News

Featuring Dutch Founders Fund, Shapr Companies, La Famiglia, Collective Ventures, Eldridge, Odyssée Venture and more

Startups are expected to “always be raising”- but when reaching out to potential investors, it is less about the quantity and more about the quality of the pitch, as well as the fit to the investor’s criteria or thesis. So how do you get to know the investors investing in (early stage) FinTech & InsurTech deals in Europe? 

FinTech Forum’s Venture News includes a short overview of the investment firms behind (almost) all financing rounds < €10m in the previous week- to help you understand the investor landscape and prepare your own, tailored target list. This week’s Venture News features Dutch Founders Fund, Innovatiefonds Noord-Holland, Shapr Companies, Super Venture Capital, La Famiglia LEA Partners, Collective Ventures, Eldridge, Luxembourg Stock Exchange, Chicago Board Options Exchange, Oxford Sciences Enterprises, Odyssée Venture and Financière Vecteur.

If you are an early stage startup building the next big thing in European FinTech (or know somebody who is), we would love to help- get on the radar of our network of investors and financial institutions e.g. via our 7 Questions interview series or our events. Email contact@fintechforum.de or reach out to us (Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar) via LinkedIn.Tilvest raises €500,000 for crypto service dedicated to financial advisorsTilvest just finished financing round of 500.000 Euro. three-color start financial advisors to suggest access to crypto to them customers officially launched service.

Since he registered PSAN with AMF last month, Tilvest announced on Tuesday commercial launched service.
 
After more than a year of work and a PSAN registration in September, Tilvest is launching its offering for private banks, family offices and asset managers to provide their clients with simple and secure access to crypto. 
 
The digital asset management services company collected 500,000 euros to realize its project with a few business angel like Claire Balva and Alexander Stachchenko, Co-founders of Blockchain Partners, Bilal El Alamy, co-founder of Dogami, and Brian O’HaganGrowth of Sorare.
 
Established in the capital this year, Tilvest accompanies financial advisors to enable them to present investment in crypto to its customers.
 
“This fundraising will allow us to accelerate our commercial deployment by supporting all financial advisors in the structuring of their offerings in crypto assets,” said Tilvest boss Julien Romon.
 
https://alaiwl.com/?p=9458
 
Amsterdam’s legaltech startup Govin bags €1M for its one-stop Governance platform 

Amsterdam-based Govin, a legaltech startup that aims to bring legal insights and structured information to its users, announced that it has raised €1M in a pre-Seed round of funding. Govin says the funds will help advance its beta and bring the product to the masses.
The round was led by the Dutch Founders Fund (DFF) with participation from Innovatiefonds Noord-Holland.
A group of Angel investors, including Jelle-Jan Bruinsma (Endeit Capital), Thijs Clement (NorbruisClement), Jaap van den Broek & Quirijn van Veen (INGEN-HOUSZ), and Max van de Blaak & Sander van Woerden (Lexar Partners), also joined the round.
 
“One-stop governance platform”
Govin was founded by Jesse Grift and Tony Nguyen at the beginning of the year because they were frustrated that many legal processes remained unnecessarily complicated and intransparent. Important procedures, including resolution management, distributing investor rights, and compliance, were only taken seriously after it was already too late.
 
Govin saves time that would otherwise be spent looking for documents and examining legal clauses. Investors and founders can now make informed decisions and comply with regulations in a simple and confident manner, thanks to the centralisation of all governance data and workflows.
Grift, who has experienced the legal hotchpotch first-hand while working at a VC, says, “So many precious hours were lost digging through legal paperwork, hours better spent on scaling the company. With new regulations like the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) rolling out in 2024, reporting on your non-financial data such as your ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) becomes mandatory for all alternative investment funds.”
 
Grift adds, “We noticed that the “E” of Environmental and the “S” of Social were often accounted for, yet the “G” of governance remained overlooked.”
 
