Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

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

Sponsored Content 

Want to be a This Week in Fintech - UK & Europe sponsor? Reach out to me at michael@thisweekinfintech.com and see our sponsorship information here.

Tweet of the week 🦉🏆

Funding 💸

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

🇪🇺 Neobank Bunq raised €44.5m in growth capital at a €1.65bn valuation from existing investors.

🇪🇺 Sustainable payments fintech Keewe raised a a €3m round from Blast Club.

🇪🇺Insurtech Coverzen raised a €3.3m seed round from Vertis SGR.

🇬🇧Regtech eFlow raised a £7m Series A led by Finch Capital.

🇬🇧Ethical savings club Bloom Money raised £1m from January Ventures, Octopus and angels.

🇬🇧Debt support solution SuperFi raised a $1m pre-seed round led by Ascension and included Force Over Mass Capital.

🇬🇧Payment infrastructure provider Baseella raised a €200k pre-seed round.

🇬🇧 Insurtech Percayso Inform raised a £2.7m round from Praetura Ventures and Neil Utley.

🌍 Cashflow management solution Settle secured a $145m credit facility from SVB.

🌍 Vertical SaaS payment and booking platform for the beauty industry GlossGenius raised a $28m Series C led by L Catterton and included Bessemer Ventures and Imaginary Ventures.

🌍 Payment provider Croissant raised a $24m seed round from investors including Portage, Box Group, Third Prime and others.

₿ Crypto payment app Eco released a decentralised payment project Beam.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇪🇺N26 has appointed a new chief risk officer to try and fix its AML and compliance issues.

🇪🇺eToro has constructed a passive investor portfolio of 40 fintech companies.

🇬🇧 Robinhood is hiring in the UK as it looks to be making another attempt at entering the market, tapping a Freetrade exec to head up its efforts.

🇬🇧Neobank Atom Bank has turned an annual profit of £4m for the first time.

🇬🇧Revolut is offering US accounts to non-US citizens without an SSN or ITIN.

🇬🇧 Treasury management solution Meow has launched the ability to purchase UK Gilts to earn higher interest.

🌍 LendingClub are testing an "suer app" that combines lending, payments and savings.

🌍 US neobank Upgrade has acquired BNPL firm Uplift for $100m.

🌍 Corporate spend management platform Jeeves has hit $40m in ARR.

Digital Assets ₿

🇪🇺Italy's central bank is supporting a DeFi platform, Cetif Advisory, in an attempt to bring institutions into DeFi and asset tokenization.

🇪🇺 Commerzbank has successfully used blockchain technology to complete a Letter of Credit transaction using Contour's digital trade finance platform.

🌍 Quantstamp has been charged by the SEC for conducting an unregistered ICO and will be fined $3.4m.

🌍 The DOJ is pushing for FTX founder SBF to spend the remainder of his time before trial in jail after accusing him of witness tampering.

🌍 Ripple is working with the Republic of Palau, a Western Pacific island, on a government stablecoin.

🌍 Talks amongst US legislators on stablecoin legislation stalled due to disagreements with the White House.

🌍 Apple has received questions from US Representatives to question if its App Store guidelines are stifling blockchain technology.

🌍 Crypto payment gateway Alchemy Pay is partnering with Checkout.com.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇪🇺 JP Morgan are set to continue with their plans to establish a retail bank in Germany.

🇪🇺A criminal network of thieves that use explosives to steal ATMs has been raided by Dutch police.

🇪🇺 Spanish banks Banco Santander, BBVA and CaixaBank have set up a joint venture to share data to help tackle financial crime.

🇪🇺 ING launched a sustainable bank account in partnership with Share.

🇪🇺Credit Suisse is to pay a £87m fine to the UK's PRA for its ties to a collapsed fund. UBS, now owner of Credit Suisse, is to pay $388m around regulatory issues relating to the Archegos failure.

🇬🇧Italian bank Mediobanca has partnered with London incubator Founders Factor to launch a new fintech venture studio with a €12m investment.

🇬🇧 Lloyds Bank is to close 44 new branches bringing the total to 155 in 2023 and an additional 40 in 2024.

🇬🇧HSBC, Nationwide and TSB have been cited by the CMA for failing to provide full transaction history for customers when switching accounts.

🇬🇧 CEO of NatWest has stepped down after admitting she discussed former MP Nigel Farage's relationship with the bank with the BBC. The CEO of Coutts, the NatWest owned private bank also resigned.

🌍 Earnings from American Express showed a 21% increase in spending from millennials and Gen Z cardholders. The card issuer also paid a $15m penalty to the OCC for failing to monitor a third-party affiliate.

🌍 BlackRock is partnering with Jiro Financial Services in India to launch a range of asset management services.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🇪🇺Bank orchestration platform Numeral is partnering with core banking provider Tuum to allow Tuum's customers to access Numeral's products.

🇬🇧Payment provider GoCardless has been selected as the official payment partner of Swim England.

🌍 The value of same-day ACH payments jumped over 50% to $1.2trn in H1 2023 according to Nacha.

🌍 Plaid has partnered with Cross River Bank to power their real-time payments product Instant Payouts.

🌍 Shopify has launched a credit card for merchants powered by Stripe and issued by Celtic Bank.

Payments 💰

🇪🇺B2B payment provider Mondu is partnering with payment firm Acquired.com to expand its services through the latter's network.

🇪🇺An Italian anti-trust body has approved the elimination of payment fees and restrictions on small card transactions in a deal negotiated by retailers, banks and PSPs in a boost for digital payments.

🇪🇺 Amazon is to discontinue its credit card in Germany after failure to find a new banking parter.

🇪🇺 PayPal is deepening its partnership with Microsoft to add new ways consumers buying Microsoft products and services can use PayPal in Europe.

🌍 Amazon is expanding its palm recognition payment technology to all 500+ Whole Food stores in the US.

🌍 Airwallex is partnering with Brex to expand its global market presence.

🌍 Mastercard has launched Receivables Manager, a tool to streamline virtual card payments, in partnership with Billtrust.

🌍 Apple Pay has gone live in Morocco, adding to other new markets that were launched in 2023 including South Korea, Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama and Honduras.

🌍 Tourists to China can use payment apps Alipay and WeChat Pay now they accept international credit cards from Visa and Mastercard to be accepted.

🌍 Brazilian payment solution Pix had more transactions than both credit and debit card combined in Q1, seeing 35% of all transactions.

🌍 Visa's instant payment product Visa Direct saw 20% increase in volumes as reported in its fiscal Q3.

Regulatory Corner 🔎

🇬🇧 The UK Government is to clamp down on banks closing accounts for customers over political links.

🇬🇧 The UK Treasury is set to cancel its plans for a crackdown on the BNPL industry.

🌍 CFPB has reported it found illegal tactics in auto lending, medical debt and payday loans.

Longer reads 📜

• How the partnership between Apple and Goldman Sachs failed - Finance Fwd
• Bombs, car chases and ‘free money’: Dutch gangs blow up German cash machines - Olaf Storbeck, Financial Times
• Identity is the New Money. No, Wait... Infrastructure - Dave Birch
• Four great reads from Flagship Advisory Partners
  • Evolution of US Acquiring Processing
  • Wise FY 2023 Performance Assessment
  • Card Scheme Performance, 2022-2023
  • Paypal Q1 2023 and FY 2022 Performance Assessment
• 💰 The Fog of (Deposit) War - Alex Johnson
• Bank and Fintech Partnerships - Simon Taylor

👍 👎 Have feedback for us? Let us know

Follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn for more fintech content

See you next week!