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The Front Page of Global Fintech

The the largest fintech community in the world. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on the latest in news opinions, and all things financial technology.

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Faster Payments = T+3? - TWIF UK & Europe (18/03)

The latest fintech news across the UK and Europe - 18/03/24

Faster Payments = T+3? - TWIF UK & Europe (18/03)

Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

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

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Funding πŸ’Έ

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

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Cyber security firm Eye Security raised a €36m Series B led by JPMorgan.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί French wealth infrastructure provider Naro raised $3m from La Famiglia, Angel Invest, Discovery Ventures and Robin Capital.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Core bank provider Tuum raised funding from Citi Ventures.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Agricultural business lender HeavyFinance is raising €50m.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Subscription management fintech Younium raised a €2.7m seed round from PartInc Capital.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ BaaS fintech Griffin has raised a $24m round from MassMutual Ventures, NordicNinja, Breega as well as Notion Capital and EQT Ventures.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Deposit platform Flagstone raised a Β£108m round from Estancia Capital.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Digital asset clearing house ClearToken raised $10m from Laser Digital, Flow Traders, GSR, LMAX Digital and Zodia Custody.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Payment firm PPRO raised €85m from HPE Growth, Eurazeo, Citi Ventures, BlackRock, Sprints, JP Morgan and PayPal Ventures.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Payments firm Icon Solutions sold a minority stake to NatWest.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Embedded lender SAPI raised a Β£7.5m round from Passion Capital.

Challenger Banking πŸš€

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Business bank Tide is launching in Germany.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Business lender Levenue acquired MidFunder to expand operations in Switzerland.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί German neobroker infrastructure provider Lemon Markets has gone live.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Lending infrastructure provider Taktile partnered with ML model platform Deeploy.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί N26 launches Instant Savings offering up to 4% interest in 13 new European markets.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Ecommerce lender Wayflyer is expanding to support businesses selling in brick-and-mortar stores and launched a new Wholesale Financing product.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ SME bank Cashplus Bank has rebranded to Zempler Bank.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Business bank Anna Money acquired Australian spend management platform Cape.

🌍 MoneyLion has added a premium membership option that uses AI-powered search.

🌍 US neobank Oxygen is pivoting to focus on heath-focused offerings and is closing some customer accounts.

🌍 Shares in US neobroker Robinhood jumped 11% on increased trading volume.

Digital Assets β‚Ώ

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Spain blocked crypto project Worldcoin from collecting users data.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Web3 payments company Request Finance acquired crypto accounting firm Consola Finance.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Crypto.com was fined $3.1m for operating in the Netherlands without registration.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ The FCA will not object to requests from Recognised Investment Exchanges to build crypto ETNs, leading to the London Stock Exchange to start accepting applications for Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded notes, a debt security that provides exposure to the underlying crypto.

🌍 Coinbase filed an action against the SEC for failing to write new crypto regulations and ignoring the law. It is also raising a $1bn convertible bond.

🌍 Crypto wallet Metamask is developing a Mastercard payment card issued by Baanx that would let users spend their crypto more easily.

🌍 Hong Kong is soliciting applications for the second phase of its CBDC pilot.

🌍 Binance has spun off its venture arm, Binance labs, as an independent entity.

🌍 Bitcoin ETF provider VanEck has removed fees for its ETF until March 2025. BlackRock and Fidelity jointly own over 330,000 BTC worth $23bn for their spot ETFs.

🌍 Blockchain network Canton has completed a pilot involving 15 asset managers, 13 banks, 4 custodians and 3 exchanges including Goldman Sachs, BNY Mellon that settled and transacted tokenzied assets

Traditional Banking 🏦

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Rabobank has partnered with French fintech Dejamobile to allow its merchant customers to accept payments on their mobile phone via SOftPOS.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Deutsche Bank is reducing bonuses of board members after its failed Postbank integration.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Lloyds Bank is partnering with one of the graduates of its "Launch" innovation programme ApTap for bill management.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Nationwide is working with software provider Auriga to revamp its ATMs.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Marks and Spencer Bank is close to forming a long-term partnership with HSBC to overhaul its payments, loyalty and financial services "superapp".

🌍 JPMorgan is launching a new biometric checkout service for merchants.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ BaaS bank Griffin announced it is a licensed bank alongside its fundraise (see above)

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ AI compliance solution Tennis Finance is joining the NayaOne Marketplace

🌍 India's UPI payment system has been connected to Nepal's Fonepay.

🌍 US BaaS solution Synctera as launched SyncteraPay, a universal layer on top of its ledger that lets it's customers mix and match their preferred PSP.

🌍 BaaS provider Synapse is rumoured to be being acquired by payment orchestrator TabaPay.

🌍 Mastercard has launched an subscription management tool powered by open-banking.

🌍 Trading infrastructure provider Apex acquired AdvisorArch, a portfolio management company for financial advisors.

🌍 Intuit acqui-hired finance data platform Prosper Finance.

Payments πŸ’°

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί PSP TargetMedia is shutting its payment services in April.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί EPI is to start "mobile-to-mobile" payments in Germany in June.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Klarna was fined $733,000 for GDPR violations. It also added open banking payments for consumer repayments.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Worldline is close to securing Italian banking group Cassa Centrale as a customer.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Adyen has signed a new office in San Francisco in a sign of its commitment to cracking the US market.

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ GoCardless is expanding it's payment offering through the acquisition of open banking payment provider Nuapay for ~€33m.

🌍 The CFPB has been sued by the US Chamber of Commerce to stop its new credit card late fee limit.

🌍 US consumers outstanding credit increased at a annual rate of 4.7% in January.

🌍 Uber has partnered with Payfare and Mastercard to launch it Uber Pro card in Canada, giving drivers instant payouts and loyalty products.

🌍 Car rental company Hertz is using Stripe to power its online reservation payments. The payment processor announced in its annual letter that it has processed $1trn in payments volume in 2023.

🌍 Visa is partnering with supply chain finance solution Taulia.

🌍 BNPL companies could be forced to obtain credit licences and carry out thorough checks in Australia if the NCCPA is reformed.

🌍 SAP has launched an open payments framework to allow merchants to use a number of third party PSPs easily.

Regulatory Corner πŸ”Ž

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Banks in the UK are being given an additional 3 days to process payments when APP fraud is suspected.


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