In simple terms, Govin is a network effects-driven startup that aims to make the G of ESG (governance) more transparent and actionable in order to make life easier for entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.
 
Safeguarding continuity
Dutch Founders Fund (DFF) founding partner Hidde Hoogcarspel is aware of the difficulties that come with being a member of the supervisory board and an investor. DFF was one of the platform’s early adopters and one of the first to gain from it.
 
Hoogcarspel says, “As a supervisory board member at Shypple, we have drafted and signed more than 30 resolutions in the past eight months, including more than 200 signatures from 10+ co-investors. Govin allowed everyone to make an informed decision in a matter of clicks instead of reading through dozens of pages of legal documents, saving hours of time.”
 
Govin protects the continuity of governance inside venture capital firms and their portfolio businesses through its distinctive managed governance trail. The platform ensures a speedy and safe decision-making process for every business choice that has to be made by enabling investors and founders to view any relevant legal papers.
 
Govin aims to be the top governance and legal compliance solution for alternative investment funds. “Before the upcoming SFDR regulation is fully effective in 2024, Govin is keen to become your go-to platform to be compliant in a simple and confident way,” adds Grift.
https://siliconcanals.com/crowdfunding/govin-bags-1m/
 
Dutch Founders Fund
The Dutch Founders Fund is an early-stage venture capital fund from Amsterdam, started by a group of successful Dutch entrepreneurs like Laurens Groenendijk (Just Eat, Treatwell, Miinto, Hiber), Patrick Kerssemakers (fonQ), Bas Beerens (WeTransfer), Hidde Hoogcarspel (Spacebuzz) and Remco van Zanten (ex Booking.com, Zalando, BCG).
We know from experience what it’s like to deal with many different stakeholders and how to overcome early-stage growth pains. Starting a company is easy; building a company is something else. We believe in intense mentoring, from ideation to your series A.
What we like.Marketplaces that disrupt or reimagine traditional supply-chains.Products or services with strong network effects.Marketplace enablers. This includes any technology that facilitates frictionless marketplace transactions, from FinTech solutions to web3 applications.SaaS enabled marketplaces.Wildcards. We will never say no to truly exceptional ideas. 
 
What we Look for.
Companies that provide a sustainable solution to society’s challenges by providing transparency and efficiency. Whether it’s freight forwarding or employee benefits, we invest in overlooked markets and platforms that cut out the middleman. And our founders? We look for go-getters, a builder mentality and people with infinite curiosity.
What we expect from you.
You are willing to get your limits pushed and ideas challenged. You are willing to dream big and do big. You are not afraid to hit the gas. You are headstrong, but coachable.
Our Commitment.
The founders pledge. We dive deep and get dirty. We talk tactics and look at the nitty-gritty details of your business case. Partner with us and see how we provide far more than just capital.
https://www.dutchfoundersfund.com/about
 
Innovatiefonds Noord-Holland.
 
We stimulate and support innovative projects in SMEs within the province of North Holland
In the phase in which you want to prove your ideas, collaboration with knowledge institutions and other companies can be of great importance. Our contribution will hopefully also help you to achieve follow-up financing if you have proven your idea with our support and want to develop it further towards market introduction.
 
Financing
 Convertible loan up to a maximum of 300,000 eurosProof-of-Concept project op Technology Readiness Level 3-5SME entrepreneur or starterLocated in the Province of North Holland 
https://www.innovatiefondsnoordholland.nl/proof-of-concept-fonds
 The start-up Finovox raises 1.9 million euros » Economic and political letter from PACA Finovoxa French start-up specializing in the detection of fake documents, today announces its €1.9 million Seed fundraiser.
 
In fact, led by Shapr Venture, SuperCapital, successful entrepreneurs like Jérôme Proust, founder of Glady (ex-wedoogift), and Christophe Henner, ex-president of Wikipedia, and supported by BPI.
 
