launched an accelerator program for startups at the intersection of finance and the metaverse.

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บGerman savings banks majority takeover of credit checker Schufa seems to have hit the brakes.

Fintech Infrastructure ๐Ÿšง

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง The Bank of London, a new clearing bank, is creating a new โ€œCenter of Excellenceโ€ in Belfast.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง The OBIE has revealed that the UK has 6m open bank users, less than four months after it reached the 5m milestone.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Stripe is offering its bank transfer product to businesses in the UK, EU and Mexico which includes automated reconciliation and virtual account numbers.

๐ŸŒ RBC has signed a data sharing agreement with Plaid which will mean consumers do not need to share their credentials for increased privacy.

๐ŸŒ Money movement platform Nium is working with the Stellar Foundation to support cross-border payouts to 190 countries.

Payments ๐Ÿ’ฐ

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ Samsung is integrating Samsung Pass and Samsung Pay into a new digital wallet which will be available in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the US.

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ Germany banking industry is contemplating merging Girocard and Giropay.

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ GoCardless is launching Instant Bank Pay, a solution for one off bank-to-bank payments, and Verified Mandates, a fraud prevention measure pairing open banking with debits, in Germany.

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ Klarna is to unveil a new loyalty card feature that allows users store digital versions of loyalty cards thanks to its acquisition of Stocard.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Draft rules on the BNPL sector are likely to include affordability checks and new financial promotion rules, with lenders needing FCA approval. The Consumer Credit Act in the UK is also set for an overhaul.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง The Payment Systems Regulator is launching two market reviews into Visa and Mastercard fees.

๐ŸŒ Twitterโ€™s integration of payments into its service is likely to be accelerated if Elon Musk gets his way.

Regulatory Corner ๐Ÿ”Ž

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ ECB Board Member Panetta has said the digital euro could be a good opportunity for more โ€œpublic-privateโ€ co-operation.

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ The European Banking Authority is calling for PSD2 to be merged with the Electronic Money Directive alongside its other 200 proposed amendments to the European Commissionโ€™s call for feedback on PSD2.

๐ŸŒ US agency the CFPB has indicated it would like the BNPL industry to work closer with credit reporting agencies to standardise payment data for credit reports.


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