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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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TWIF UK & Europe (19/12) - Large European fintech slashes valuation 70%

Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

According to Fintech Global, Saudi Arabian fintech investment is up nearly 20% this year through the first three quarters.  BNPL provider Tamara grabbed the largest deal, a $100m Series B led by Sanabil.

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


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Funding 💸

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

🇪🇺 SpeedInvest raised €500m in new cash for investing in early stage startups.

🇪🇺 Neobank and education app for children Bling Europe raised a €3.5m seed round from Peak and La Famiglia.

🇪🇺 Data analytics platform Opensee raised a €11m Series A led by Omnes Capital.

🇪🇺 Climate data provider The Upright Project raised a €5m seed round led by Planet A Ventures and First Fellow Partners.

🇪🇺 Restaurant POS and software provider Allo raised a €1.4m seed round from Keen Venture Partners.

🇪🇺Digital credit collateral solution Pono raised a €3m Series A from Kima Ventures, Newfund and 115k.

🇪🇺 Hotel management and payments system Mews raised a $185m Series C from Battery Ventures, Notion Capital, Salesforce, Goldman Sachs and others.

🇪🇺 Freelance insurance solution Alicia raised a €7m seed round from Volta Ventures, Randstad Innovation and Achmea Innovation.

🇪🇺 Accounting AI automation solution Vic AI raised a $52m Series C from Cowboy Ventures, GGV Capital, Costanoa Ventures and ICONIQ Growth.

🇬🇧 OneBanx, a provider of shared banking kiosks, closed a £1.28m crowdfund on Crowdcube.

🇬🇧 Business management platform Elementary B raised a $600k seed round from angels.

🇬🇧 Capital markets data provider Primary Portal raised a £5.3m seed round led by Flow Traders and Dutch Founders Fund.

🇬🇧 B2B smart credit platform Bondaval raised a £12m Series A led by Talis Capital and included Octopus Ventures, Broadhaven Capital and others.

🇬🇧 Risk data solution Acin raised a $24m Series B from Talis Capital, Notion Capital, Lloyds, JP Morgan, Citi, BNP and Barclays.

🇬🇧 Regtech Taina raised a round from Deutsche Bank and HSBC.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇪🇺 Fintech working capital lender Novicap raised a €200m funding line from Fasanara Capital.

🇪🇺 Amazon is looking for a new partner for its German credit card after Landesbank Berlin cancelled its deal last year.

🇪🇺 Subscription cancellation provider Volders bought rival Aboalarm.

🇬🇧 Starling Bank is developing a mortgage product after customer feedback. It is also creating 1,000 jobs in Manchester.

🇬🇧 Auditor EY is starting a fintech lab and has hired the former head of Barclays Fintech Venture Studio.

🇬🇧 Atom Bank has quit Twitter in protest of a recent tweet from CEO Elon Musk regarding Dr Anthony Fauci.

Digital Assets ₿

🇪🇺 Bank of Italy has selected Algorand to provide a blockchain platform to support digital guarantees.

🇬🇧 The Bank of England is seeking application for its CDBC wallet prototype.

🇬🇧 Moonpay is now FCA registered in the UK.

🌍 The SEC is pressing public companies to fully disclose their losses due to crypto market meltdown.

🌍 OpenSea is changing its NFT royalty fee policy after complaints for its new tool from the community.

🌍 Coinbase is waiving fees for users to convert USDT to USDC. Cathie Wood’s Ark bought a $3m position in the exchange this week.

🌍 Crypto brokerage firm Falcon X has disclosed it had funds stuck on FTX.

🌍 Investment firm such as Apollo Global and Attestor are apparently seeking to purchase the claims from FTX users.

🌍 Binance and its executives are reported to be in the crosshair of US authorities for money laundering. The exchange also faced nearly $3bn in outflows this week amid concerns over its solvency and a lack of confidence in its proof-of-reserves. Exchange founder CZ expressed concern for users who self-custody their crypto.

🌍. Tron founder deposited $100m USDC at Binance.

