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.

🇪🇺 Digital asset banking group Sygnum raised $58m at a unicorn status valuation.

🇪🇺Crypto wallets-as-a-sevice solution Dfns raised a $16m Series A led by Further Ventures.

🇪🇺 Crypto payments infrastructure Neverminded raised a $4m round from Near, Polymorphic Capital, Lyrik Ventures and others.

🇪🇺 Dutch payments startup Klearly raised a €6m seed round led by Global PaytTech Ventures.

🇪🇺 Revenue management fintech Hyperline raised a $10m seed extension round led by Index Ventures.

🇪🇺 RWA platform Brickken raised a $2.5m seed round.

🇪🇺 Digital asset custodian Komainu raised $75m in bitcoin from Blockstream capital.

🇪🇺 Prepaid card fintech Recharge raised a €45m debt facility from ABN Amro.

🇪🇺 Healthcare finance and payments startup Nelly raised a €50m Series B from Lakestar, Notion Capital, Cathay Innovation, Motive Partners and more.

🇪🇺 Banking network and blockchain fintech E Money Network raised a $5.2m round from KuCoin, BlackEdge Capital, GBV Capital and more.

🇬🇧 Neobroker Freetrade has been sold to IG Group for £160m.

🇬🇧 Carbon ratings agency BeZero Carbon raised a $32m Series C from Molten Ventures, Illuminate Financial, TransLink Capital and others.

🌍 Spend management platform Brex secured a $235m credit facility with Citi and TPG Angelo Gordon.

🌍 Canadian business finance fintech Float raised a $48.5m Series B led by Goldman Sachs.

🌍 Fundraising platform Sydecar raised an $11m Series A from Runa Capital, Deciens Capital and Pipeline Capital.

₿ 1Money raised £20m to launch a network for stablecoin payments.

₿ Phantom Wallet raised a $150m Series C led by Sequoia and Paradigm.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇪🇺 Neobroker eToro is looking at a $5bn US IPO this year in a filing.

🇬🇧 Digital finance app Snoop has launched a savings account.

🇬🇧 Fintech comparison service TotallyMoney has been acquired by Intelligent Lending.

🇬🇧 Revolut has partnered with Lyca Mobile as its first MVNO partner for Revolut Pay. It also introduced in-all calls to help customers avoid impersonation scams

🇬🇧 Financial management app Countingup hits £10bn in customer transactions.

🌍 Nubank Mexico has partnered with Oxxo for cash withdrawals and deposits.

🌍 Neobank Robinhood settled with the SEC a range of violations and will pay a $45m penalty.

Digital Assets ₿

🇪🇺 US crypto exchange Bullish secured licences to operate a trading and custody business in Germany.

🇪🇺 Banco de Investimentos Globais, a Portuguese bank, is to block fiat transfers to crypto platforms.

🇪🇺 Deutsche Bank is providing trust accounts for retail crypto platform BISON.

🇪🇺 Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo bought €1m worth of BTC.

🇪🇺 Boerse Stuttgart has seen nearly a triple increase in crypto trading volume and it now accounts for 25% of revenue.

🇬🇧 The UK Treasury has exempted crypto staking from collective investment scheme rules.

🌍 Coinbase has told customers it may be forced to share data that is demanded by CFTC. The SEC has been court ordered to explain why it denied Coinbase's request for crypto rules.

🌍 Crypto payment provider MoonPay acquired Helio, a Solana crypto payment processor.

🌍 Blockchain analytics provider Chainalysis acquired AI fraud detection startup Alyerya.

🌍 Stablecoin issuer Tether is set to relocate to El Salvador following its new DASP licence. The issuer is also to use Kraken's Ink Layer 2 to deploy its cross-chain stablecoin USDT0.

🌍 Crypto exchange Gemini was hit with a $5m penalty from CFTC.

🌍 Coinbase is to offer bitcoin-backed loans through Morpho, a lending platform on Base.

We have a final few spaces left for TWIF and Gilion's fintech founder happy hour at The Light Bar, Shoreditch, Jan 30! Network, share insights, and enjoy drinks. RSVP here.

Join us (this Wednesday!) for our first London fintech breakfast of 2025, when we return to the fantastic Shoreditch Treehouse alongside our friends CMS! RSVP to secure your spot.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇪🇺 BNP Paribas is to partner with Oracle for cloud solutions.

🇪🇺 JP Morgan has its eyes on growing its commercial banking business in Germany.

🌍 JP Morgan has unveiled two new payment terminals that integrate in-store biometric authentication.

🌍 Capital One is facing a $2bn lawsuit from the CFPB for cheating consumers out of interest on savings products.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🇪🇺 Banking technology provider Banking Circle is expanding into Australia with the acquisition of Australian Settlements Limited.

🇬🇧 Open banking platform TrueLayer signed payment orchestrator BR-DGE as a customer for its Pay By Bank solution.

🇬🇧 BaaS and payments infrastructure ClearBank signed Airwallex as a customer.

🇬🇧 Confirmation of Payee provider SurePay renewed its agreement with NatWest.

🇬🇧 Financial data extraction provider Validis secured investment from Citi and Barclays.

🇬🇧 Financial technology provider Ebury is to acquire Lithuania payments provider ArcaPay.

🌍 Digital identity provider Prove acquired reusable ID fintech Portabl.

Payments 💰

🇪🇺 Payment provider Lemonway is to use Entrust's to power its onboarding solution.

🇪🇺 Klarna has expanded its partnership with Stripe to make the BNPL solution available to more merchants. The BNPL provider is also in talks to sell a portfolio of its Pay in 4 loans from the US.

🇬🇧 BNPL provider Zilch has signed a white label payments deal with lastminute.com.

🇬🇧 Square partnered with open banking platform Salt Edge to offer SMEs a solution to share their data with financial services providers.

🌍 Payment provider Shift4 Payments reached a $750k settlement with the SEC for disclosure violation,

🌍 Block is to pay an $80m fine to settle AML violation allegations.

🌍 Apple is reportedly in talks with Barclays and Synchrony to replace Goldman Sachs as its credit card partner.

Longer reads/listens 📜

• Winning in Network of Networks: Collaboration and eCommerce 2025 – Wallets, Share Shift, Conversion Rates and Key Segments - Tom Noyes
• TANSTAAFSBR, or, There Ain’t No Such Thing as a Free Strategic Bitcoin Reserve - George Selgin
• Frontier Ideas For 2025 and Some Things Never Change, Even In 2025 - Multicoin Capital
• BlackRock Endgame: Building the Internet of Risk - Van Spina
• Stablecoins aren't cheaper; They're better. - Simon Taylor

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See you next week!