In front of a document fraud explosion (+80% increase worldwide in 2020 and +86% in 2021) exceeding 40,000 million euros in annual damage In France, Marc de Beaucorps, Théophile du Portal and Pierre-Alexis Gouzien have developed Finovox, a solution to detect false documents. Applicable to any type of document (DNI, invoices, receipts, diplomas, etc.) without language or format restrictions, its tool analyzes, detects and explains fraud by less than 5 seconds.
 
With its own technology, the start-up offers a two part solution :
 
– an API integrating itself into the information system of each company and allowing continuous and automatic analysis of all documents.
 
– A SaaS solution analyzing suspicious documents to provide maximum information about fraud through its investigation tools (3D views, area highlighting, document version history, etc.).
 
Faced with the resurgence of fraud that is expected in a global context of economic tension, Finovox wants to allocate the funds collected to accelerate your development, both from the functional point of view of the product and R&D. after recruitment a dozen expert profiles (doctors, specialized data scientists, technology marketing manager, etc.), the company aims to create the most effective and comprehensive anti-fraud solution on the market.
 
Finovox is already working on obtaining ISO27001 and ISO27701 certifications guarantee of technical and organizational security, as well as the company’s commitment to its customers.
 
Marc de Beaucorps, CEO and co-founder : “The entire team is proud of this fundraising, not only for the opportunities that we will be able to achieve thanks to the financing, but also for the quality and skills of our shareholders. Each investor is a real contribution to the company, both at the product and market level. Having quality investors is what makes young entrepreneurs like us progress and transform an innovative project into a revolution in the sector! »
 
Vincent Bobin, Shapr Enterprises: ” With Finovox, we are pleased to invest in a very good team and innovative technology that addresses a deep market. We are delighted to be part of the adventure to accompany you as far as possible. »
 
About Finovox
 
Founded in 2019 by Marc de Beaucorps, Théophile du Portal and Pierre-Alexis Gouzien, three experts in anti-fraud development, the Finovox start-up has developed a simple and secure software solution capable of detecting false documents. With its technology, Finovox allows document fraud to be divided by 6. The start-up counts among its clients large groups such as Bouygues Telecom, but also ETIs such as iCover, neoinsurers such as Luko and Parachut or even small companies/start-ups such as Codetek , Alvysion or Goodliz.
 
Shapr Companies:
 
Shapr Ventures is a seed fund targeting technology start-ups from all sectors (except biotech) and post-revenue. They invest tickets ranging from €300k to €1M as the main investor with a follow-up clause in the next rounds. Shapr is a startup that funds startups. Raising funds with Shapr Ventures gives access to its entire ecosystem (Shapr Talent, Shapr Founders, Shapr Community…). Why Shapr Ventures?
 
“Because we deeply believe in people and not everything is about numbers.
Because we have experienced their problems (search for market fit products, pivot, scaling, etc.) on a daily basis for 15 years in France and the USA.
Because we have built a powerful ecosystem to achieve your wildest ambitions.
Because we will feel more like co-founders than investors. »
https://shapr.co/en/
 
Super Venture Capital:
 
Super Capital VC launched in January 2021 with over 200 international investors to provide financing and support to high-potential startups. His portfolio includes more than 100 startups, in which he has invested from €50,000 to €300,000, including Even Pas Cap!, Mobile.Club and TeamOut.
 
“We like ambitious, passionate and rigorous entrepreneurs. We primarily invest in broader digital businesses (SaaS, platforms, marketplace, DNVB, apps), both B2B and B2C, often with international potential. We also support less scalable but more mature companies to help them gain a leadership position in a niche market. »
https://www.supercapital.vc/
 
 
Util Raises $6M in Seed Funding
Util, a London, UK-based sustainability data platform provider, raised $6M in Seed funding.
 
The round was led by Eldridge, with participation from Luxembourg Stock Exchange, Chicago Board Options Exchange, and Oxford Science Enterprises.
 
