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.

🇪🇺 Trade finance fintech Modifi raised a $15m Series C from Intesa Sanpaolo, Sumitomo Mitsui, Maersk and others.

🇪🇺 Digital wealthtech Fundcraft raised a €6m Series A from MiddleGame Ventures and 3VC.

🇬🇧 SME bank Recognise Bank raised a £25m round.

🌍 B2B payments fintech Melio raised a $150m Series E led by Fiserv and included Accel, Bessemer, General Catalyst, Thrive, Coatue, Capital One and more.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇬🇧 Neobank Revolut has integrated with wealthtech provider Upvest.

🇬🇧 Nubank launched a mobile phone service, NuCel.

Digital Assets ₿

🇪🇺 UBS is to launch a tokenized money market fund on Ethereum.

🇪🇺 Boerse Stuttgart Digital has partnered with Fenergo to scale its crypto compliance solution.

🇬🇧 The first UK pension fund has invested in bitcoin.

🌍 Crypto.com has launched banking, stocks and credit card services.

🌍 21Shares is pursuing SEC approval for an XRP ETF.

🌍 Crypto custodian BitGo hired former Silvergate president to oversee its stablecoin business.

🌍 Tether has funded a $45m oil trade.

🌍 JP Morgan rebranded its blockchain unit Kinexys and adds on-chain FX settlement for USD and EUR.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇬🇧 Barclays complete the acquisition of Tesco Bank.

🇬🇧 Santander is to cut over 1,400 UK jobs in a cost-saving drive.

🇬🇧 NatWest have partnered with Mastercard to launch a virtual card solution for businesses.

🌍 JP Morgan was fined $151m by the SEC.

🌍 Capital One announced it could face enforcement actions from the CFPB.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🌍 Merchant acquirer Elavon has launched a single gateway platform for SMBs.

🌍 Card issuer Marqeta saw its share price fall 40% after regulatory delays and a forecast miss.

Payments 💰

🇪🇺 Klarna signed Zoom and John Lewis as a customer.

🇪🇺 Adyen reported Q3 earnings

🇪🇺 The EU is investigating Visa and Mastercard's scheme fees.

🇬🇧 US BNPL provider Affirm has launched in the UK.

🇬🇧 HSBC owned cross-border payment app Zing partnered with Tink to launch automatic and one tap top-ups.

🇬🇧 Cross-border transfer app Wise was granted access to the real-time payment system in the Philippines. It also signed Standard Chartered as a customer for its B2B Wise Platform infrastructure.

🇬🇧 Payment provider Checkout.com has partnered with insurtech Sure.

🌍 Visa is connecting with a range of QR payment schemes in APAC.

Longer reads/listens 📜

• A deep-dive into APP fraud in the UK - TWIF UK & Europe Long Reads - Kartik Dabbiru
• On the European merchant acquiring landscape - Jevgenijs Kazanins
• Saudi Arabia’s Fintech Oasis: A Market Flowing with Opportunity - Jas Shah
• Innovation In Open Banking - Matt Jones
• Is WealthTech the New FinTech? - Matthew Goldman, TWIF
• Ken Griffin’s money machine: market maker Citadel Securities - FT
• Why do trams cost more to build in Britain - Ben Hopkinson
• We need a Wero! - Jeremy Light

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See you next week!