“£197bn of retail sales, or almost half of the UK’s annual retail sales in goods and services, are insurable. Amazon alone makes almost £1bn in insurance revenue, and most UK SMEs have never been offered the opportunity to distribute insurance. Bolt Cover exists to help retailer make incremental revenue and customer LTV through embedded insurance, which projects to grow 25% per year through 2028 (Munich Re, 2023), especially in the UK market which is growing 8% per year (Statista, 2023).”

This week we feature a Q&A with Jamie Hamer of BoltCover: embedded insurance revenue engine for retailers. Read on for our deal-highlights and more, and if you are building or backing “what’s next in finance” and want to spread the word with our network, reach out to Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.

Deal Highlights

“According to The Watch Register, the value of stolen luxury goods has risen by 236 percent year-over-year.“  GRACE, a Franco-Swiss fintech specialising in luxury item protection has closed its €5.9M Seed round. The round was led by FinTech Collective and Speedinvest.

„During the COVID-19 pandemic, mortgage interest rates dropped to historic lows as low as 2.5%. Fast-forward a few years and rates soared to highs nearing 8% in 2023…But what if there was a way to still get the interest rates of years past? With assumable mortgages, there might be.“ Khosla’s Keith Rabois leads $11.5M Series A for startup Roam, calls it ‘the future of the housing market’

„Lack of cash returns has been especially troublesome for wealthy individuals or their small family offices- who manage the assets of the wealthy- that made substantial investments in VC funds…That experience gave Hurst the idea to create a credit product that would allow limited partners to borrow funds secured by their LP position in venture funds.“ Turbine raises $22M to help VC investors get cash without selling their stakes.

Q&A with Jamie Hamer of BoltCover

1. Tell us a bit about yourself / your co-founder(s)

I am a commercial entrepreneur with a significant exit (React News, now Europe’s largest paid commercial real estate news service). Tori Hutchinson worked with me there as an operational lead, and Richie Smith came onboard as a tech supplier who chose to invest into the business, work with us full-time and offer us engineering (and now full-time engineering employees) at cost. We complement each other well, and together have the commercial, operational and technical expertise to drive this business forward.

Q&A with Jamie Hamer of BoltCover: embedded insurance revenue engine for retailers

FUNDING ROUNDS

AI compliance platform Flagright raises $4.3 million

AI-native AML compliance platform Flagright has raised a $4.3 million Seed round to fund international expansion.

The raise was led by Frontline Ventures, with contributions from a series of notable angel investors, such as Rubin Ritter (ex-co-CEO of Zalando), André Silva (ex-global head of expansion at Revolut), Phillip Chambers (CEO of Orbex), Ahmed Badr (COO of GoCardless), Teng Sherng Lim (ex-CCO of Advance.AI), and Saqib Mirza (CEO of Sciopay). Existing investors, including Y Combinator, Pioneer Fund, and Moonfire Ventures, also doubled down in this round.

The Singapore-based firm provides an AI-native compliance operating system, including dynamic risk scoring, automated case management, real-time transaction monitoring, and AML screening…

Ozkan says Flagright’s 50 banking customers around the world report 90% fewer false positives, 87% less manual monitoring effort, and a sizeable improvement in overall compliance operations performance…

https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/45728/ai-compliance-platform-flagright-raises-43-million

Insurtech GRACE secures €5.9M Seed to protect luxury items

The value of stolen luxury goods has risen by 236 percent year-over-year.

GRACE, a Franco-Swiss fintech specialising in luxury item protection, has closed its €5.9M Seed round. 

The round was led by FinTech Collective and Speedinvest, with participation from Firstminute Capital, Purple, Kima Ventures, Bpifrance, and others including a16z and Sequoia through their Scout Program.

GRACE aims to close the gap in luxury item insurance by offering complimentary coverage against theft and loss. This protection is automatically activated from the moment of purchase. According to The Watch Register, the value of stolen luxury goods has risen by 236 percent year-over-year.

…

Beyond providing protection, the platform allows brands to collect customer data, which is often difficult to access through traditional distribution channels such as multi-brand partners, retail, gifting, or resale. They use this data to inform brands about their customers.

https://tech.eu/2025/04/04/insurtech-grace-secures-5-9m-seed-to-protect-luxury-items/

Fuse raises $6.6M to fix a payment problem for companies expanding to MENA

Expanding into the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) remains a costly and complex challenge for global businesses, thanks to fragmented regulations and banking systems. Dubai-based fintech Fuse aims to simplify that with a cross-border payments API and has raised $6.6 million in seed funding to make it happen.