The company intends to use the funds to expand global footprint and accelerate hiring needs.
 
Led by CEO Patrick Wood Uribe, Util is a provider of sustainability intelligence to financial institutions. Its evidence-driven analytics capture the performance of 50,000 listed companies relative to the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and thousands of other sustainability concepts, empowering investors to understand and optimise their real-world impact.
 
Customers, including PGIM Quantitative Solutions, Nuveen (a TIAA company), Danske Bank Asset Management, Degroof Petercam Asset Management (DPAM), and a.s.r., work with Util to research companies, report on portfolios, and create differentiated financial products benchmarked against material sustainability issues.
 
The announcement comes as the team accelerates hiring in key senior roles. Most recently, Util appointed Riaz Shaikh to lead product development. Shaikh was previously Global Head of Data Analytics Strategy, Investment Banking, at Credit Suisse, where he spearheaded strategy and product in relation to alternative, ESG and sustainability data. Earlier this year, Mike Goynes joined Util as CTO, prior to which he was Chief Data Officer at supply-chain AI unicorn Interos.
 
FinSMEs
https://www.finsmes.com/2022/11/util-raises-6m-in-seed-funding.html
 
Eldridge
Eldridge manages businesses across diversified industries
Headquartered in Greenwich, CT, with offices in New York, London, and Beverly Hills, Eldridge is dedicated to growing market opportunities into significant businesses. We are interested in providing businesses and management teams with capital and resources to help experienced leaders and their teams execute their strategic plans. We provide debt and equity capital along with perspective, relationships, and a network of supportive businesses with a shared commitment to growth.
Excellence
We love what we do and are grateful and humbled by our freedom to pursue ideas with capital. As such, we strive to be responsible citizens, respecting each other and our planet, and to be excellent in all that we do. Our goal is to win. We believe winning together is better than winning alone. Sometimes we lose. When we do, we dust ourselves off and learn. We persevere. We strive to be better. We evolve.
 
Flexibility
Experience has taught us that the best path may not be the most direct as humans often take time to warm up to ideas. Sometimes a setback may prove to be an advance. We reevaluate and we are comfortable changing directions with new information. When we must make hard decisions, we communicate such with as much empathy as possible.
 
Inclusivity
We encourage inclusive environments and believe teams with varied backgrounds, perspectives, skills, and experiences make better decisions. We seek honest and thoughtful conversation without targeting individuals. We don’t gossip. We do share. We seek to leverage our collective knowledge. AQ, EQ, and IQ are all celebrated.
https://www.eldridge.com/about/
 
Luxembourg Stock Exchange
The Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSE) is the gateway to access international investors with a unique and integrated service offering covering listing, trading, information services and reporting.
 
Unlike other exchanges, our core focus is on the listing of international securities. Our 90-year experience, combined with our established listing procedures, attract a wide range of issuers to Luxembourg. With 37,000+ securities listed, including 33,000 debt instruments, from 2,000 issuers in over 100 countries, we understand the needs of international capital markets and their participants.
 
We operate two markets: an EU-regulated market, called the “Bourse de Luxembourg” market, and the Euro MTF, an exchange-regulated market. All securities are tradable on Euronext’s Optiq platform.
 
In 2016, we launched the Luxembourg Green Exchange (LGX), which remains the leading platform dedicated exclusively to green, social and sustainable securities. In 2020, LGX was recognised as “Environmental Finance’s Exchange of the Year” for the 4th consecutive year at the Environmental Finance Bond Awards. Later that year, LGX was also awarded the prestigious 2020 UN Global Climate Action Award for its contribution to accelerating financing for climate-friendly investment. 
 
