Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

A great turnout for our Berlin Happy Hour with 13books Capital.

Don't forget London Fintech Week Canal Cruise - Set sail on our first event in London for 2024 with TWIF and Evervault on June 13. Spaces are limited, apply to attend here.

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.

🇪🇺 AI assistant for investment banks Grasp raised a €1.9m round from Philian Invest.

🇪🇺 Irish finops platform Numra raised €1.5m from Elkstone Capital.

🇪🇺 French trade finance startup Tulip raised a €1.5m round from SpeedInvest, Kima Ventures and Purple Ventures.

🇪🇺 Insurtech Insurama raised a $5.5m Series A from All Iron Ventures alongside a €2.5m convertible from Inveready and Nervo Group.

🇬🇧 Neobank infrastructure provider Fintech Farm raised $32m in funding.

🇬🇧 Credit repayment fintech Incredible raised a $1m pre-seed round from angels including Keith Grose and Mark Ransford.

🇬🇧 Climate fintech Ekko raised a $2.5m round led by Fuel Ventures and included Sorven Partners

🌍 Healthcare payments startup Sift Healthcare raised a $20m Series B.

🌍 Embedded accounting provider Layer raised a $2.3m pre-seed round from BTV.

🌍 Mexican BNPL provider Aplazo raised $70m from investors including QED, Volpe Capital and others.

🌍 Insurtech Cover Genius has raised an $80m Series E led by Spark Capital and included Dawn Capital, King River Capital and G Squared.

🌍 Pay-by-bank provider Aeropay raised a $20m Series B led by Group 11 and included Chicago Ventures and Continental Investment Partners.

🌍 Auto-lender Yendo raised $15m in equity and $150m in debt.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇪🇺 German savings marketplace Raisin has achieved profitability.

🇪🇺 UK Business bank Tide has launched in Germany.

🇪🇺 Insurtech Wefox has warned its investors it may face insolvency due to losses and regulatory charges.

🇪🇺 Dutch neobank Bunq has launched v2 of its chatbot and is to reapply for a US bank licence. It also partnered with Qover to launch travel insurance for its customers.

🇪🇺 B2B lender YouLend is to provide €50m in capital to Spanish SMEs.

🇪🇺 French payment provider Lydia has launched a neobank and is investing €100m into the new venture.

🇬🇧 Chase claimed top spot as "Best British Bank" and "Best Current Account Provider"in the British Bank Awards 2024.

🇬🇧 Lending software provider Lenvi saw revenue rise 19% to £20m.

🇬🇧 Neobroker Freetrade's CEO stepped down.

🇬🇧 Marine lender Salt has received FCA approval.

🌍 Credit bureau Experian has launched a new product to help lenders expand access to credit to thin-file consumers.

Digital Assets ₿

🇪🇺 The Eurosystem has started to test the use of distributed ledger technology to settle wholesale transactions.

🇪🇺 Deutsche Bank is to join a DeFi and asset tokenization product led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

🇪🇺 Robinhood is launching staking on Solana in Europe.

🇬🇧 Digital wallet Zeal has partnered with Gnosis to expand access to crypto.

🇬🇧 Payment infrastructure provider BVNK has announced the integration of PayPal's USD stablecoin, PYUSD.

🌍 Financial technology provider Broadridge is to offer settlement on its distributed ledger product in JPM's digital token dubbed JPM Coin.

🌍 Kazakhstan has launched a CBDC, the digital tenge, in six months.

🌍 The DTCC is to pilot Smart NAV, an on-chain price and rate data solution.

🌍 Coinbase's Stand With Crypto advocacy group has launched a PAC to raise money to support crypto-friendly candidates. MoonPay has contributed $1m. The exchange also suffered an outage.

🌍 Kraken is pushing to dismiss an SEC lawsuit before it goes to a hearing in June.

🌍 Digital asset custody provider Fireblocks unveils a new New York regulated trust company.

🌍 The State of Wisconsin Investment Board has invested $163m into spot bitcoin ETFs.

🌍 Galaxy Digital reported a 214% increase in net income.

🌍 Stablecoin issuer Circle is to redomicile back to the US ahead of an IPO.

🌍 The DOJ has arrested two brothers for wire fraud and money laundering in their MEV attack on Ethereum.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇪🇺 BBVA has launched a hostile bid for competitor Banco Sabadell.

🇪🇺 Core banking platform Avaloq has signed Austrian bank A1 Bank as a customer.

