Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

We are very excited to be hosting the next happy hour in Berlin on 16th May with our friends at 13books Capital. Please RSVP if you want to attend!

Data from HSBC and Dealroom show fintech was the most popular sector for investment in Q1 2024, coupled with the news that two UK fintech's have reached profitability, on top of ClearBank recently, shows UK fintech is hitting their stride.

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 lender Finmid raised a €35m Series A from Earlybird Venture Capital and Blossom Capital.

🇪🇺 POS fintech Flatpay raised a €45m Series B led by Dawn Capital and included Seed Capital.

🇪🇺 B2B card issuer Pliant raised $19m led by PayPal Ventures and included Motive Partners, SBI Investment and ALSTIN.

🇪🇺 Digital wealth app Mon Petit Placement raised €3.9m from Sowefund.

🇪🇺 Embedded lender Softloans raised €1m from Firstpick.

🇪🇺 Insurtech Kota raised $5m from EQT Ventures.

🇪🇺 Agriculture insurtech Pula raised a $20m Series B.

🇬🇧 Onchain finance solution Centrifuge raised a $15m Series A.

🇬🇧 SaaS subscription management solution Lemon raised a £500k pre-seed round led by SFC Capital and Pitchdrive.

🇬🇧 EWA solution Wagestream raised £17.5m from Northzone, Lombard Odier and British Business Bank.

🌍 AI investment research platform Bridgewise raised a $21m Series A from SIX FinTech Ventures, Group 11 and L4 Venture Builder.

🌍 Latam recurring payment platform Toku raised a $9.3m round led by Gradient Ventures and included F-Prime Capital, YC and more.

🌍 Spend management startup Ramp raised $150m co-led by Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund.

₿ Layer 1 blockchain Berachain raised a $100m Series B from Framework Ventures and Brevan Howard.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇬🇧 UK neobank Zopa announced its first annual pre-tax profit of £15.8m for 2023 with revenue +30% yoy.

🇬🇧 Cross-border transfer service Wise reported a trading update (see above h/t to Jevgenijs).

🇬🇧 Working capital provider Satago is to work with universal API adaptor mmob to provide a easy way for lenders to embed lending solutions.

🇬🇧 Revolut's Indian subsidiary has secured a Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPI) licence from the Reserve Bank of India. An investor in the neobank, Schroders, marked up its stake in the neobank by 45%, implying a valuation of nearly $26bn. The neobank also released a new fraud report and is spending $100m to expand in Mexico as well as shifting its US partner bank from MCB to CFSB.

🇬🇧 US chargeback mitigation fintech Justt is setting up a European HQ in London

🇬🇧 UK neobroker Freetrade has reached its first quarterly profit, posting EBITDA of £100,000 in Q1 2024.

🌍 BlackRock and Jio are teaming up to form a joint venture to create a wealth management and brokerage business in India.

🌍 Business lender Rapid Finance is partnering with infrastructure provider Galileo to launch a Rapid Access commercial card to give SMBs instant access to the loans it gives.

🌍 Latam neobank Nubank is to launch a mobile phone company.

🌍 Business neobank Mercury has expanded into consumer banking with launching a consumer checking account with a $240 annual subscription.

Digital Assets ₿

🇪🇺 BitPanda is to provide digital asset custody services to German bank LBBW institutional clients.

🇬🇧 Coinbase has enabled purchases of digital assets with Apple Pay in the UK.

🇬🇧 The UK Government is aiming to have legislation for crypto assets by end of July.

🇬🇧 UK Finance and EY have selected R3 and Quant to build a blockchain based Advanced Digital Payment Infrastructure.

🌍 Crypto.com is looking to hire 1,400 staff as part of a hiring spree.

🌍 Fiat and crypto bank account solution Deblock has partnered with payment automation service Numeral to manage SEPA payments.

🌍 TRM Labs has launched Behavioural Intelligence, a blockchain investigation service.

🌍 BlackRock's spot ETF has crossed $15bn in total inflows.

🌍 Coinbase is seeking a higher court to weigh in on its case with the SEC.

🌍 Defi exchange Uniswap increased its swap fee from 0.15% to 0.25%.