In 2019, we launched LuxXPrime, a dedicated window on our trading platform dedicated to retail-sized orders. With EUWAX AG as Prime Liquidity Provider, LuxXPrime makes it simple and secure for private and professional investors to trade retail-sized bonds, including Green, Social and Sustainability Bonds.
https://www.bourse.lu/about-us
 
Chicago Board Options Exchange
Cboe Global Markets is a leading provider of market infrastructure and tradable products, delivering cutting-edge trading, clearing and investment solutions to market participants around the world. We provide trading solutions and products in multiple asset classes, including equities, derivatives and FX, across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.
 
We operate a trusted, inclusive global marketplace, providing leading products, technology and data solutions that enable participants to define a sustainable future.
 
Our associates come to work inspired, ready to be part of the next market-defining breakthrough. Everyone has value and we believe in celebrating defining moments together. We pride ourselves on our legacy of championing innovation and revolutionizing markets to benefit all investors. 
 
We’re a group of hardworking, passionate people who value teamwork above all else. We give credit where credit is due and don’t hesitate to recognize a job well done — no matter how big or small the task. We care about one another and our communities and frequently find ways to give back individually and as a team. 
 
Together, we are working to build one of the world’s largest global equities and derivatives trading networks.
 
Oxford Sciences Enterprises
Our Model
We partner the best scientists from the world’s #1 research university with the best business brains to create and build world-changing businesses capable of solving society’s biggest challenges.
 
In addition to long-term investment capital and business-building expertise, we provide access to a global network of entrepreneurs and advisors, and state-of-the art lab and start-up space essential for our companies to thrive.
 
Our Unique Partnership with Oxford University
The University of Oxford is home to some of the world’s most innovate science thinkers and is renowned for its world-leading research. We receive an automatic stake in all science spinouts from the University and the University owns a stake in us.
 
This unique partnership enables us to work with Oxford’s brightest academic minds tackling the world’s toughest challenges and guarantees us unrivalled access to their scientific research and IP.
 
A key player in Oxford’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, we are highly motivated to foster an environment that catalyses pioneering research and steers it to commercial success. We are committed to doing this in an inclusive and sustainable way.
 
Our Investment Approach
We are an investment company, not a fund. Our evergreen structure means we are not constrained by restrictive timelines and can adopt a flexible, long-term investment approach, recognising the path from ground-breaking research to global markets takes time and resilience.
 
This gives us greater flexibility to make decisions based on the nature of the challenge and the needs of the business. Allocating capital in ways that allow innovation to flourish:
 
We invest in original research and breakthrough scientific ideas early to solve the world’s toughest problems.
We invest from initial idea to IPO and beyond, to maximize the impact of the science.
We invest in the specialist lab and start-up space needed to nurture our businesses.
Our Business-Building Expertise
We match Oxford science with exceptional business-building talent from around the world – seasoned C-suite executives, entrepreneurs and advisors, who want to make a difference.
https://oxfordscienceenterprises.com/about/
 
 Paris-based Teamstarter bags €7M for its intra-company crowdfunding platformParis-based Teamstarter, a platform for intra-company crowdfunding, announced on Wednesday that it has secured €7M from Odyssée Venture, Matters, and Financière Vecteur (an investment vehicle of the Banque Populaire group).
 
Several business angels also participated in the round. They include:Benoît and Bertrand Leclercq (President of Créadev and Founder of Abor et Sens and Chairman of the Abilways group) Nicolas Petrovic (former CEO of Siemens and Eurostar)Benoît Queyrel (serial entrepreneur and founding chairman of AptiSkills)Patrick Dixneuf (former Managing Director of Aviva Europe and Chairman of the Cercle Turgot)  
Fund utilisation
The French company aims to accelerate its annual growth and prepare for its international expansion. The company is developing new features to attract talent, engage employees and continue providing a unique, personalised experience for employees. 
 
With 45 employees, Teamstarter intends to recruit 40 more people to strengthen its product, marketing, and sales divisions.
 
Teamstarter: What you need to know
Ségolène Mouterde and Vincent Desmares founded Teamstarter in 2019 in Matters startup studio.
It is a crowdfunding platform that allows a company’s (clients) employees to create or finance internal projects using a budget allocated to them by the company. 
 