🌍 The CEO of crypto news outlet The Block resigned after reports surfaced he received three loans totalling $43m from FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried without disclosing it to anyone.

🌍 FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been arrested in the Bahamas. He has also been charged with conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering as well as securities violations by the SEC.

🌍 Lawyers for Celsius Network are trying to clawback $7.7m from the estate of also bankrupt rival Voyager Digital.

🌍 US senators Warren and Marshall are pushing the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act which expands KYC to a broad part of the crypto ecosystem. NY State regulated banks will need prior approval for crypto activities.

🌍 MetaMask has partnered with PayPal to enable customers to purchase Ether using their PayPal accounts.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇪🇺 Banco Santander is hiring 750 tech professionals across its tech hubs in Malaga and Warsaw.

🇪🇺 Bank of Ireland is to invest €11.5m across its remaining branch network next year.

🇬🇧 Santander has been fined £107.7m for repeated AML system issues for its business banking customers between 2012 and 2017.

🇬🇧 The UK Government announced plan for the biggest shakeup of financial regulation in thirty years in a bid to reduce bureaucracy and “turbocharge growth”.

🇬🇧 NatWest adds Confirmation of Payee to its A2A platform Payit.

🇬🇧 Lloyds Bank and neobank Starling have joined Code First Girls to actively search for female tech talent.

🇬🇧 Metro Bank was fined £10m by FCA for publishing misleading information to investors.

🇬🇧 Barclays is increasing its investment in climate tech startups to £500m.

🌍 Goldman Sachs is making cut in it retail banking business, cutting hundreds of staff and stopping personal loans.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🇪🇺 Research by open banking platform Tink outline the struggle that UK online retailers are facing with over 50% planning to stop free delivery and free returns.

🇬🇧 FintechOS announced revenues from its insurance products have increased 300% YoY through winning new clients such as Admiral Insurance.

🇬🇧 Wealthtech provider WealthKernel is to power new teenage educational investment platform tendy.

🇬🇧 The London Stock Exchange has partnered with Microsoft in a 10-year deal to delivery cloud, data analytics and workspace products.

🇬🇧 Thought Machine has landed French lender Bpifrance as a customer for its core banking product.

🇬🇧 Capital markets fintech platform United Fintech acquired Cobalt, a risk and data provider.

🌍 Latam crypto platform Bitso has partnered with remittances solution Felix Pago to offer crypto remittances on Whatsapp.

🌍 The Fed has set up the Request for Payment Working Group to set out a framework for companies building user experiences on the functionality.

🌍 JP Morgan’s merchant acquiring business has settled $2trn in payments globally, a record for the company.

🌍 Galileo has launched a Direct Deposit Switch product powered by Atomic.

🌍 FIS is conducting a strategic review and change up its board after pressure from shareholders.

Payments 💰

🇪🇺 JP Morgan has hired former Visa executive Pat Brolly as its head of EMEA acquiring platforms operations.

🇬🇧 Stripe has made Louise Smith, UK Fintech Envoy and Chair of Innovate Finance, the chair of its board for its UK company.

🇬🇧 Shieldpay is partnering with Mollie to enable businesses to incorporate payment links into invoice to streamline the payment process for B2B transactions.

🇬🇧 The British Retail Consortium is continuing its calls to end the high cost of card payment by major card schemes.

🇬🇧 Checkout.com has slashed its internal valuation 70%, from $40bn to $11bn, due to the macro environment.

🇬🇧 Wise is planning on hiring 250 people in the US as it continues its US expansion.

🌍 Walmart backed fintech ONE is rumoured to be powering the grocery chains BNPL product, potentially leaving existing partner Affirm out in the cold.

🌍 Embedded finance platform Bond is working with Flow, the new real estate company from WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann, to develop a digital wallet for renters.

🌍 Discover has stopped applications for it checking and cashback debit due to fraud.

🌍 Small US banks are seeking to push back on plans to reimburse Zelle fraud victims and could abandon the service.


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