🌍 Hong Kong Kong approved spot bitcoin ETFs and spot ETFs.

🌍 Adidas is creating limited edition NFTs and trainers in partnership with Solana fitness app Stepn.

🌍 PayPal has removed buyer and seller protection for the sale of NFTs.

🌍 Kraken is to create its own wallet to rival Coinbase and Metamask.

🌍 Binance is looking to re-enter the Indian market by paying a $2m fine. It also secured a full VASP licence in Dubai.

🌍 Tether is reorganising into four divisions, Data, Finance, Power and Education.

🌍 Mango Markets exploiter Avi Eisenberg was convicted for fraud.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇪🇺 Danish Saxo Bank is reportedly considering a sale after its SPAC deal fell through.

🇪🇺 BNP Paribas is to bring Tap to Pay on iPhones to French merchants that would also be compatible with domestic debit scheme Cartes Bancaire.

🇬🇧 HSBC has seen a 15% uplift in monthly spend by credit card users by utilising FICO AI technology.

🇬🇧 Lloyds Bank has completed its first electronic Bill of Lading transactions, a cross-border deal with documentation entirely exchanged digitally.

🇬🇧 NatWest is to use StoneX for FX payments for its corporate clients.

🇬🇧 Barclays has reported a large increase in investment scams starting on social media.

🇬🇧 Coventry Building Society is to acquire Co-Op Bank for £780m.

🌍 Wells Fargo has chosen TradeSun as its partner to digitise its trade finance processes.

🌍 United Bank has selected Jack Henry to modernise its operations.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🇪🇺 Tallinn based core bank software Tuum is expanding to MEA and has a regional HQ in Abu Dhabi.

🇪🇺 Core banking platform Mambu has signed Leeds Building Society as a customer.

🇪🇺 A2A payment provider Kevin performed the first NFC A2A on an iPhone.

🇬🇧 Core banking provider 10x Banking has entered into a strategic agreement with Deloitte in the US and UK.

🇬🇧 API infrastructure provider Codat launched Supplier Enablement, a new data product for card issuers to access businesses share spend and supplier data from their ERP to encourage switching to virtual cards.

🌍 Canada has delayed the launch of its real-time payment system to 2026.

🌍 Canada's Interac has acquired the rights in the country to Vouchr's engagement platform to send users personalised loyalty and rewards with their money transfers.

🌍 Money movement solution TabaPay is to acquire the assets and IP of Synapse via a Chapter 11 for the BaaS solution

Payments 💰

🇪🇺 Dutch payment scheme iDEAL has launched profile creation, allowing a quicker and more secure checkout experience.

🇪🇺 BNPL solution Klarna has launched a credit card in the US issued by WebBank.

🇪🇺 Open banking payments solution Trustly reported a 79% increase in transaction value.

🇬🇧 Payment orchestrator Primer announced its on track to hit 200% yoy growth in revenue.

🌍 Tencent has made it easier for international visitors to China to use WeChat.

🌍 Stripe won the business of retailer URBN to process online and in-store payments. The payment processor also raised nearly $700m for its investors to sell their shares at a $65bn valuation.

🌍 Global payment solution Nium has become a Financial Services Provider in New Zealand.

🌍 New Zealand based BNPL provider Laybuy is looking for a new buyer.

🌍 Payment processor Finix launched a tool to streamline the onboarding of merchants.

🌍 Retailer JC Penny has launched a free loyalty program for customers.

Regulatory Corner 🔎

🇬🇧 Former US Fed Chairmen Ben Bernake's report into the Bank of England's forecasting process has been very critical and is limited by "out-of-date tech".

🇬🇧 The UK Government is to launch an open finance task force to be chaired by CFIT.

🌍 Canada's government has promised to deliver open banking legislation by the end of 2024.

Longer reads 📜

• EU mandatory regulation is on the money - Mike Chambers, Northey Point
• Brazil: The country of Fintech's Future - Joel Rosenbaum, Fintech Brain Food
• Escaping a Value Trap - Marc Rubinstein
• The Swedish kingmakers behind a European private equity giant - Will Louch, FT

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See you next week!