Founded in 2023 by CEO George Davis (pictured above, right), former co-founder of BVNK, and CTO James Smith (pictured above, left), Fuse says it’s the first infrastructure-grade payments platform offering virtual International Bank Account Numbers (IBANs) in the region. This is a product Davis says is commonplace in Europe but nearly absent across MENA.

“We’re currently the only provider of virtual IBANs in the Middle East,” Davis told TechCrunch. “It’s a hyper-commoditized product in Europe, but here, it simply didn’t exist.”

Fuse’s core product includes USD virtual accounts for cross-border money movement and dirham-denominated IBANs for local UAE payments. That allows the startup to offer first-mile collections and last-mile payouts for international businesses without requiring them to set up a local entity, handle their own FX, or navigate licensing…

Northzone, the European multi-stage VC that has backed the likes of Klarna and Spotify, led the $6.6 million round, with participation from Flourish Ventures, Alter Global, and notable angels, including Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga “GB” Agboola and former Morgan Stanley MENA president George Makhoul…

https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/03/ex-bvnk-founder-launches-fuse-raises-6-6m-to-power-cross-border-payments-in-mena/

Charm launches AI platform to help banks combat scams

Charm, an AI-powered security platform that protects organisations and their customers from scams, social engineering, and human-centric fraud, has emerged from stealth with $8 million in seed funding.

The round was led by Team8, a global venture creation firm that helped build Charm with its founders cyber intelligence expert Roy Zur and former Microsoft data scientist Avichai Ben.

Charm says that fraud tactics have evolved from system exploitation to sophisticated social engineering, making individuals the weakest link in security.

To tackle this, the startup uses AI, data analysis and psychological insights to assess human vulnerability exposure, analyse customer risk patterns, and deliver tailored mitigation strategies.

https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/45711/charm-launches-ai-platform-to-help-banks-combat-scams

Incentify Secures $9.5 Million Series A Funding To Revolutionize Tax Credit And Incentive Management

In a significant development for the tax credit and incentives (C&I) technology sector, Incentify has announced the successful closure of a $9.5 million Series A funding round. The investment, led by Innovent Capital Group, positions the company to accelerate the growth of its AI-powered platform dedicated to discovering and managing tax credits and incentives.

Strategic Investment to Fuel Expansion

The announcement revealed that alongside lead investor Innovent Capital Group, the funding round attracted participation from Ryan LLC, Gary Gilbert (co-founder of Rocket Mortgage and co-owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers), and other investors. This capital injection comes at a pivotal moment for Incentify, which has already established partnerships with major global organizations including Amazon, Kroger, Cargill, Tyson, Sony Pictures, and Paramount Studios, as well as thousands of small and medium-sized businesses.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/josipamajic/2025/04/03/incentify-secures-95-million-series-a-funding-to-revolutionize-tax-credit-and-incentive-management/

Atomic Raises $10 Million in Strategic Round from Capital One Ventures, Citi Ventures, and F.N.B Corporation

Today, we’re excited to announce a $10 million strategic investment in Atomic, with participation from Capital One Ventures, Citi Ventures, and F.N.B. Corporation (NYSE: FNB). This milestone reinforces Atomic’s position as the market leader in growing account primacy and enabling the kind of financial connectivity that drives real action. The investment will fuel continued innovation and support our expansion as we deepen our partnerships across the financial services ecosystem. Read the full press release on Business Wire here.

Atomic currently works with 8 of the top 10 financial institutions and many of the leading fintech firms to deliver solutions around payroll connectivity, payment switching, bill management, and authentication. These products help Atomic’s clients to innovate and compete in an evolving financial landscape and deliver secure and seamless experiences to consumers. Funding will support Atomic’s growth across these solution areas and expansion into new products.

https://atomic.financial/insights/atomic-raises-in-stategic-round/

RapidClaims Raises $11M in Funding

RapidClaims, a NYC-based provider of an AI-powered revenue cycle management platform provider, raised $11M in funding.

