Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

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.

🇪🇺 Greek car insurance solution Hellas Direct raised €30m from ETF Partners.

🇬🇧 United Fintech, an umbrella organisation focused on capital markets and wealth management vendors received investment from BNP Paribas and Citi.

🇬🇧 Fintech matchmaker NayaOne raised a $4.7m Series A from Carthona Capital, Valley Ventures and EJF Capital.

🇬🇧 Sibstar, a debit card and app for dementia patients and their families raised £125,000 from Dragon's Den investors.

🇬🇧 Corporate bond trading app WiseAlpha raised £1.1m on CrowdCube

🌍 MENA payment orchestrator MoneyHash raised $4.5m.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇪🇺 Finnish challenger bank Saldo Bank has launched in Sweden and offers 5% interest rates.

🇬🇧 New credit card issuer Yonder has launched a free tier and has hit 10,000 paid members.

🇬🇧 Revolut is to launch its roboadvisor wealth solution in Europe. It is also considering sponsoring the Republic of Ireland's football team.

🇬🇧 Consumer lender Custom Credit has partnered with open banking provider Ordo to integrate VRP payments.

🇬🇧 Digital wealth app Sidekick has launched.

🌍 Neobroker Webull is to go public via a SPAC at a valuation of $7.3bn.

Digital Assets ₿

🌍 Coinbase has launched an asset recovery tool to help consumers recover unsupported tokens mistakenly sent to Coinbase addresses on BNB Smart Chain and Polygon. The exchange is also investigating reports of accounts showing $0 balance.

🌍 Republican Senators have introduced legislation to block a CBDC in the US.

🌍 The SEC has challenged a suspicious $166m payment bankrupt Terraform Labs paid to lawyers

🌍 Crypto exchange Gemini is to pay out 100% of its Earn customers locked-up holdings, totalling an amount over $1.1bn.

🌍 Wells Fargo and BAML are offering access to spot bitcoin ETFs to clients.

🌍 Eight US state attorneys have challenged the SEC's lawsuit against crypto exchange Kraken that it has exceeded its authority.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇪🇺 BBVA Spark customers will be able to access Capchase's lending and underwriting infrastructure called Capchase Infra, as the lender pivots towards a technology provider.

🇬🇧 Lloyds Bank have joined a blockchain based trade documentation platform which allows its customers to transfer blockchain-based Bills of Lading across other members in 136 countries.

🇬🇧 Barclays has sold over $1bn of US credit card debt to Blackstone.

🇬🇧 Nationwide is trailing creating a community fund at locations where it is the last bank in town and donating £200 for each new account opened.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🇪🇺 Tink have applied to join the new European Payment Council SPAA scheme.

🇪🇺 Card issuer and payment processor Enfuce secured an e-money licence.

🇬🇧 Open banking platform Yapily partner with Uncapped to support faster funding for businesses.

🇬🇧 The Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT) published a report saying that UK GDP could be boosted by £30.5bn because of open finance.

🇬🇧 Embedded banking solution Railsr has appointed former chancellor Phillip Hammond as chairman.

🇬🇧 Embedded bank platform ClearBank promoted its chief risk and compliance officer Emma Hagan to CEO of its UK business.

🌍 Bud Financial has partnered with Fintech Galaxy to provide open banking services in MENA.

🌍 BaaS provider Treasury Prime has cut half of its staff and is focusing away from selling to fintechs to focus on banks.

🌍 Marqeta reported +33% increase in TPV in Q4.

🌍 Partner bank Green Dot has been hit with a consent order from the Federal Reserve for compliance risk management issues.

🌍 Payment infrastructure solution Sila has partnered with instant payment platform Trice.

🌍 Cashflow bureau EDGE has partnered with credit union core bank software solution Corelation to deliver insights on top of credit union data.

🌍 US identity platform Alloy has launched a new risk management solution for embedded finance.

🌍 Identity platform Socure has partnered with payment provider Trustly to optimise onboarding for merchants.

🌍 Global fintech giant FIS has acquired Torstone Technology to improve capital markets offerings.

🌍 BaaS middleware platform Unit has been terminated as a client by bank Piermont Bank as US regulators focus on ensuring banks have direct oversight of fintech partners.

Payments 💰

🇪🇺 The EU has finally adopted regulation to make instant payments fully available to consumers and businesses across the EU and EEA, requiring PSPs to offer instant payments at no extra charge.

🇪🇺 Klarna has said its AI assistant has handled the workload of 700 full-time agents and handles two thirds of its customer service chats. It also reported reduced losses of $241m for 2023 , +22% increase in revenue.

🇪🇺 Shares of payment processor Worldline slipped 15% after an impairment in merchant services and a poor outlook.

🇪🇺 Payment solution Viva.com has launched Cartes Bancaires on Tap To Pay on iPhones.

🇬🇧 Payment solution BVNK has gone live in Europe after receiving its EMI licence.

🇬🇧 Amex has launched its BNPL solution "Plan It" in the UK which gives consumers the option to pay for a previous purchase in instalments for a monthly fee, notably with no interest free option.

🇬🇧 BNPL solution Affirm is looking to launch in the UK.

🌍 MENA payments firm Magnati is working with Biz2X to launch AI-powered lending in the UAE.

🌍 The Paze digital wallet has started to be rolled out in South Carolina and Arizona in what will be a phased approach across the country.

🌍 BNPL solution Sezzle reported a 33% increase in GMV for Q4 2023 with revenue +28% and reported a profit of $7.1m in 2023, up from a $38m loss in 2022.

🌍 Payment solution Finix launched in Canada.

🌍 Mastercard is offering US issuers free access to its open-banking services to improve account opening processes.

🌍 Stripe has secured a deal with investors including Goldman Sachs and Sequoia, to let employees cash out their shares at a valuation of $65bn.

🌍 Payment firm Shift4 Payments is looking to sell itself with Fiserv and Amadeus in the running to be the acquirer.

🌍 Apple is to report its Apple Pay Later BNPL data to Experian but the credit bureau has said it will not impact credit scores for now.

🌍 The CFPB is targeting credit card comparison sites for not providing unbiased results.

🌍 Push payment solution Checkbook is working with with Visa to focus on disbursements to businesses.

🌍 Payment solution Orum has gone live with FedACH.

Longer reads 📜

• Mt. Gox: What We Still Don’t Know 10 Years After the Collapse - Mark Hunter, Coindesk
• Ledger: Stripe’s system for tracking and validating money movement - Stripe
• Payfac in 1,000 words - Matt Brown

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See you next week!