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Funding 💸

There were 9 deals in the fintech space across the UK and Europe since the last post, with a total investment of $432m. Some highlights are below.

🇪🇺 Founders of Finleap have raised a €100m early-stage fintech fund called Embedded Capital.

🇬🇧 Banking platform ClearBank raised £175m in a round led by Apax Partners.

🇬🇧 Climate fintech Lune raised a $4m seed round led by Crane Venture Partners.

🇬🇧 Climate data platform Climate X raised a $5.4m seed round co-led by CommerzVentures and A/O Proptech.

🌍 Corporate spend platform Ramp raised a $200m round led by Founders Fund at a $8.1bn valuation.

🌍 Corporate card and expense management solution Jeeves raised a $180m Series C led by Tencent and included a16z, FT Partners, Clocktower, SVB and more.

🌍 FTX has invested $100m in Dave as the crypto exchange seeks to expand the digital asset ecosystem.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇪🇺 Insurtech Clark announced revenues of €14.6m, €65 per customer.

🇬🇧 UK BNPL provider Zilch announced it has reached the 2 million customer milestone.

🇬🇧 Apple acquired credit bureau Credit Kudos for $150m.

🇬🇧 Capdesk is partnering with Fidelity to help countries transition their employee share plans from private to public markets.

🇬🇧 Industry body Innovate Finance launched International FinTech Group to help UK fintechs become global leaders.

🇬🇧 Wise launched auto conversions for customers who regularly convert money.

🇬🇧 Digital bank Momentum launched the markets highest paying fixed-term savings products, targeting the “mass affluent” market.

🌍 Robinhood has settled a complaint from customers in Vermont over app outages for $640,000.

🌍 The Financial Stability Board (FSB) has highlighted the increasing footprint of big tech firms in financial services as a result of the pandemic.

Digital Assets ₿

🇪🇺 Crypto exchange Gemini has been granted a e-money licence by Ireland’s central bank.

🇬🇧 Blockchain.com is partnering with Stripe to address on ramp challenges such as acceptance rates and user experience.

🇬🇧 UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has informed 50 companies that their crypto adverts are unacceptable.

🇬🇧 The Bank of England has said that existing rules and regulations for traditional financial services will oversee crypto markets that offer the same functionality.

🌍  Binance has pledged to stop opening accounts in Ontario after the Ontario Securities Commission required a registration process for crypto firms.

🌍  Yuga Labs airdropped ApeCoin to the owners of their Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs in what may be the first step to a rumoured gaming-focused metaverse platform.

🌍 Elizabeth Warren proposed penalties for “digital asset transaction facilitators” in a new bill proposal to crack down on Russian sanction evaders.

🌍 Cross River is partnering with crypto data platform Chainalysis to wrap its risk management capabilities in its core infrastructure.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇬🇧 HSBC is teaming up with Mastercard to roll out Mastercard Track Card to Account Transfer, allowing the banks business customers to use card to pay any supplier, regardless if the supplier accepts card payments.

🇬🇧 Lloyds and Barclays received letters from the CMA about lack of functionality and inaccuracy of information through their APIs.

🇬🇧 Lloyds partnered with SaaS platform ProjectPay to tackle payment issues in the construction industry whilst also announcing another 60 branch closures.

🇬🇧 NatWest launched a pilot carbon tracking app through a partnership with Cogo that allows SMBs to track their carbon footprint. The bank is also set to launch a BNPL product which will include safeguards for responsible lending. The bank is also partnering with Meta to support female entrepreneurs.

🇬🇧 Starling CEO Anne Boden thinks that major UK banks will have shared branches in the future or customers will use the post office.

🌍 JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon came under shareholder pressure from the banks large tech spend and its UK digital-bank launch according to the FT.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🇬🇧 OpenPayd has been integrated into Caxton’s platform to speed up its payment processing and customer experience.

🇬🇧 Core banking provider Yobota has been acquired by its digital bank customer Chetwood Financial.

🇬🇧 GoCardless released “Verified Mandates” into its platform which will help combat direct debit fraud.

🌍 Revenue-based finance platform Pipe is targeting crypto miners to turn future mining revenue into upfront cash.

Payments 💰

🇪🇺 Mollie has launched Connect for Platform, an integrated payment service for SaaS and marketplaces.

🇪🇺 The European Payments Initiative has been abandoned as half its members left and the remaining ones will shift their focus to creating a digital wallet.

Regulatory Corner 🔎

🇬🇧 The CMA announced a new committee, Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee (JROC), to continue to oversee the rollout of open banking in the UK and making recommendations for future regulations.  JROC succeeds the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE).

Longer reads 📜

• Minsky Moments in Venture Capital - Abraham Thomas
• TrueAccord: Unsexiness-as-a-Moat - Packy McCormick
• Ramping Up - Packy McCormick

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