Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

Calling all UK-based top risk leaders in banking, fintech, and lending: You are invited to RiskCon London, a TWIF & Oscilar dinner discussion at Smith & Wollensky on June 26. Spaces are limited, so please apply (here) as soon as possible.

Join TWIF for our inaugural London Fintech Breakfast with Techspace & Plaid! Connect with top industry investors and operators over barista coffee, pastries w/Gails, fresh juices and fruits.

Building on the success of our NYC Fintech Coffee events, spots are limited - secure your place today!

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

👍 👎 Have feedback or news to share? Let me know on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Private Wealth, Unlocked.

Sidekick is a next-gen wealth manager, empowering you to grow your wealth with a dedicated team of in-house experts like the ultra wealthy. Get market leading savings rates with Sidekick's High Yield Savings account. Earn 4.34% AER plus a 1% bonus, boosting to 5.34% AER for those who also invest in the Sidekick Flagship portfolio. Bonus for 12 months, on balances up to £20k.

Invest from as little as £1,000 here

Sidekick is FCA authorised. Capital at risk. Loans can’t be used for investing.

Tweet of the week 🦉🏆

Funding 💸

Highlights below of deals since the last post in the fintech space across the UK & Europe. Deal data powered by Dealroom.

🇪🇺 Climate fintech Doconomy raised a €34m Series B co-led by CommerzVentures and UBS.

🇪🇺 Insurtech Continuity raised €10m from 115K, Elaia Partners and Bpifrance Digital Venture.

🇪🇺 Payment solution Sibil raised €6.2m from Keen Venture Partners, Founders (Denmark) and Exor Ventures.

🇪🇺 Turkish payment provider Sipay raised a $15m Series A.

🇪🇺 Payment identity network iPiD raised a $5.3m round.

🇪🇺 Digital asset trading solution Quinex raised a $5m round.

🇪🇺 Financial software provider ObjectWay raised a €6m round from Simest.

🇬🇧 Digital receipt startup Slip raised £2.5m.

🇬🇧 Financial product platform FintechOS raised a $60m Series B+ round from Molten Ventures, Earlybird Venture Capital, BlackRock and more

🇬🇧 Wealth infrastructure provider WealthOS raised a £4m seed round led by Barclays.

🌍 Payments provider Forward raised a $16m seed round co-led by Elefund, Commerce Ventures and Fiserv.

🌍 Saudi spend management provider SiFi raised $10m.

🌍 Cross-border payment solution Nium raised a $50m Series E.

🌍 Texas Stock Exchange has raised $120m from Blackrock, Citadel and others to take on NYSE and NASDAQ.

🌍 Spend management provider Torpago raised a $10m Series B co-led by Priority Tech Ventures and EJF Ventures.

₿ Stablecoin minting protocol M^0 raised a $35m Series A led by Bain Capital Crypto.

₿ Crypto exchange Kraken is aiming to raise $100m.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇪🇺 Dutch neobank Bunq has integrated AI to detect fraud and money laundering with a transaction monitoring solution powered by Nvidia. The neobank is also looking to get a UK banking licence and is working with Mastercard's open banking platform to enable customers to add any bank to their Bunq app.

🇪🇺 SME neobank Finon has launched IBAN's in France.

🇪🇺 Turkish neobank Papara is to use DriveWealth technology to launch US stock trading.

🇬🇧 Monzo announced full-year profits of £15.4m driven by new customers (nearly 10m in total in consumer and 400,000 business) as well as deeper engagement.

🇬🇧 Wealth building platform Belong has launched in the UK.

🇬🇧 SMB lender Funding Circle is cutting 120 jobs in order to save £15m.

🇬🇧 Bridging lender Morpheus has launched in the UK.

🇬🇧 Neobank Zopa is expanding into current accounts, investments and lending.

🇬🇧 Consumer lender Plend has launched an embedded API to enable businesses to offer credit to their users.

🇬🇧 Neobank Starling will not reapply for an EU banking licence but will expand into Europe via its technology software business.

🇬🇧 Former Barclays CPO Megan Caywood Cooper has launched an AI wealthtech, Caywood.

🇬🇧Revolut has unveiled Wealth Protection, a customer identification feature that checks the identity of a customer against their sign up ID check to reduce fraud when a phone has been stolen,

Digital Assets ₿

🇪🇺Euroclear, Clearstream and the DTCC have released a joint blueprint framework for digital asset tokenization.

🇪🇺 BitPanda is expanding its payment partnership with Deutsche Bank.

🇪🇺 Binance is to restrict access to "unregulated" stablecoins in Europe as MiCA regulations come into play at the end of June. Tether CEO has expressed concern about the impact of MiCA on stablecoins.

🇬🇧 English football club Watford FC are to sell 10% of the club's equity as a digital asset.

🇬🇧 Payment infrastructure provider Clear Junction is to provide GBP and EUR payouts for Ripple.

🌍 Layer 1 blockchain Zilliqa has integrated with Fireblocks.

🌍 Robinhood has launched a crypto trading API in the US to provide market data, portfolio management and programmatic trading to advanced crypto traders. It also acquired exchange BitStamp for $200m to expand internationally.

🌍 Crypto payment provider Mercuryo has partnered with self-custody wallet provider Trust Wallet.

🌍 Crypto custodian BitGo will get another chance to sue Galaxy Digital over a failed merger.

🌍 Digital asset technology provider Elwood Technologies is to sell part of the business and focus on portfolio and risk management.