🇪🇺 Core banking platform Temenos signed Banque Internationale a Luxembourg as a customer.

🇪🇺 Banco Santander has suffered a data breach at a third party.

🇬🇧 HSBC has added savings functionality to its app to help customers plan and manage goals. It has also partnered with accounting provider Ember to create tools for SMBs.

🇬🇧 UK banks are set to negotiate a new deal with the Post Office to allow customers to withdraw cash at Post Office branches. Banks currently pay £200m to the Post Office but the fee could double.

🌍 Fifth Third Bank has launched a new payment workflow tool powered by Bottomline.

🌍 HSBC USA has added a checking account for businesses that earns interest.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🇬🇧 BaaS provider BKN301 Group has launched a BaaS orchestration solution.

🇬🇧 Regtech Napier AI has signed Salt Bank as a customer for its AML solution.

🇬🇧 OpenPayd has secured web3 money app Wirex as a customer for its virtual IBAN solution.

🇬🇧 Financial technology software provider NayaOne signed lending software LendAPI to its marketplace.

🌍 Card issuer Zeta is expanding into India with its Digital credit-as-a-service offering for banks and FIs, underpinned by Credit Line on UPI.

🌍 A2A provider Trustly signed ecommerce company Futon Company as a customer.

🌍 Money movement platform TabaPay has walked away from its acquisition of BaaS provider Synapse.

🌍 Lending software provider nCino has expanded its work with existing customer M&T Bank to include credit monitoring.

🌍 Financial services technology firm Q2 has launched a suite of consumer bank products to help its customers acquire and build relationships with consumers..

🌍 Payments infrastructure provider Modern Treasury has updated its Reconciliation product to use AI.

🌍 Dwolla is to use Visa for account verification in its A2A solution.

🌍 Bank-owned Vantage has released the VantageScore4+ which incorporates cashflow data.

Payments 💰

🇪🇺 Adyen signed Indonesia coffee company Cotti Cofee as a customer.

🇪🇺 B2B payment provider Billie has partnered with BNP Paribas.

🇪🇺 Payment solution Worldline is partnering with Visa to launch a new virtual card issuing solution for OTAs.

🇪🇺 Klarna has reported that nearly 90% of its employees use its internal AI tool for their daily work and it is answer 2,000 questions per day. It also launched its Pay in 3 service in Slovakia.

🇪🇺 Payment provider Nets is to offer Klarna to its Nordic merchants.

🇪🇺 Data security company Evervault launched a payment security platform to give fintechs, banks and merchants better control over their infrastructure.

🇪🇺 Iberpay and Santander have signed up to a new cross-border instant payment scheme, OCT Inst, from the European Payment Council.

🇬🇧 Amex and PSP Worldpay have partnered to expand acceptance of Amex at SMBs in the UK.

🇬🇧 Members of the Payment Association have written to the economic secretary to push back against rules to reimburse fraud victims.

🇬🇧 Cross border payment service Atlantic Money has launched a web platform.

🌍 Shopify reported +23% yoy revenue growth in Q1 as it expects growth to slow to "high teens" due to slower growth.

🌍 Open banking payment provider Zum Rails is partnering with FIS to offer embedded payments.

🌍 Chime is to add an EWA product to its banking app, giving customers access to $20 - $500 before payday.

🌍 Payment provider Shift4 has acquired POS provider Revel for $250m.

🌍 The Fed and the OCC are to meet in July to discuss the Capital One - Discover merger.

🌍 Visa announced a whole host of new products at its annual Visa Payments Forum. including Visa Flexible Credential, Tap to Everything, Passkey, Pay by Bank and more.

🌍 Cross border payment solution dLocal signed global HR platform Deel as a customer.

🌍 Payment intelligence platform Pagos launched a new AI copilot to help customers gain knowledge and get payment analysis.

🌍 Financial management platform Lili created an AI powered tool to help businesses manage their finances.

Regulatory Corner 🔎

🌍 A US Appeals Court blocked the CFPB's cap on late fees. The Supreme Court ruled that the groups funding is constitutional, cementing its future.

Longer reads/listens 📜

• What's Holding Back Open Banking? - Matt Jones
• Money Stuff: Crypto Brothers Front-Ran the Front-Runners - Matt Levine
• The Business of Free - Samir Desai
• Base Power Company - Packy McCormick
• Stripe: Always Forward and A Follow-Up on Forward Proxies - Jareau Wade

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See you next week!