The company aims to make humans the strength of tomorrow’s companies with the first intra-company participatory financing platform.
 
Teamstarter claims it is tackling Europe’s brain drain and talent war by enabling its clients to make their employees into actors and intrapreneurs within their companies. The company believes this will help them to move the lines at their level and create a more engaged workforce.
 
Ségolène Mouterde, CEO of Teamstarter, says, “Our tool enables employees to become active players in their company by allowing everyone, regardless of their job or seniority, to change things at their level by choosing and implementing impactful initiatives that they will carry out from A to Z, thanks to the trust placed in them by the company. The aim is to mobilise collective intelligence with employees working hand in hand to put their ideas into shape, make their project known in their company, and, once the funds have been reached, deploy the initiative themselves. So it’s not foosball that engages, and Teamstarter activates the right motivational mechanisms: taking the initiative, trust, empowerment, bottom-up, collaboration.”
 
Teamstarters: How does it work?
Companies allocate a monthly budget to each employee through Teamstarter. With this amount, employees can propose projects that are important to them and in which their colleagues can participate. 
 
According to studies carried out on more than 30,000 users, 82 per cent of employees say they are more committed, claims the company.
 
Over 3,000 projects with a societal, environmental, quality of life at work, customer, or employee experience impact have been carried out. 
 
The French company has witnessed an annual growth of 400 per cent and attracted hundreds of clients, including Sopra Steria Aeroline, Razel-Bec, Avanade, and Natixis Wealth Management, to attract, motivate and retain their talents.
 
“We are delighted to support Teamstarter, a company with which we fully share the desire to combine growth and positive impact. Teamstarter has already proven the relevance of its offer to deeply transform companies and involve employees more at a time of Big Quit and loss of meaning in work”, says Sébastien Sassolas, head of Odyssée Venture.
 
For Benoît and Bertrand Leclercq, “Teamstarter has a vision that we share and find useful in the business world. Companies that win in the long run are those where the employees seen by their customers are happy and thus give their best. Covid, yellow vests protests, working from home, and calls for a transformation of our business models to commit to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees … are all challenges to which Teamstarter and its teams respond. We are proud to support its development, which makes complete sense to us.”
 
“I am convinced that success can only come from a committed team culture, as I have experienced at Eurostar and Siemens. Therefore, I believe in Teamstarter, which offers a perfect solution for strengthening company commitment, focused on action,” says Nicolas Petrovic.
https://siliconcanals.com/news/startups/paris-teamstarter-bags-7m/
 
Odyssée Venture
  
THE GROWTH BUSINESS SPECIALIST
ODYSSEE is one of the historical actors of Private Equity in France and one of the first independent management companies of private
equity funds (FIP – FCPI – FCPR) approved by the AMF. It is the specialist in growth companies since 1999:
 550 million euros raised since the creationThe trust of more than 50,000 subscribersMore than 170 SMEs supported in diversified sectors and at all stages of developmentMore than 20,000 jobs created in affiliated SMEsA team of experienced professionalsSeveral investment and divestment cyclesSupport for entrepreneurs at all stages of development of their business: from seed toIPOhttp://les-fip.com/
 Aiming to be the transaction platform of choice for B2B merchants, Fintecture closes €26 million round Seeking to eliminate the limitations caused by a half-century-old system that was built around multiple intermediaries, B2B transaction platform Fintecture raises €26 million round in a Series A round.
Paris-based payment infrastructure provider Fintecture has raised €26 million in a Series A funding round. The startup is seeking to eliminate the limitations inferred in the half-century-old B2B transactions market that was built around multiple intermediaries.
 
The new capital was provided by new investors Eurazeo, RTP Global, HEC Ventures, and Allianz Trade, alongside angel investors including Olivier Pomel, founder and CEO at Datadog, and Huey Lin, ex-PayPal exec and founding COO at Affirm, and existing investors including Target Global, Samaipata and Société Generale.
 