The amount consisted of $8M Series A led by Accel with participation from Together Fund, and $3M in previously unannounced seed led by Together Fund with angel investors including Oscar Benavidez (Executive Director, Massachusetts General Hospital), Matthew Zubiller (ex-CEO, e4health), Ankit Jain (founder & CEO, Infinitus), and Sachin Jain (healthcare leader), among others. 

The company intends to use the funds to accelerate its go-to-market efforts and enhance its technology.

Led by CEO and Founder Dushyant Mishra, RapidClaims provides an autonomous coding solution, RapidCode, which is live in more than 20 specialties and processes millions of charts. It delivers 100% chart coverage, and reaches 98% accuracy in specialties such as radiology, anesthesia, and labs, while maintaining 94%+ accuracy in more complex fields like surgeries…

https://www.finsmes.com/2025/04/rapidclaims-raises-11m-in-funding.html

Khosla’s Keith Rabois leads $11.5M Series A for startup Roam, calls it ‘the future of the housing market’

During the COVID-19 pandemic, mortgage interest rates dropped to historic lows — as low as 2.5%.

Fast-forward a few years and rates soared — to highs nearing 8% in 2023, with the national average 30-year fixed mortgage APR as of April 1 still at 6.84%. 

The whiplash has left many people seeking to buy homes shut out of the market.

But what if there was a way to still get the interest rates of years past? With assumable mortgages, there might be. An assumable mortgage is one where an outstanding loan is transferable to the buyer.  

Enter Roam, a New York-based startup with the mission of providing access to “thousands” of homes with assumable mortgages across the country.

CEO Raunaq Singh — who worked in product for three years at Opendoor — founded Roam in September 2023. Roam helped facilitate $200 million worth of home sales for “several hundred” buyers in 2024. And more than 200,000 buyers have registered on its platform in the last 12 months. While Singh did not disclose hard revenue figures, he told TechCrunch that Roam charges each buyer 1% of the purchase price. Doing the math, 1% of $200 million translates to Roam making $2 million in revenue in 2024.

Singh claims that assumable loans can save buyers up to 50% on their monthly payments compared to purchases with current mortgage rates. 

A seller’s equity must be cashed out, Singh acknowledges, noting that Roam has built a product that makes it possible “for buyers to bring as little as 5% down so they can get a 5% (or less) blended rate.”

…

https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/02/khoslas-keith-rabois-leads-11-5m-series-a-for-startup-roam-calls-it-the-future-of-the-housing-market/

Codex raises $16 million to build a blockchain just for stablecoins

Stablecoins, or cryptocurrencies pegged to fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar, are all the buzz in crypto. After fintech giant Stripe acquired stablecoin startup Bridge for more than $1 billion in February, investors have argued that the tokens are crypto’s first “killer app.” It’s no surprise, then, that venture capitalists are willing to make big bets on fledgling stablecoin founders.

On Friday, Codex, a startup that’s building its own blockchain designed specifically for stablecoins, announced that it’s raised $15.8 million in a seed round led by Dragonfly Capital. Other investors include the venture arms of Coinbase and Circle, which filed to go public on Tuesday. Crypto market makers like Cumberland, Wintermute, and Selini Capital also contributed.

Dragonfly put in about $14 million to the round, general partner Rob Hadick told Fortune. The raise was for equity and token warrants, or promised allocations of a yet-to-be-released cryptocurrency, Haonan Li, the 30-year-old cofounder and CEO of Codex, said. 

https://fortune.com/crypto/2025/04/04/codex-seed-round-dragonfly-coinbase-circle-15-8-million/

Y Combinator neobank Djamo raises $17M with 1M users across Francophone Africa

Djamo is one of several digital banking startups targeting Africa’s underbanked. But unlike many that focus on large markets like Nigeria, Egypt, or South Africa, Djamo has carved out a niche in Francophone West Africa, specifically the Ivory Coast and, more recently, Senegal. It now serves over 1 million customers across both countries.

The Y Combinator-backed fintech just raised $17 million to expand its product suite for these retail customers and the thousands of small businesses it has onboarded in the last two years.

The equity round, the largest ever for an Ivorian startup, surpasses Djamo’s $14 million Series A in 2022 and reflects continued investor confidence in its mission to make banking accessible and affordable.

Co-founder and CEO Hassan Bourgi declined to share the new valuation but said it has doubled since the last raise.