🌍 Crypto prime broker FalconX is starting an FX desk.

🌍 Mastercard has launched a P2P network for crypto users in Europe and Latam, called the Mastercard Crypto Credential network.

🌍 Commonwealth Bank of Australia is to validate bank account details by integrating its NameCheck technology with JP Morgan's blockchain network Liink.

🌍 Dapper Labs settled a lawsuit with investors over its NBA Top Shot violating securities laws.

🌍 Coinbase has launched a new smart wallet with easy onboarding using Face ID, Google Chrome, a fingerprint or Yubikey and no recovery phrases.

🌍 Crypto onramp MoonPay is cutting 10% of staff.

🌍 Paxos International has launched a yield-bearing stablecoin and is making it available first in Argentina.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇪🇺 ING has introduced a transaction round up feature.

🇪🇺 ABN Amro is to automate its trade finance operations with support from AI platform Complidata.

🇬🇧 Link, an ATM network in the UK, is to trial a new ATM that can accept deposits from multiple banks.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🇪🇺 Card issuer Enfuce to launching an employee benefits card with worktech provider Swile. The card issuer is also collaborating with allpay for a solution for the UK public sector.

🇪🇺 Payment automation solution Numeral is to collaborate with BNP Paribas to offer its services to the banks customers to connect to SEPA and local payments.

🇪🇺 Plaid has signed Western Union as a customer in Europe for its account verification process. It also has introduced a Consumer Report for lenders to make credit risk decisions.

🇪🇺 Card issuer Marqeta has expanded into Europe by opening offices in Poland.

🇬🇧 Open banking platform OpenPayd announced it reached profitability and is on track for €40m in ARR.

🇬🇧 PFM software solution Meniga has signed Handelsbanken as a customer to improve its customer engagement.

🇬🇧 BaaS provider The Bank of London signed payments firm Allpay as a customer to streamline housing payments.

🇬🇧 A2A payment solution Token.io has launched hosted payment pages.

🇬🇧 Open banking platform Truelayer signed payment acquirer Emerchantpay as a customer.

🇬🇧 Payment processor Thredd is collaborating with Discover to expand access to its network.

🌍 API deposit network ModernFi has integrated with Q2's Digital banking Platform.

Payments 💰

🇪🇺 Payment provider Worldline has signed gaming software provider NuxGame as a customer.

🇪🇺 Payment solution Viva.com has integrated with Poland mobile payment scheme BLIK.

🇪🇺 Klarna reported a 59% increase in credit losses in Q1 as it expands in the US.

🇪🇺 Local payment platform PPRO has partnered with neobank Lunar and Swedish payment method Swish.

🇪🇺 Adyen signed Prada Group as a customer to develop a luxury payment experience for customers.

🇪🇺 PayPal has launched a solution for Dutch SMEs to accept a wide range of payment methods.

🇪🇺 Open banking payment solution Trustly reported $265m of revenue n 2023 and a 51% increase in operating profits. An IPO is still at least one year out.

🇬🇧 The MD of the PSR is stepping down amid backlash over fraud refund regulations.

🇬🇧 Payment provider Equals Money has launched a BaaS product.

🇬🇧 Klarna has partnered with Sainsbury's to enable BNPL at the checkout of Argos, Habitat and Tu.

🌍 The CFPB is at loggerheads with the ABA over whether banks have to reimburse money stolen by wire transfers that are available online and via mobile banking apps, in relation to a Citi legal case.

🌍 Visa and Mastercard are to pay $197m to settle a ATM fee lawsuit.

🌍 Stripe has become invite-only in India whilst it navigates the regulatory landscape.

🌍 Canadian payments solution Nuvei is to offer Visa Direct in Colombia.

🌍 Square is reportedly close to integrating Cash App into its Square POS software.

🌍 Visa announced it has issued 10 billion tokens since launching the technology in 2014 and those tokens have generated $40bn in incremental e-commerce revenue and saved $650m in fraud.

🌍 Australia is preparing rules that would require BNPL providers to carry out credit checks on customers.

🌍 Affirm has introduced Pay in 2 and Pay in 30 options.

🌍 Capital One is partnered with Adyen and Stripe to create an open-source initiative Direct Data Share that ingests real-time transactions to identify fraud and to improve authorisations. Capital One acts like a data clearing house.

🌍 Credit platform LoanPro is directly integrating with Visa DPS to enable "transaction level credit", enabling issuers to customize interest rates, credit limits, grace periods on each transaction (read like BNPL)

Regulatory Corner 🔎

🌍 The CFPB is to create a registry of non-bank financial companies that have broken consumer laws.

Longer reads/listens 📜

• Visa Expands the Pipe - Tom Noyes
• How Boeing broke down: Inside the series of leadership failures that hobbled the airline giant - Shawn Tully
• A few reasons to be bullish on PayPal - Jevgenijs Kazanins
• Will it Change the Game for In-Store Payments? - Flagship Advisory
• Signals: Synapse wasn't your typical BaaS - Sophie Vo, Stephanie Mertz, TWIF
• The Endgame for Stablecoins - MultiCoin Capital
• A Market Without Investors and Banks in Disguise - Marc Rubinstein
• It's Time Local Went Global - Activant Capital
• Why the Age of American Progress Ended - Derek Thompson

👍 👎 Have feedback for us? Let us know

Follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn for more fintech content

See you next week!