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.

🇪🇺 Embedded invoice financing solution Aria raised a €15m Series A from investors including 13books Capital, Otium Capital, Mark Ransford and more.

🇪🇺 P2P fintech Pivot raised €20m from investors including Oliver Samwer, Visionaries Club, Anamcara Capital and Emblem VC.

🇪🇺 Regtech solution Salv raised €4m from investors.

🇪🇺 Employee financial wellbeing fintech Paynest raised a €2m seed round.

🇬🇧 PSP SumUp raised €285m led by Sixth Street Growth.

🇬🇧 Digital asset derivatives trading platform GFO-X raised a $30m seed round led by M&G Investments.

🇬🇧 Digital banking infrastructure provider Meniga raised a €15m Series D from Groupe BPCE, Crédito Agrícola and Omega ehf.

🌍 MEA business lending marketplace Lendo raised a $28m Series B led by Sanabil Investments.

🌍 Programmable money startup Pave Bank announced a $5.2m funding round.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇬🇧 Money transfer fintech Wise has had to stop onboarding UK and EU customers due to high demand.

🇬🇧 Business lender YouLend has helped 150,000 SMEs since launch across the US, Germany, Netherlands, Poland and Spain.

🌍 Neobank Dave has announced its AI-powered customer service chatbot is resolving 89% of queries.

Digital Assets ₿

🇪🇺 Deutsche Bank is forming a joint venture to issue euro stablecoins with Galaxy Digital and Flow Traders.

🇪🇺 The ECB is soliciting interest from stakeholders to participate in a trial of wholesale central bank money.

🇪🇺Digital asset infrastructure provider Taurus is working with SME lender Teylor to tokenize some of its credit portfolio to provide investors with access.

🇬🇧 A lack of FCA employees with experience in crypto was reportedly at the heart of the slow registration of crypto-asset firms according to the National Audit Office.

🇬🇧 Distributed ledger technology solution Fnality has conducted the first live transaction.

🇬🇧 Crypto custody firm Copper has launched a settlement network for institutions trading and holding digital assets that is agnostic to custodian. The new platform allows post-trade OCT settlement.

🌍 Tether froze 41 wallets belonging to individuals that have been sanctioned by OFAC.

🌍 Binance market share has fallen from 55% at the start of 2023 to 30% in December.

🌍 Crypto exchange KuCoin has settled a $22m lawsuit with the state of New York.

🌍 FTX has disputed the $24bn in unpaid taxes the IRS is claiming.

🌍 BlackRock has adjusted the mechanics of its bitcoin ETF to allow authorized participants to create fund shares with cash, in addition to crypto. It also met with the SEC this week to discuss it with the regulator to take a new look at ETF applications due to recent court filings.

🌍 The SEC denied Coinbase's request for digital asset regulation which Coinbase is appealing.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇪🇺 Banco Santander has migrated its corporate and investment banking to Google Cloud's new Gravity platform.

🇪🇺 CaixaBank is throwing more chips at AI by creating a 100 person workforce to deploy generative AI internally and to customer services.

🇪🇺 ABN Amro has acquired neobroker Bux.

🇪🇺 The International Commissioner's Office has reprimanded the Bank of Ireland over incorrect customer details were sent to credit reference agencies.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🇪🇺 Solaris is cutting another 20 staff members.

🇪🇺 Regtech solution HawkAI has secured payments solution Otto Payment as a customer for its AML software.

🇬🇧 The FCA approved 11 EMI licences in 2023 up to September although the approval rate is down.

🌍 Canada's TD Bank signed a data-access agreement with Plaid.

🌍 FedNow has 331 financial institutions on its FedNow service after its July 2023 launch.

Payments 💰

🇪🇺 Apple is to offer access to its mobile payments system to third parties in an attempt to settle EU antitrust charges.

🇪🇺 Checkout.com is closing its Berlin office.

🇬🇧 The PSR has proposed to cap interchange fees at 0.2% for debit and 0.3% for credit for an initial period with a future cap to be decided in the future.

🌍 Visa and Mastercard are lowering interchange fees for Canadian SMBs with less than $300k (Visa) or $175k (Mastercard) to a weighted interchange of 0.95%.

🌍 Affirm has partnered with gift card provider Blackhawk to allow consumers to buy gift cards in instalments.

🌍 PE firm Motive Partners has acquired a majority stake in Australian BNPL provider Splitit Payments.

🌍 Google Pay consumers and merchants in the US are to see Affirm and Zip offered at checkout in a pilot.

🌍 TCH has seen a boost in banks and credit unions connected to its instant payment systems in the wake of the launch of FedNow. Trustly has become one of the largest originators on the TCH's RTP network due to demand from merchants wanting to provide instant payouts to customers.

🌍 B2B payment provider Melio is to offer real-time payments through integrations with FedNow and RTP Network via JP Morgan.

🌍 Fraud losses due to illegitimate tokens hit $450m last year according to Visa.

🌍 Venmo and Block are facing calls to improve their reimbursements to customers involved in scams on Venmo and Cash App.

🌍 APP fraud is expected to exceed $3bn in the US in 2027, up from $2bn last year.

🌍 Google lost in court to Fortnite developer Epic which could see its monopoly of billing and payments on Android come to an end.

🌍 PSP Shift4 is rumoured to be in the acquisition crosshairs of Global Payments.

Regulatory Corner 🔎

🇪🇺 Lithuania is advocating to be the home of the EU's Anti Money Laundering Authority (AMLA).

🇬🇧 The FCA has proposed new rules to force designated banks and building societies to maintain access to cash.

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See you next week!