Bourgi founded Djamo with chief product and technical officer Régis Bamba in 2020 to close the financial access gap in French-speaking African countries, where few adults have bank accounts. Traditional banks in the region often cater to the affluent, leaving most of the population reliant on mobile money, a cheaper method that includes using phone numbers to make financial transactions…

Now a 250-person team, Djamo is betting that its new round of funding, led by Pan-African, gender-focused VC Janngo Capital, will help it scale those services across French-speaking Africa.

…

Other investors participating in the round include SANAD Fund for MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises), managed by Finance in Motion; Partech; Oikocredit; Enza Capital; and Y Combinator.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/03/djamo-raises-17m-and-has-1m-users-across-francophone-africa/

Turbine raises $22M to help VC investors get cash without selling their stakes

Since IPOs slowed to trickle a few years ago, limited partners who invest in venture capital funds have had one giant problem: a dearth of liquidity.

Lack of cash returns has been especially troublesome for wealthy individuals or their small family offices — who manage the assets of the wealthy — that made substantial investments in VC funds.

Having funds locked up in venture capital was a big issue for entrepreneur Mike Hurst. After selling Exactuals (a payments startup he founded) to City National Bank in 2018, he invested a good portion of the proceeds from the exit into tech stocks and venture funds.

Then the tech stocks crashed in 2022 and Hurst told TechCrunch that he didn’t have enough free cash to support his VC fund commitments.

“Firms kept coming for capital calls and new investments. I wanted to make them, but I didn’t want to mortgage the house, take a margin line or sell Amazon at $90 when I knew it was going back to $210,” he said.

That experience gave Hurst the idea to create a credit product that would allow limited partners to borrow funds secured by their LP position in venture funds.  

Hurst turned his vision into Turbine, a debt platform for limited partners in private equity and VC. The company is coming out of stealth on Friday and announcing that it has raised a total of $22 million in equity funding co-led by Alpha Edison and TTV Capital with the participation of Fin Capital, B Capital, and Sozo Ventures. 

The company has also secured up to $100 million in debt from Silicon Valley Bank to support its loan making.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/04/turbine-raises-22m-to-help-vc-investors-get-cash-without-selling-their-stakes/

WeeFin Raises €25M for ESG data management platform

WeeFin provides financial services companies with a SaaS platform that centralises data needed to deploy and manage sustainability strategies,  encompassing ESG, impact, and climate. 

Sustainability fintech WeeFin has raised €25 million. The funding round, which was completed 15 months after WeeFin’s Series A, is led by BlackFin Capital Partners, alongside existing investors IRIS, Asterion Ventures, and Ring Capital. It brings the company’s funding to over €34 million.

WeeFin, launched in 2021 by Grégoire Hug (former R&D product manager at BNP Paribas), Marion  Aubert, and Guillaume Klech, provides financial services companies with a SaaS platform that centralises all the data needed to deploy and manage ambitious sustainability strategies,  encompassing aspects such as ESG, impact and climate. 

The company currently has more than 40  customers across Europe, including Generali Asset Management, Caisse des Dépôts Asset  Management, Groupe BPCE, and Malakoff Humanis. 

https://tech.eu/2025/04/01/weefin-raises-eur25m-for-sustainability-fintech-expansion-in-europe/

Dubai Fintech Startup YAP Raises $41 Million to Expand Regionally

The digital banking platform will use the funds to grow operations in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Ghana, and Egypt.

Dubai-based digital banking startup YAP has secured $41 million in funding to support its ongoing expansion across the Middle East and Africa, with new market entries planned for Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Ghana, and Egypt. The funding round was led by Saudi Arabia’s AlJazira Capital, with participation from Abu Dawood Group, Astra Group, and Audacia Capital.

Founded in 2021, YAP offers a digital banking platform that provides tools for budgeting, spending analytics, card controls, and real-time transaction notifications. Since launch, the app has attracted over 130,000 users. The start-up operates without a banking licence, instead partnering with traditional financial institutions to deliver its services.

As part of its expansion into Saudi Arabia, YAP is collaborating with Bank AlJazira to roll out consumer and business banking services. The company has also secured regulatory approval in Pakistan and Ghana, and is preparing to enter the Egyptian market. YAP’s product offering includes physical debit and prepaid cards, as well as virtual cards, tailored to streamline financial access in its target markets.

