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.

🇪🇺 Cross-border payments solution Rapyd is in talks to raise $300m from investors to fund an acquisition spree.

🇪🇺 Accounting and finance services provider Integral raised a €6.3m round led by General Catalyst and Cherry Ventures and included Puzzle Ventures.

🇬🇧 Bank digital ID solution OneID raised $20m from ACF Investors.

🇬🇧 B2B lender Revving raised £7m from DWS Group.

🇬🇧 Investor communication platform Proxymity raised $26m from Citi, BNP Paribas, Clearstream, State Street, BNY Mellon, JP Morgan and ComputerShare.

🌍 Open banking platform Plaid is plotting a $400m secondary share sale and is working with Goldman Sachs.

🌍 Stripe is also planning a secondary share sale that would value the company at $85bn.

🌍 Fraud platform Sardine raised a $70m Series C led by Activant Capital.

🌍 UAE BNPL provider Tabby raised a $160m Series E.

🌍 US card issuer Zeta raised a $50m round from Optum.

🌍 Trucking insurtech Heavy Definition Vehicle Insurance raised a $40m round from Munich Re Ventures, 8VC, Autotech Ventures and Weatherford Capital.

🌍 TaxGPT raised a $4.6m seed round from investors.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇬🇧 Neobroker Robinhood has launched options trading in the UK.

🇬🇧 Revolut has expanded its services for Ukrainian customers. It also expanded its instalment payment options in Spain.

🇬🇧 Credit card Yonder has enabled customers to "top up" their cards for more debit-style spending whilst still earning rewards.

🇬🇧 Neobroker eToro launched a DIY ISA for UK customers.

🇬🇧 Cross-border payment service Wise is closing its Tampa Florida office and laying off 300 employees.

Digital Assets ₿

🇪🇺 BNPL giant Klarna is exploring crypto product offerings.

🇪🇺 Crypto exchange Bitget secured a VASP licence in Bulgaria.

🇬🇧 BitPanda was granted FCA approval to expand its UK products to include staking, savings plans and crypto indices.

🇬🇧 Crypto payment provider Mercuryo has partnered with Revolut to launch Revolut Pay.

🌍 Crypto exchange Gemini is considering a 2025 IPO. It also received approval in Malta for an Investment Firm licence to offer perpetuals.

🌍 Digital asset custodian BitGo is considering a IPO in H2 2025.

🌍 The CFTC has announced a Crypto CEO Forum to discuss using digital assets for collateral.

🌍 Robinhood reported its crypto trading volume surged 400% to $70bn in Q4.

🌍 Digital asset custody platform Taurus has integrated its platform with Solana.

🌍 Crypto exchange Coinbase is in talks to return to the Indian market. The company also posted Q4 revenue growth of 138% yoy and +185% increase in trading volume, surpassing estimates.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇬🇧 Lloyds has partnered with financial knowledge app Doshi to launch a new app for students.

🇬🇧 HSBC has suffered a major IT outage impacting its mobile and online banking in the UK.

🌍 Wells Faro has launched a new commercial banking platform with Q2.

🌍 TD Bank is selling its 10% stake in brokerage Charles Schwab.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🇬🇧 Open banking platform TrueLayer announced it has reached 10 million consumers using its services.

🇬🇧 BaaS provider ClearBank signed SME credit card provider Capital on Tap as a customer to power the latter's new business savings accounts.

🌍 US transaction enrichment provider Spade is partnering with Stripe for real-time merchant intelligence.

Payments 💰

🇪🇺 Klarna is targeting a US IPO in April. It also signed an agreement with JP Morgan to become a payment option for the banks payment processing customers.

🇪🇺 Nordic payment reconciliation firm Storebuddy was acquired by accounting fintech Ageras.

🇬🇧 Payment solution provider GoCardless has chosen Form3, a payment technology provider, to provide payment connectivity in the UK to Bacs.

🇬🇧 PSP Checkout.com has signed marketplace Vinted as a customer.

🇬🇧 Cross-border payment platform Zepz is reportedly cutting 200 employees.

🌍 Affirm has signed FIS as a customer to power its pay-over-time capability to the latter's debit-issuing bank clients.

🌍 US P2P payment network Zelle has surpassed $1 trillion in transactions.

Regulatory Corner 🔎

🌍 The Trump administration has ordered the CFPB to halt its operations as it looks to slim down the agency.

Longer reads/listens 📜

• Apple Pay Was Useful, Apple ID Will Be Indispensable - Dave Birch
• What Texas can teach San Francisco and London about building houses - FT
• Financing the AI Boom - Marc Rubinstein
• Meet the man picked to succeed Warren Buffett - Shawn Tully

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See you next week!