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.

🇪🇺Payment solution Qomodo raised a €13.5m Series A.

🇪🇺 German SaaS lender Tapline raised €10m in debt and $10m equity in a pre-Series A round led by A15 Venture Capital.

🇪🇺 Open banking platform Open Payments raised a €3m round led by Alfven & Didrikson.

🇪🇺 Private equity management platform Crescenta raised a €7m round from K Fund, FJ Labs and Acurio Ventures.

🇪🇺 B2B lender Karmen raised €4.5m in equity from Seventure Partners and €4.5m in debt from Bpifrance and Financiere Arbevel.

🇪🇺 Investment fund management solution Fundment raised a £45m Series C from Highland Europe and ETFS Capital.

🇪🇺 Billing platform Hyperline raised a $10m seed round from Index Ventures, Adelie Capital and angels.

🇪🇺 Insurtech Weecover raised a €4.2m round from Nauta Capital, Astorya.vc, La Roca Capital, Íope Ventures and others.

🇬🇧 Financial wellbeing fintech Aslan raised a $5m round from Notion Capital and Redstone.

🇬🇧 SaaS procurement solution Vertice raised a £50m Series C from Bessemer Venture Partners, Lakestar, 83North and others.

🌍 Egyptian payments startup MoneyHash raised a $5.2m Series A.

🌍 Issuer processor Highnote raised a $90m Series B.

🌍 UAE expense management startup Pluto raised $4.1m in a pre-Series A.

🌍 Debt repayment fintech Method Financial raised a $41.5m Series B led by Emergence Capital.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇪🇺 US neobroker Robinhood has created a localised version of its trading app for Spain as it expands across Europe.

🇪🇺 Neobrker BUX, recently acquired by ABN Amro has partnered with State Street to provide customers access to its SPDR ETFs.

🇪🇺 N26 has launched free stock and ETF trading for all customers.

🇬🇧 Green banking fintech Tred is winding down.

🇬🇧 Revolut has launched credit card instalment plans for its credit card users. It also launched a robo-advisor in Singapore and instant access savings accounts in the UK with ClearBank.

🇬🇧 Monzo is preparing to go public in 2026 but its CEO and Board have different ideas about its IPO location.

🇬🇧 Neobroker Lightyear launches ISAs.

🇬🇧 Digital wealth app Chip released Wealthscore, a metric to deliver personal insights into financial wealth-building habits.

🌍 Spend management fintech Ramp launched a new treasury product.

Digital Assets ₿

🇪🇺 Crypto bank AMINA has removed custody fees for USDC and EURC.

🇪🇺 Gemini is setting up a central European hub in Malta for its MiCA compliance.

🇪🇺 Crypto.com has received an in-principle MiCA licence. It also launched an institutional grade exchange in the US.

🇪🇺 Nordic neobank Lunar launches crypto trading.

🇪🇺 Digital asset banking group Sygnum accelerates its EU expansion with Societe Generale's EUR stablecoin.

🇪🇺 Crypto exchange OKX receives MiCA pre-authorisation.

🇬🇧 Investment manager Fasanara Capital launched a tokenised money market fund on the Polygon blockchain.

🌍 Digital Currency Group settles with the SEC and pays $38m.

🌍 Stablecoin issuer Circle has acquired tokenisation platform Hashnote.

🌍 The new look SEC has unveiled a crypto task force.

Join us for our next London fintech breakfast at the Shoreditch Treehouse with Vanta and CMS! RSVP to secure your spot.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇬🇧 Santander is rethinking its presence in the UK with an exit under consideration.

🇬🇧 Barclays is closing down its fintech accelerator programme Rise.

🇬🇧 HSBC is considering a sale of its Australian retail banking business. It also shut its one year old cross-border payment app Zing.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🇪🇺 Card issuer Marqeta is powering Trading212's expansion in Europe through a debit card.

🇪🇺 Nordic open banking firm Neonomics is to acquire UK rival Ordo.

🇬🇧 The UK government is preparing to launch a wallet and app for digital drivers licences and passports.

🇬🇧 Income verification fintech Sikoia signed Tandem Bank as a customer.

🌍 Latam open banking fintech Belvo has partnered with JP Morgan for recurring payments.

🌍 Credit bureau TransUnion is buying the Mexican credit business of Buró de Crédito.

🌍 Broking infrastructure provider DriveWealth expands its fixed-income asset class offering.

Payments 💰

🇪🇺 The Dutch government intends to prevent BNPL in physical stores.

🇬🇧 Canadian payments fintech Nuvei launched an omnichannel payment solution for the UK gaming industry,

🇬🇧 Payments fintech myPOS acquired French cash register company Toporder.

🇬🇧 The FCA is expecting to launch VRP and build out Open Finance in 2025. The regulator is also to remove the £100 limit on contactless payments.

🌍 American Express has paid $230m to resolve a DOJ allegation of misrepresentation.

🌍 Eligible Synchrony Mastercard customers get access to Apple's Pay Later.

🌍 Payment fintech Stripe has reportedly laid off 300 employees.

🌍 Brazil's PIX payment system has hit 6 billion transactions in a month.

🌍 US airline JetBlue is to start accepting Venmo payments.

The second edition of Pitch The Guild is happening on 20th February 2025 in London. Hosted by the Fintech Guild with Earlybird and Plaid , the event features:

• Insights : Hear from CXOs on fintech trends for 2025.
• Pitches : Compete for prizes and receive expert feedback.
• Networking : Connect with industry leaders over pizza and drinks.

If you're a fintech founder :
🏗️ At Idea, Pre-Seed, or Seed stage
💶 Building in Fintech, Payments, DeFi, Infra, Banking, Credit, etc.
🌍 Based in Europe (or remote)

🗓 Apply by 2nd February 2025
🔗 Apply here:
🔗 Register for the event:

Longer reads/listens 📜

• Data, Operations and Pricing – Considerations for a BaaS Curious Bank - Shaul David, TWIF UK & EU
• Klarna is going public - Jevgenijs Kazanins
• Stablecoin to Heaven - Jeremy Light
• The Solana Thesis: Internet Capital Markets - Multicoin Capital
• Heathrow Expansion: Britain’s Runway to Growth - David Lawrence, Pedro Serodio, UKDayOne
• AI’s Uneven Arrival - Ben Thompson
• Replicating Buffett - Marc Rubinstein

👍 👎 Have feedback for us? Let us know

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See you next week!