The company expects to close its Series A funding round by the end of 2025.

https://cairoscene.com/Business/Dubai-Fintech-Startup-YAP-Raises-41-Million-to-Expand-Regionally

Thatch raises $40M to give employees more control of their health care choices

Thatch, a startup that aims to transform the health insurance experience for employers and employees alike, has raised $40 million in a Series B round of funding, it tells TechCrunch exclusively.

Index Ventures led the financing, which included participation from existing backers Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), General Catalyst, SemperVirens, PeopleTech Partners, The General Partnership, and new investor ADP Ventures. In total since its October 2021 inception, Thatch has raised $84.5 million in equity funding. 

While the San Francisco-based startup declined to reveal its new valuation, co-founder Adam Stevenson told TechCrunch that it was about three times higher than its Series A (Thatch raised $38 million in a Series A round led by General Catalyst in February of 2024).

Thatch helps employers offer Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangement (ICHRA) to employees. ICHRA is a relatively new insurance option, in effect as of 2020. 

So what’s the difference between an ICHRA and HRA? A typical HRA exclusively covers out of pocket medical expenses such as therapy, braces, and prescriptions.

The ICHRA allows employers to also use the funds to cover individual medical insurance…

https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/03/thatch-raises-40m-to-give-employees-more-control-of-their-health-insurance-choices/

Felix Pago’s $75M raise proves money talks on WhatsApp

Chat-based remittance platform Felix Pago has announced its $75 million Series B fundraise led by QED Investors. The company, which lets users send money via WhatsApp, has processed over $1 billion in transfers and now plans to scale into new countries and financial products.

The round drew participation from Monashees, Switch Ventures, Castle Island, and HTwenty Capital Innovation. While the company declined to disclose its valuation, it confirmed it’s nearing the $1 billion mark. That milestone is less of a priority for the team than building products users actually need. 

“Although we appreciate Bloomberg’s faith in us becoming a ‘unicorn’ in future rounds, here at Félix, we don’t care about that,” co-founder and CEO Manuel Godoy wrote on LinkedIn. “We focus on what matters: positively impacting the lives of hundreds of thousands of our users every day.”

Felix Pago is aiming to become the go-to financial platform for Latino families sending and receiving money across borders. With its new funding, the company will expand operations to Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, and begin offering services like savings accounts and credit alongside its core remittance product.

“We want to move from only offering remittances to becoming a complete platform to use that money,” Godoy told Bloomberg. That could include future acquisitions, he added, to help speed up product development.

https://refreshmiami.com/news/felix-pagos-75m-raise-proves-money-talks-on-whatsapp/

Zepz Secures $165 Million in Growth Financing Led by HSBC Innovation Banking and HSBC Private Credit

Zepz, the global payments group behind WorldRemit and Sendwave, has secured a total of $165 million in revolving and term facilities. The $110 million revolving credit facility was led by HSBC Innovation Banking while HSBC Private Credit was the sole underwriter of the $55 million term facility. The financing strengthens Zepz’s financial position and equips Zepz with the resources needed to capture new market opportunities.

Led by HSBC, these facilities replace a previous $80 million arrangement. The financing builds on a decade-long partnership between Zepz and HSBC Innovation Banking UK. 

Zepz powers two major remittance brands, WorldRemit and Sendwave, which together serve more than 9 million users and facilitate over 8 million monthly transactions. For customers, the financing means continued investment in faster transactions and improved reliability when sending money across borders. By enhancing its financial flexibility, Zepz will further optimize transfer fees, ensuring an even better experience for its customers.

https://ffnews.com/newsarticle/funding/zepz-secures-165-million-in-growth-financing-led-by-hsbc-innovation-banking-and-hsbc-private-credit/

Plaid raises $575M at a $6.1B valuation as it tracks toward IPO

Twelve years ago, Plaid set out to bring financial services into the digital age at a time when most interactions still required physical presence, creating barriers for millions who needed better access. The company believed that by building the right infrastructure, it could bridge that gap and offer a seamless, digital-first experience that made financial products more open, intelligent and accessible. 

That vision has only grown stronger. Today, more than 1 in 2 Americans with a bank account use Plaid to manage their financial lives and its platform powers thousands of fintechs, banks and enterprises.

As it gears up for its next chapter, Plaid secured $575 million in an oversubscribed funding round, pushing its valuation to $6.1 billion. 

