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.

🇪🇺 Lending marketplace Jeff raised a $2m seed round from J12 Ventures, Presto Ventures and angels.

🇬🇧 VC firm 13books Capital raised a £121m fund to invest in fintech.

🇬🇧 SMB business account provider Wamo raised a $5m Series A.

🇬🇧Digital asset investment management solution Haruko raised a $6m Series A from MMC Ventures and White Star Capital.

🇬🇧 Payroll provider Dopay raised a $13.5m Series A from Argentem Creek Partners.

🇬🇧 Investment management reporting startup Instinct Digital raised a £5m Series A from AlbionVC.

🌍 Blockchain ledger infrastructure solution Partior raised a $60m Series B from DBS, Standard Chartered, JP Morgan, Jump Trading and more.

🌍 Latam payment processor Tapi raised a $22m Series A.

🌍Gig worker fintech OCN raised a $68.8m Series A and $17.2m debt round.

🌍 B2B payment provider Slope raised$32.5m in equity from JP Morgan, YC and others as well as a $32.5m in debt also from JP Morgan.

🌍 Brazilian payments fintech Matera raised a $100m round from Warburg Pincus.

🌍 HELOC credit card provider Aven raised a $142m Series D led by Khosla Ventures.

🌍 Fleet spend solution Coast has raised a $40m Series B.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇬🇧 SME bank Cashplus has rebranded as Zempler Bank.

🇬🇧 Neobroker BUX has sold its UK business to UAE based firm APM Capital as part of its sale to ABN Amro.

🇬🇧 Insurtech Lemonade has launched buildings and contents insurance in the UK.

🇬🇧 Monzo is launching a bank account for kids between 6 and 15.

🇬🇧 B2B lender Capital on Tap has renewed its partnership with decisioning platform GDS Link.

🇬🇧 Starling Bank co-founder Anne Boden has quit the board of the bank to pursue a new AI venture.

🇬🇧 Mass affluent bank Monument has reached £3bn in deposits.

🇬🇧 UK online pension provider PensionBee has launched in the US.

🌍 Spend management solution Expensify has launched unlimited virtual cards.

🌍 US neobroker Webull has launched a savings marketplace.

🌍 Barclays US consumer bank has launched a tiered pricing savings product.

Digital Assets ₿

🇬🇧 Digital asset custody firm Copper receives a TCSP licence in Hong Kong.

🇬🇧 Crypto exchange Kraken Digital Asset Exchange has expanded its institutional custody solution to the UK and Australia. It also signed a deal to sponsor Tottenham Hotspur.

🌍 Coinbase has rolled out a Wallet web app to offer a unified platform to manage on-chain digital assets

🌍 Latam crypto service provider Bitso is to bring the Bitcoin Lightning Network to its customers with Lightspark.

🌍 Zodia Markets has acquired the OTC trading business of Elwood Technologies.

🌍 Indian crypto exchange WaziX was hacked for $230m.

🌍 Crypto exchange OKX is establishing a EU hub in Malta for MiCA.

🌍 Tradfi giant State Street is looking at creating its own stablecoin.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇬🇧 NatWest has signed up pub chain JD Wetherspoon's as a customer for its open banking payments app Payit. The bank also launched a banking app on Apple Vision Pro.

🇬🇧 Santander has rolled out Signly across its website to enable deaf customers to browse its website.

🇬🇧 Lloyds has terminated its contract with invoice financing company Satago two years into its five year contract.

🌍 Chase is to ban customers using credit cards to pay for BNPL instalment payments.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🇪🇺 BaaS provider Solaris has been threatened with fines for AML control shortfalls if it doesn't meet deadlines to make improvements.

🇬🇧 Core banking technology provider Thought Machine has signed digital wealth solution Quantifeed as a customer.

🌍 Open banking platform Salt Edge has released its sixth version of its API.

🌍 Financial technology provider FIS has launched SMB digital lending in partnership with Lendio. FIS also launched a matching and execution platform for securities finance trades in the UK.

Payments 💰

🇪🇺 Klarna is preparing for a 2025 US IPO.

🇬🇧 UK shoppers were hit with payments outages with Visa and Mastercard cards due to an issue at Worldline.

🇬🇧 Payment solution Paycorp has expanded its embedded business lending offering to the UK.

🇬🇧 Payment platform Ecommpay is to deliver Mastercard's Click to Pay to merchants across the UK and Europe.

🇬🇧 P2P payment app Cash App is exiting the UK as it "deprioritises global expansion".

🌍 Travel platform Expedia has released a new credit card with Wells Fargo and Mastercard.

🌍 Stripe's valuation has hit $70bn after Sequoia Capital has offered to buy shares at that valuation.

Regulatory Corner 🔎

🇬🇧 The PSR and FCA is seeking information on the benefit and risks of digital wallets and Big Tech.

🌍 The CFPB proposed applying lending laws to the Earned Wage Access industry.

Longer reads/listens 📜

• Open Banking, Instant Payments, Account-to-Account - Dave Birch
• Why did BlackRock spend $3.2bn on Preqin? - Van Spina
• Global Fintech 2024 Report - Prudence, Profitability and Growth - QED
• Smashing the Monopoly - Marc Rubinstein

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See you next week!