FinTech Europe | 2023 #9
FinTech Europe | 2023 #9
Weekly news up to Tuesday, 28th of February 2023
Last week, a total amount of €42.7m was raised across 9 European FinTech deals 👇
REPORT
F-Prime Capital released its annual State of Fintech Report, and you have to check it out 👇
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Stripe made waves in the world of mobile commerce last year when it became Apple’s first payment partner for “Tap to Pay,” the iPhone giant’s move to turn any iOS device into a payment-making or payment-taking terminal.
Now, Stripe is expanding that business by a factor of googol. Businesses that use Stripe Terminal to take in-person payments now will be able to carry out Tap to Pay transactions on NFC-equipped Android devices, too.
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📰 ARTICLE
Last week, a report from Reuters suggested the market has seen the best week for IPOs in 15 months. One of fintech’s biggest global names Stripe has been rumoured to be looking at a public listing for years but a renewed push for an IPO timetable over the next 12 months.
Some of the UK’s fintech giants appear to be paying notice too. Monzo, which only two years ago had its second instance of its auditor EY stating a ‘material uncertainty” warning in its annual report, in reference to the bank’s ability to operate as a ‘going concern, is reportedly one.
👉 Read the full AltiFi article By Daniel Lanyon here
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🌎 FINTECH HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Klarna will begin penalising customers for late payments in the UK next month in a bid to curb loan defaults.
⭐️ FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried was hit with four new criminal charges in a superseding indictment in New York federal court.
⭐️ Robin AI has raised a $10.5m Series A led by Plural, the VC fund launched by Wise’s Taavet Hinrikus and Songkick’s Ian Hogarth.
⭐️ Liquidity Group raised another $40 million from MUFG Bank at a valuation of $1.4 billion.
FinTech Meetup in Vegas is just around the corner and I will start and close it with a bang. Join me and let's do this together!
PAYMENTS
Mastercard and Visa are set to face another multibillion-pound UK lawsuit over Multilateral Interchange Fees.
Citizen chose OpenPayd as its real-time payments provider, this will give the end-users of Citizen’s clients a simplified payments experience via OpenPayd’s BaaS platform.
Tazapay partnered with Volt to add open banking to its growing stack of payment offerings, as it accelerates its international growth plans across the UK and Europe.
Paysend announced a partnership with Transformify, enabling businesses to better manage their vendors and international payroll on-demand services.
Lyra Group tapped Napier to equip it with improved transaction monitoring capabilities.
Finmap raised $1.2 million from European and Ukrainian investors.
Squared Financial will expand on the ground with a particular focus on Sub-Saharan Africa.
Zipzero raised £1 million in seed funding, from a diverse pool of angel investors, including Global Processing Services’ Craig Dewar.
Carmoola raised £103.5m in a mix of debt and equity to “revolutionize” the way people pay for cars in the UK.
The global revenue from embedded payments for embedded finance vendors will reach $59 billion in 2027, from $32 billion in 2023; representing growth of 84%.
BNPL
Klarna posted its biggest annual loss to date in 2022, but claims it’s made “clear progress” to return to profitability.
OPEN BANKING
Belvo launched a new solution that aims to improve the user experience offered by merchants and fintechs using Pagos Seguros en Linea.
tell.money contracted to integrate its Gateway solution into the Solaris platform.
DIGITAL BANKING
Banks are losing ground to Fintechs in Asia’s cross-border payments space.
Barclays Eagle bank intends to allocate a “big chunk” of the £12 million Digital Growth Grant toward the UK’s tech industry.
DirectID has raised €9m, the cash will give Ingka Group, the owner of IKEA, a minority investment in the firm.
Remitly decided to shut down Passbook, its digital banking app for immigrants, with all services set to end on 1 May 2023.
Plaid launches a portal to ease access to cybersecurity-related information.
BLOCKCHAIN / DEFI
Swarm is launching the world’s first public investment offering using DeFi.
INVESTMENT
Sprout raised $1m in pre-seed financing, and participants in the round included a selection of family offices and angel investors.
Funding Circle announced its partnership with Sage to streamline financing for small and mid-sized businesses.
Upvest supports Vivid with its Investment-API, enabling Vivid to expand its range of investment opportunities for private investors.
Bridgetown Holdings is weighing a business combination with Hyphen Group.
GREEN FINANCE
Doconomy is acquiring Dreams Technology, whose ‘engagement banking platform’ utilizes behavioral psychology to improve consumers’ relationship with money.
INSURTECH
Bibby Financial Services and Coface joined forces in a new collaboration to help SME’s in Ireland access securely structured funding and protect them against potential lost revenue.
FINANCIAL LITERACY
Pledge2025 partnered with The Money Charity to launch a program of financial education for those hit the hardest by the cost-of-living crisis.
MOVERS & SHAKERS
GoCardless appointed three executives from open banking provider Nordigen, which it acquired last year, to its leadership team.
FINTECH MAPS
If you are a fintech startup and have over 100 questions send me an email, maybe I can answer a few.