Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

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

Programming note: There will be no TWIF UK & Europe next week.

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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.

🇪🇺 Finance tool Pennlylane raised a €75m round from Sequoia, DST Global, Meritech Capital and CapitalG.

🇪🇺 Transaction monitoring fincrime startup Hawk raised a $56m Series C from DN Capital, BlackFin Capital Partners, One Peak Partners and more.

🇬🇧 Fixed income trading technology TransFicc raised a $25m round from HSBC, Citi Ventures, ING Ventures, Illuminate Financial and more.

🇬🇧 Private markets platform Treble Peak raised a £5m round.

🇬🇧 Cross-border stablecoin solution Damisa raised a £2.3m round from Fuel Ventures, Greyhound Capital and EWOR.

🇬🇧 Payment platform Ryft raised a £5.7m Series A from BBB, Pembroke VCT, EdenBase, GPOS Investments and SidebySide Partnership.

🇬🇧 Private equity operating system DealStack raised a $5.5m round from KKR, TA Associates, CVC Capital. Goldman Sachs and more.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇬🇧 Neobank Revolut has received a €3.5m fine from Lithuania's central bank over AML failings. It is also expanding its services in Belgium and will enable users to open Belgian bank accounts.

Digital Assets ₿

🇪🇺 BitPanda has received a MiCAR licence from the FMA.

🇬🇧 Stablecoin money movement app Sling Money has secured a MiCA licence.

🌍 Crypto exchange Kraken secured a Restricted Dealer Registration in Canada.

🌍 Ripple has acquired crypto prime broker Hidden Road for $1.25bn.

🌍 Digital asset custodian Zodia Markets has partnered with ECN Finery.

🌍 Digital asset group Taurus has launched an interbank network for digital assets.

🌍 The SEC announced "covered" stablecoins like USDT and USDC are not securities and no registration is needed for minting or redeeming.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇪🇺 Banco Santander has secured a Canadian banking licence.

🇬🇧 Metro Bank has launched a scam detection tool in partnership with Ask Silver.

🇬🇧 NatWest has announced a minority investment in credit car startup Yonder.

🇬🇧Lloyds Banking Group is to partner with Google Cloud to accelerate its AI development.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🇬🇧 Open banking payments provider OpenPayd has partnered with Wincent for fiat payments.

🇬🇧 BaaS provider ClearBank reported £112m in revenue (30% yoy) resulting in its second profitable year with £9.9m in adjusted pre0tax profit.

🇬🇧 Open banking platform Yapily has secured business bank Allica as a customer.

🌍 Financial software provider Galileo has introduced a deposit sweet product for fintechs.

🌍 US BaaS platform Solid has filed for bankruptcy.

🌍 PayPal has partnered with card-on-file management fintech Knot.

Payments 💰

🇪🇺 Payment provider Mollie has expanded to Sweden.

🇪🇺 BNPL provider Klarna has paused its IPO plans in the wake of Trump's tariff uncertainty.

🇪🇺 Payment provider Mondu has expanded its B2B payment network through partnerships with Payin3 and Lemonway.

🇪🇺 The ECB has called for Europe to reduce its dependence on foreign controlled digital payment systems.

🇪🇺 JCB will extend its card acceptance in Germany through a partnership with First Cash Solution.

🇬🇧 Payments platform Airwallex is to pursue banking licences in the UK and US.

🇬🇧 Viva.com has launched instant money movement in the UK with Mastercard Move.

🇬🇧 Checkout.com will roll out domestic card issuance in UAE.

🌍 The merger of Capital One and Discover will not be blocked by the DOJ.

🌍 Shopify has launched instalment payment options powered by Affirm in Canada.

🌍 Block will pay $40m in penalties for AML failures.

Regulatory Corner 🔎

🇬🇧 The FCA is to overhaul its regulatory framework for alternative asset managers.

Longer reads/listens 📜

• Understanding Merchants – Cards on File - Tom Noyes
• The New Frontier for Payments - Dave Birch
• Inside Credit One Bank—And How Two Men Made Billions Exploiting People With Bad Credit - Jemima McEvoy, Forbes

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See you next week!