Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

This will be the last edition of TWIF UK & Europe. We will be back in January. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Please find another week of fintech news, financings and exits below.

👍 👎 Have feedback or news to share? Let me know on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Tweet of the week 🦉🏆

Funding 💸

Highlights below of deals since the last post in the fintech space across the UK & Europe. Deal data powered by Dealroom.

🇪🇺 AI chargeback management solution Kloutit raised €540k.

🇪🇺 Payments app Tiun raised a €2.5m seed round from Blue Wire Capital, Founderful and Maximilian Lehmann.

🇬🇧 One-click payment solution Volume raised a $6m seed round from United Ventures, Haatch, First Minute Capital, Fabrick and SeedX.

🇬🇧 Stablecoin infrastructure platform BVNK raised a $50m Series B from Tiger Global, DRW Venture Capital Coinbase Ventures and others,

🇬🇧 Defi infrastructure solution Avara raised a $31m round from Alchemy and Faction.

🇬🇧 Bike insurtech Bikmo raised a £4.8m round from Puma Private Equity.

🌍 Stablecoin payment solution Sphere raised a $5m round led by Coinbase Ventures and Kraken Ventures.

🌍 Banking platform Jiko raised a $29m Series C from Upfront Ventures, Airbus Ventures, Radicle Impact and Red River West.

🌍 Neobank Current raised a $200m round.

🌍 Latam neobank Nubank led a $250m round into South African neobank Tyme Group.

🌍 Embedded lender Parafin raised a $100m round from Redpoint, Thrive Capital Ribbit Capital, Notable Capital and GIC.

🌍 AI accounting solution Basis raised a $34m Series A led by Khosla Ventures.

₿ RWA blockchain network Plume raised a $20m Series A from investors including Brevan Howard.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇪🇺 SME neobank Finom launched an upgraded e-invoicing solution.

🇪🇺 Neobank Bunq launched real-time text to speech AI transaction in its AI assistant Finn. It also launched its loyalty program and officially launched stock trading.

🇬🇧 Property lender HBZ UK selected nCino to power its buy-to-let platform.

🇬🇧 HSBC has been sued by the Australian regulator for failing to protect customers from scams.

🇬🇧 Revolut has launched its Italian branch, enabling customers to get an Italian IBAN. It also extended its Revolut Pay security platform to include crypto transactions from next year.

🇬🇧 Digital wealth solution Raisin is to improve compliance and customer experience through a partnership with open banking provider Salt Edge.

🇬🇧 Neobank Monzo has launched SignLive, enabling their customers to contact customer support using sign language.

🇬🇧 Business bank Allica has reached over £3bn in lending and £4bn in deposits from UK SMEs.

🌍 Travel and expense management solution Mesh Payments selected SoFi Bank as its sponsor bank and Galileo as its infrastructure provider.

🌍 US neobank Chime has filed for an IPO.

Digital Assets ₿

🇪🇺 Crypto exchange Bitget is to establish a regional hub in Lithuania to comply with MiCA.

🇪🇺 Societe Generale has completed a collateralised transaction fully executed on the blockchain with France's central bank.

🇪🇺 Crypto exchange BitPanda received in-principle approval from VARA to enter the UAE market.

🇪🇺 Digital asset custodian Zodia Custody received investment from Emirates NBD, a MENA banking group.

🇪🇺 The EBA clarified its view on the difference between tokenized deposits and e-money tokens such as stablecoins.

🇪🇺 ByBit is to stop serving french customers from January.

🇪🇺 Stablecoin issuer Tether has invested in European MiCA-compliant stablecoin issuer StabIR.

🇪🇺 Blockchain based brokerage Securitize received approval in Spain enabling it to launch in Europe.

🇪🇺 Digital asset custodian Taurus has partnered with Temenos to offer its digital custody solution to banks.

🇪🇺 German bank DekaBank received a crypto custody licence from BaFin and ECB.

🇪🇺 German tokenization provider Cashlink secured a custody licence from BaFin.

🇪🇺 Deutsche Bank are launching their own Layer 2 blockchain on Ethereum.

🌍 Ripple have begun to roll out its RLUSD stablecoin on exchanges.

🌍 Hong Kong published its Stablecoin Bill with a path to expand scope in the future.

🌍 DeFi project Ethena launched its USDtb token, backed by BlackRock's tokenized money market fund BUIDL.

🌍 Anchorage Digital received a BitLicense in New York.

🌍 FTX creditors are to receive distributions through Kraken and BitGo.

🌍 HR platform Remote has launched stablecoin payments for contracts using USDC.

🌍 Digital asset custodian Hex Trust has launched in MEA, providing fiat on and off ramps in Dubai.

🌍 Crypto exchange Kraken launched its Ethereum scaling layer Ink head of schedule.

🌍 Stablecoin infrastructure provider M^0 is to provide the infrastructure for stablecoin issuer Usual's UsusalIM.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇪🇺 Digital asset company Bit2Me launched Bit2Me loans of up to €1m.

🇬🇧 Lloyds Bank has had an advert banned by the ASA due to greenwashing.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🇪🇺 Nordic open banking platform Neonomics filed a complaint over anti-competitive practices in Norway's payments market.

🇬🇧 Payment infrastructure provider Modulr is to provide Confirmation of Payee services to HMRC.

🇬🇧Financial infrastructure provider FIS is set to acquire UK supply-chain financing platform Demica for $300m.

🇬🇧 BaaS provider ClearBank has joined the Microsoft Azure marketplace.

🇬🇧 Cross-border payments firm Wise signed Morgan Stanley as a customer for its B2B platform to enable FX settlements for corporate customers.

🌍 Canada has announced an open banking framework.

Payments 💰

🇪🇺 Klarna has expanded its partnership with eBay to Europe. It also partnered with Neiman Marcus.

🇪🇺 PSP Worldline has launched FlexPricing, enabling ISVs to implement flexible pricing strategies.

🇪🇺 Mobile payment system BLIK has extended its contactless payment service to iOS devices.

🇪🇺 B2B lender and payment infrastructure provider Two has partnered with AMN Amro to power the banks "Pay on Invoice" solution.

🇪🇺 Adyen has expanded its partnership with Affirm to Canada.

🇬🇧 UK card payment provider Card Industry Professionals has been acquired by US payment firm Shif4.

🇬🇧 The PSR is to introduce a cap on Visa and Mastercard fees charged to UK merchants for purchases made by European shoppers. The PSR also called for better data sharing between banks and tech platforms to combat APP fraud.

🌍 BNPL provider Affirm is to sell $4bn of loans to Sixth Street.

Longer reads/listens 📜

• Why housing shortages cause homelessness - Salim Furth
• He Was Going to Save Intel. He Destroyed $150 Billion of Value Instead - Asa Fitch and Ben Cohen, WSJ
• From pumping gas to Elon Musk’s boss: Inside Robyn Denholm’s rise to the top - Mark Whittaker, Forbes
• Intel’s Death and Potential Revival - Ben Thompson, Stratechery
• Debanking (and Debunking?) - Patrick Mckenzie
• Sling Money – StableCoin Model that will be the future of P2P and more - Tom Noyes
• European Ambition - Mario Gabriele, The Generalist
• Comparative cross-border payments: Wise vs USDC - JP Koning
• Insurance companies aren't the main villain of the U.S. health system - Noah Smith
• Lifetime achievement award: Don Wilson - Risk Net
• The commandments of Ramp - Evan Armstrong

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See you next week!