Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

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

Note: There will be no TWIF UK & Europe next week. The next edition will be on 10th June.

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

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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.

🇪🇺 Turkish fraud and lending provider Colendi raised a $65m Series B led by Citi Ventures.

🇪🇺 Portuguese payment provider Unlockit raised a €1.4m pre-seed round led by Eaglestone Group.

🇪🇺 Investment strategy solution StratxAI raised a €1.5m seed round from Delta Partners and Furthr VC.

🇬🇧 Property lender GB Bank raised £85m from Hera Holdings and Teesside Pension Fund.

🇬🇧 PSP Vitesse raised a $93m Series C led by KKR and included Hannover Digital, Hoxton Ventures and Octopus Ventures.

🇬🇧 New UK bank SilverRock has secured £50m in funding.

🌍 Embedded accounting provider Teal raised an $8m seed round led by Torch Capital.

🌍 B2B lender Capchase secured a €105m credit facility from Deutsche Bank.

🌍 KYC provider Footprint raised a $13m Series A led by QED.

🌍 Migrant neobank Majority raised a $20m round.

🌍 Insurtech Cover Whale raised $27.5m funding from Morgan Stanley.

₿ Web3 social media company Farcaster raised $150m led by Paradigm.

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇪🇺 Pet insurance provider Lassie is expanding into France.

🇪🇺 Neobank N26 has been fined €9.2m by BaFin due to AML problems.

🇬🇧 Neobank Chetwood Financial has acquired buy-to-let mortgage lender CHL Mortgages.

🇬🇧 B2B lender Triver has partnered with credit bureau Experian to support its SMB lending.

🇬🇧 Zopa Bank is to provide financing for solar panels to Octopus Energy customers.

🇬🇧 Neobank Revolut is to launch payment terminals for larger customers including retailers, restaurants and coffee shops.

🇬🇧 New bank SilverRock has been granted banking authorisation with restrictions by the PRA.

🌍 Spend management provider Emburse has partnered with Amex to offer virtual card issuance, reconciliation and spend management to Amex's customers.

🌍 Ecommerce provider MercadoLibre is reportedly in talks to get a Mexican banking licence.

Digital Assets ₿

🇪🇺 Crypto onramp provider Ramp has secured a Crypto Asset Service Provider licence in Ireland.

🇬🇧 WisdomTree has received FCA approval from the FCA to list bitcoin and ether ETPs on the LSE.

🌍 Bankrupt crypto lender Genesis had its bankruptcy plans approved which should see $3bn distributed with exchange Gemini receiving assets owed to it. It also had its $2bn settlement with the NYSA approved.

🌍 Fidelity has amended its Ethereum ETF registration to remove staking rewards. Grayscale has also followed suit. Exchanges have been told the SEC is leaning towards approving them as well. The SEC subsequently has approved 8 ethereum ETFs including from BlackRock and Fidelity.

🌍 Solana wallet Phantom acquired wallet platform Bitski.

🌍 Uniswap is attempting to squash the SEC's pending enforcement action.

🌍 The Trump campaign has started accepting crypto donations.

🌍 Coinbase is launching gold and oil futures trading. It also launched an industry coalition to target scams, partnering with Meta, Kraken, Ripple and Gemini. It has also brought back support for XRP.

🌍 The White House opposes a new crypto market structure bill which passed the in the US House but will not veto it.

Traditional Banking 🏦

🇪🇺 Deutsche Bank is to promote climate-friendly homes with discount mortgages.

🇪🇺 ABN Amro is selling its stake in life insurance JV Neuflize Vie to BNP Paribas.

🇪🇺 Swiss Re is to exit its white-labelled insurtech iptiQ.

🇪🇺 BBVA is to allow its employees to use ChatGPT's APIS for market analysis.

🇬🇧 JP Morgan Chase is to invest £40m over give years to support underserved communities.

🇬🇧 Barclays is warning customers against invoice and mandate scams.

🇬🇧 UK Finance has reported that bank fraud decreased 4% in 2023 but still came in over £1bn.

🇬🇧 Citigroup have been fined over £60m for a fat finger error that caused a $1.4bn sell off in European equities.

🇬🇧 HSBC has been fined over £6m for treatment of customers who are experiencing financial difficulty.

🌍 JP Morgan Chase is to train all new hires on AI. It is also looking to expand into the private credit business through an acquisition.

Fintech Infrastructure 🚧

🇪🇺 Open finance provider Fabrick has acquired a 75% stake in Germany company finAPI.

🇪🇺 Open banking platform Tink is to work with identity orchestration platform Sonio to improve customer verification in the DACH region.

🇬🇧 FIS has integrated SurePay's Confirmation of Payee and will over UK and US PSPs the capability with the UK deadline of 31st October 2024 and the EU deadline of October 2025.

🇬🇧 Plaid has expanded its work with customer Capital On Tap to expand their service in the UK

🌍 Payroll infrastructure solution Atomic has launched PayLink Manage, an embedded subscription management technology for banks.

🌍 Global payments messaging solution SWIFT has released a cross-border payment tracking tool.

🌍 FIS has upgraded its mobile banking app for its customers to include biometrics, Zelle, remote deposit capture and more.

🌍 Intercontinental Exchange was hit with a $10m penalty for failing to report cyber intrusion at its NYSE unit to the SEC.

🌍 US BaaS provider Synctera has launched a "Bring Your Own Bank" model.

Payments 💰

🇪🇺 Nexi has launched a new payment platform for ISVs in Germany.

🇪🇺 PSP Adyen secured Italian restaurant group Vapiano as a customer.

🇬🇧 Payment provider SumUp has launched direct debits for UK merchants using its business accounts.

🇬🇧 The PSR has found evidence that Visa and Mastercard have a duopoly in the supply of service to UK merchants and are looking at increasing pricing transparency but will not impose financial penalties.

🇬🇧 Payment provider Navro has introduced local Ibans for business accounts.

🇬🇧 Stripe has launched new products for the UK and Europe including Stripe Capital and Pay by Bank as well as expanding its UK footprint with a larger London office.

🇬🇧 BNPL provider Zilch has reached 4 million customers since its launch.

🇬🇧 Local payment platform PPRO is integrating Afterpay to enable its merchant customers to sell to US consumers using the BNPL solution.

🌍 Stripe is looking to enter India by acquiring a stake in SBI Payments Ltd.

🌍 The CFPB has ruled that BNPL lenders fall under the same regulations and requirements as credit cards meaning that consumers can dispute charges, obtain refunds and receive billing statements. Affirm welcomed the rule but Klarna has said it is "baffling".

🌍 Amex and Capital One cardholders can see potential rewards when they checkout with Google Pay. Google is also expanding the merchants where it offers BNPL from Affirm and Zip as well as making inputting CVV's redundant and using biometrics instead.

🌍 Square has launched Tap to Pay on iPhone in Canada.

Regulatory Corner 🔎

🌍 A bill in the US could raise the Durbin Amendment threshold from $10bn to $50bn.

Longer reads/listens 📜

• The Paypers' Global Payments and Fintech Trends Report 2024
• The Paypers Global Overview of Payment Providers 2024
• Citi Missed a Fat Finger - Matt Levine
• Hey Big Spender - Marc Rubinstein
• Coasian Finance Revisited - Marc Rubinstein
• Stablecoins are helping create a buyer of second-to-last resort for US Treasurys - Ayo
• How Lead Bank’s co-founder transformed a century-old community bank into an innovative fintech company - Fortune
• The hunt for rare bitcoin is nearing an end - Joel Khalili
• Was the 401(k) a Mistake? - Michael Steinberger, NYT

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See you next week!