The €26 million is expected to help the startup in all areas of operations.
 
Capitalising on technological and regulatory changes in the banking industry, one being 2018’s Payment Service Directive (PSD2), Fintecture has created a series of APIs that integrate with banks and is a runner in the pack of startups angling to create the missing direct link between merchants and their customers, providing for a simpler, safer, and cost-efficient mechanisms.
According to the startup the platform “enables around 7,000 businesses to collect payments. Over 250,000 buyers have already paid with Fintecture via multiple sales channels: e-commerce, in-store, remote sales, or invoicing cycle.”
 
“B2B payments were left aside because of their high complexity, resulting in the predominance of paper-based and time-consuming solutions. To help merchants fully digitise their B2B payments, we had to start from scratch and build new methods from first principles,” says Faysal Oudmine, CEO at Fintecture. “The journey is very challenging but totally rewarding as we witnessed our merchants save considerable time, costs, and increase their sales while using our B2B transaction platform.”
https://tech.eu/2022/11/03/aiming-to-be-the-transaction-platform-of-choice-for-b2b-merchants-fintecture-closes-eur26-million-round/
 Ethical lender Plend raises £40m Plend, a UK “ethical lender” that is ditching the traditional credit system and is instead using open banking data for lending decisions, has raised £40 million in seed funding.
 
Active Partners, Velocity Juice, Sivo, and the founders from Monzo, Starling Bank and Oodle Car Finance joined the round alongside existing investors Ascension, Tomahawk VC, DD Venture Capital and Haatch.
 
Plend says that the credit system is outdated and backward, discriminating against applicants based on historic and limited data and not lending based on what they can actually afford.
 
Instead, it uses open banking to make credit more personal and make what it claims are smarter lending decisions.
 
Launched in July, the startup has already seen over £40 million in loan applications processed, with the loan book increasing 20% month on month.
 
And, with Brits struggling to keep up with the changing economic climate and rising interest rates, the company is expecting to see more people turning to its platform to restructure their debts.
 
Rob Pasco, CEO, Plend, says: “We are thrilled to be working with our newest investment partners to provide a truly ethical alternative to the broken credit scoring system that locks so many people out of the market, especially during these times of economic turbulence and rising interest rates.”
https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/41246/ethical-lender-plend-raises-40m
 NatWest invests £50m into fintech Vodeno Group 
NatWest has made a €58m (£50.4m) equity investment into Vodeno Group, the owner of Polish fintech Vodeno TechCo and Belgium-based Aion Bank to launch in the UK.
 
Vodeno TechCo provides embedded finance solutions such as payments, deposits, point-of-sale credit and seller cash advances.
“This strategic partnership presents a strong potential source of fee income in a growing market, and an opportunity to deliver sustainable growth by building deeper relationships with our corporate customers,” said Alison Rose, chief executive, NatWest Group.
 
“It also complements our existing investment in the development of business banking technology within our Mettle business.”
 
The new UK arm will be 82% majority owned by the British bank, with the rest of the minority interest kept by Vodeno TechCo.
 
NatWest also will further take a 9.9% minority interest that could increase to 18% if certain criteria are met by Vodeno Group, which entirely owns Vodeno TechCo and Aion Bank.
 
Wojciech Sobieraj, CEO, Vodeno Group said: “Our fully API-based platform offers a comprehensive suite of BaaS products that enable brands to ‘embed’ financial services directly into their ecosystems to create seamless customer journeys.
 
“We are excited to combine our technology with NatWest Group to offer the next generation of financial services.”
 
The deal between NatWest and Vodeno is still subject to regulatory approval from the Financial Conduct Authority, National Bank of Belgium and European Central Bank.
https://www.uktech.news/growth-strategy/cybersecurity-growth-strategy/ico-cybersecurity-crackdown-20221024



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