Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

Join us for our next London fintech breakfast at the Shoreditch Treehouse with Vanta and CMS! RSVP to secure your spot.

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. Deal data powered by Dealroom.

🇪🇺 Travel platform TravelPerk raised a $200m Series E from Atomico, Blackstone, EQT Group, General Catalyst, Sequoia, Softbank and more.

🇪🇺 Payments ledger solution Formance raised $21m from Hoxton Ventures, Y Combinator, Portage, Axeleo Capital and PayPal Ventures.

🇪🇺 AI chatbot for banks Zaion raised €11m led by 115K and La Banque Postale.

🇪🇺 BaaS provider Swan extended its Series B round by $42m from Accel, Creandum, Eight Roads Ventures, Lakestar, Bpifrance and Hexa Capital.

🇪🇺 Crypto payments startup INXY Payments raised a $3m round from Flashpoint Venture Capital.

🇪🇺 Stablecoin issuer Aryze raised a $20m round from Rollman Management.

🇪🇺 Crypto accounting platform Cryptio raised a $15m Series A extension round.

🇬🇧 B2B lender Swoop raised $6m from Sandbox Industries.

🇬🇧 Open banking fintech Yavrio raised $2.4m from Fuel Ventures and angels.

🇬🇧 Payments firm Sokin raised $15m in debt from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock.

🇬🇧 Digital wealth solution Prosper raised a £4m round from Fuel Ventures.

🌍 Credit union technology provider Clutch raised a $65m Series B led by Alkeon Capital.

🌍 Finance team AI solution WiseLayer raised a $7.2m round from Canaan, Unpopular Ventures, K5 Global and The Fintech Fund.

🌍 FinOps platform Finout raised a $40m round from Insight Partners, Pitango Venture Capital, Red Dot Capital Partners, Team8 and Maor Investments.

🌍 Billing solution Anchor raised a $20m Series A from Entrée Capital, Zeev Ventures, Tal Ventures, Mosaic General Partnership and Amy Banse.

₿ Stablecoin payment platform Cedar Money raised a $9.9m seed round led by QED.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇪🇺 Santander's neobank Openbank is building out its service in Germany to include local ibans and lending.

🇬🇧Spend management startup Pleo is launching a cash management solution in the UK.

🇬🇧 Spend management platform Yokoy was acquired by travel platform TravelPerk.

🇬🇧 Cross-border transfer solution Wise launched in Mexico. It was also hit with a $2.5m penalty from the CFPB over misleading customers.

🌍 Latam neobank Nubank is extending its 4% return on USDC to holders in Brazil. Its Mexico business, Nu Mexico, reached 10 million customers, doubling its user base in a year.

Digital Assets ₿

🇪🇺 Crypto exchange BitPanda secured a MiCAR licence from BaFin.

🇪🇺 The Czech Republic is to hold bitcoin as part of its central bank reserves.

🇪🇺 France is investigating Binance over money laundering, tax fraud and drug trafficking.

🇬🇧 US VC firm Andreessen Horowitz is closing its crypto team's UK office to focus on the US under the new administration.

🌍 The SEC has recinded SAB 121 which frees up banks to provide digital asset custody, reversing unconventional accounting treatment.

🌍 Ripple has announced it has received 55 MTL licences globally, adding Texas and New York.

🌍Tokenisation issuer Ondo Finance is to bring tokenised US treasuries to Ripple's XRP ledger.

🌍 Coinbase has expanded to Argentina after receiving a VASP registration. It also plans to list Solana and Hedera futures.

🌍 Kraken launched Kraken Pay, a crypto payment service. It also brought back crypto staking for US customers.

🌍 Japanese investment company Metaplant is to raise $745m to buy more bitcoin.

🌍 Crypto exchange KuCoin settled with US authorities paying a $300m penalty and exiting the US market for two years.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇪🇺 The Bank of Ireland is to invest £100m in technology for retail and SME customers.

🇪🇺 CaixaBank is hiring 500 developers in Q1 this year.

🇪🇺 Danske Bank will implement BlackRock's Aladdin for its investment customers.

🇪🇺 Banco Sabadell has partnered with Snowdrop to improve its banking app experience.

🇬🇧 Lloyds has partnered with financial education platform MyPocketSkill to promote money and skills with students. It is also closing 136 more branches alongside Natwest.

🇬🇧 NatWest has invested in AI financial vulnerability solution Serene.

🇬🇧 HSBC is working with capital markets consultant Delta Capita to optimise its derivative post-trade services.

🌍 Australian banks enable secure digital identity through ConnectID.

🌍 Brazil is adding recurring payments to its Pi payment system.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🌍 Cross border credit bureau Nova Credit launched a document fraud detection kit.

Payments 💰

🇪🇺 Swiss payment app TWINT signed airline SWISS as a customer.

🇪🇺 Payment provider Adyen, open banking provider Tink and prepaid payments provider Recharge are partnering to introduce Pay by Bank in Germany.

🇬🇧 The FCA and PSR want to establish a new "independent central operator" to drive the growth of VRP.

🇬🇧 Payment provider Mollie has enabled Tap to Pay on iPhone in the UK

🇬🇧 A2A payment solution Vyne is closing its UK business after being acquired by UAE open banking platform Tarabut.

🌍 BNPL provider Affirm is selling up to $750m of its outstanding loans to Liberty Mutual.

🌍 The Australian government has instructed BNPL providers to apply for credit licences.

🌍 The CFPB filed a lawsuit against Early Warning Services, the operator of Zelle over fraud concerns.

🌍 X, formerly Twitter is partnering with Visa for its X Money payment push, utilising Visa Direct.

🌍 Citi Flex Pay is now available on Apple Pay.

Longer reads/listens 📜

• The Hedge Fund run by AI Agents - Simon Taylor
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of crypto market making - Wintermute
• Real-Time Settlement Coming to US Cards? - Tom Noyes
• Ode to an ISA - Sam Bowman

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See you next week!