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.

🇪🇺 Cyber security firm Eye Security raised a €36m Series B led by JPMorgan.

🇪🇺 French wealth infrastructure provider Naro raised $3m from La Famiglia, Angel Invest, Discovery Ventures and Robin Capital.

🇪🇺 Core bank provider Tuum raised funding from Citi Ventures.

🇪🇺 Agricultural business lender HeavyFinance is raising €50m.

🇪🇺 Subscription management fintech Younium raised a €2.7m seed round from PartInc Capital.

🇬🇧 BaaS fintech Griffin has raised a $24m round from MassMutual Ventures, NordicNinja, Breega as well as Notion Capital and EQT Ventures.

🇬🇧 Deposit platform Flagstone raised a £108m round from Estancia Capital.

🇬🇧 Digital asset clearing house ClearToken raised $10m from Laser Digital, Flow Traders, GSR, LMAX Digital and Zodia Custody.

🇬🇧 Payment firm PPRO raised €85m from HPE Growth, Eurazeo, Citi Ventures, BlackRock, Sprints, JP Morgan and PayPal Ventures.

🇬🇧 Payments firm Icon Solutions sold a minority stake to NatWest.

🇬🇧 Embedded lender SAPI raised a £7.5m round from Passion Capital.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇪🇺 Business bank Tide is launching in Germany.

🇪🇺 Business lender Levenue acquired MidFunder to expand operations in Switzerland.

🇪🇺 German neobroker infrastructure provider Lemon Markets has gone live.

🇪🇺 Lending infrastructure provider Taktile partnered with ML model platform Deeploy.

🇪🇺 N26 launches Instant Savings offering up to 4% interest in 13 new European markets.

🇬🇧 Ecommerce lender Wayflyer is expanding to support businesses selling in brick-and-mortar stores and launched a new Wholesale Financing product.

🇬🇧 SME bank Cashplus Bank has rebranded to Zempler Bank.

🇬🇧 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 ₿

🇪🇺 Spain blocked crypto project Worldcoin from collecting users data.

🇪🇺 Web3 payments company Request Finance acquired crypto accounting firm Consola Finance.

🇬🇧 Crypto.com was fined $3.1m for operating in the Netherlands without registration.

🇬🇧 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 🏦

🇪🇺 Rabobank has partnered with French fintech Dejamobile to allow its merchant customers to accept payments on their mobile phone via SOftPOS.

🇪🇺 Deutsche Bank is reducing bonuses of board members after its failed Postbank integration.

🇬🇧 Lloyds Bank is partnering with one of the graduates of its "Launch" innovation programme ApTap for bill management.

🇬🇧 Nationwide is working with software provider Auriga to revamp its ATMs.

🇬🇧 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 🚧

🇬🇧 BaaS bank Griffin announced it is a licensed bank alongside its fundraise (see above)

🇬🇧 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 💰

🇪🇺 PSP TargetMedia is shutting its payment services in April.

🇪🇺 EPI is to start "mobile-to-mobile" payments in Germany in June.

🇪🇺 Klarna was fined $733,000 for GDPR violations. It also added open banking payments for consumer repayments.

🇪🇺 Worldline is close to securing Italian banking group Cassa Centrale as a customer.

🇪🇺 Adyen has signed a new office in San Francisco in a sign of its commitment to cracking the US market.

🇬🇧 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 🔎

🇬🇧 Banks in the UK are being given an additional 3 days to process payments when APP fraud is suspected.

Longer reads 📜

• We crunched the fees of Stripe's 21 products - Lago
• The Last Challenger and Big in Japan - Marc Rubinstein
• Gift cards: the crypto off-ramp no one is watching - Bryce Elder
• To Buy a Bank, You Have to Be a Bank - Matt Levine
• Apple Pay and the DAN - Sardine
• Fintech can save the American banking system. Regulators should help - Ayo
• Fintech innovation going off the rails - Samir Desai
• Navigating European fintech regulation in 2024 - Mouro Capital

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See you next week!