A strategic raise

The round was led by Franklin Templeton, alongside Fidelity Management and Research and BlackRock. Longtime backers NEA and Ribbit Capital doubled down, reinforcing confidence in Plaid’s trajectory. The proceeds of the round will be used to convert expiring RSUs into shares and offer liquidity to employees. 

This raise follows a breakout year, marked by record-breaking revenue growing at 25% YoY, a return to positive operating margins, an expanded product suite in alternative credit data, anti-fraud and banking payments as well as a surge in companies building with Plaid…

https://www.thisweekinfintech.com/plaid-raises-575m-at-a-6-1b-valuation-as-it-tracks-toward-ipo/

“The market for investment management platforms presents a significant opportunity, driven by increased AuM, regulatory requirements, a rising focus on ESG, and the ongoing digital transformation of the financial industry. 90% of operational processes in European investment firms are expected to be automated by 2028 due to a report of PwC.”

This week we feature a Q&A with Lukas Müller of Layest- an investment management & fund administration platform. Read on for our selection of B2B FinTech financing rounds that financial institutions should have on their radar.

1. Tell us a bit about yourself / your co-founder(s)

I’m Lukas, CEO of Layest and I’m a serial tech founder with +10 years of experience in the fintech sector (previously at Rendity and LIQIMO, among others). My co-founders and I have been working together for many years and we bring a unique combination of deep financial expertise and advanced technical knowhow, ensuring that we understand both the complexities of investment management and the importance of cutting edge technology in driving efficiency and growth.

2. What problem or opportunity do you address, and for which target customers?

Managing client investments involves major complexities: Regulatory requirements, decentralized data, manual workflows, complex and inefficient operations, inflexible deal structures, no single source of truth about sensitive information, lack of integrations with other tools, etc.

Our target customers are companies within the financial industry like investment funds, SPVs, investment clubs, capital brokers, investment advisors and other financial institutions.

3. What is your solution, and who do you compete with?

Layest is a cloud based all-in-one platform for investment management and fund administration. We compete with BlackRock Aladdin or Bloomberg AIM, among others.

4. Relevant industry trends or market shifts to watch, and associated research or articles you can point us to?

The market for investment management platforms presents a significant opportunity, driven by increased AuM, regulatory requirements, a rising focus on ESG, and the ongoing digital transformation of the financial industry. 90% of operational processes in European investment firms are expected to be automated by 2028 due to a report of PwC.

5. What is your company’s current stage and traction?

We have a unique product offering AI agents for the financial industry. We have existing customers. We have a great team with a lot of experience managing investments.

6. Your plans for the next 6-18 months, and how can our network help?

Currently we are structuring our first financing round. We are constantly working on improving our product, adding new features and acquiring new customers. Within the time period of 6-18 months we expand to UK, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein. The Fintech Forum network will help us to build a large company, take advantage of a high-potential B2B SaaS Market and to grow rapidly.

7. What’s on your bookshelf or podcast app? Your favourite place for a coffee or a drink?

We build Layest out of Vienna, famous for our coffee houses like Café Sacher or Café Central. However, next to Café Central there is a small unknown coffee place in the Palais Ferstel called CaffèCouture. Reading old but gold 1984 from George Orwell there!

FUNDING ROUNDS

ORO Labs Raises $1.5M to Bring Gold to the Internet Capital Markets on Solana

ORO Labs secures $1.5M in pre-seed funding round, backed by 468 Capital, to redefine gold markets
For centuries, gold has been the world’s most trusted store of value—yet it has remained underutilized in financial markets. ORO is changing this by making gold more than just a passive investment—it’s now a fully functional, yield-generating financial asset.
The funding round was led by 468 Capital, with participation from Fasset and angel investors from leading Solana projects, including Phantom, Jupiter, Helium, Squads, Sanctum, Anza Labs, Perena, Bonk, and Forma, among others…

“The UAE is a global leader in gold trade, facilitating over $100 billion in gold transactions annually. By establishing itself in the UAE, ORO is able to tap into the region’s gold liquidity, regulatory clarity, and deep-rooted trade networks to offer users a secure, transparent, and scalable way to access and use tokenized gold on a global scale.

In addition to its funding success, ORO also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at ADGM last month in the presence of HE Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade, and HE Dr. Jörg Kukies, Germany’s Minister of Finance. The MOU outlines ORO’s commitment to expanding tokenized gold adoption across the UAE and beyond, reinforcing its strategic partnerships and regulatory compliance.

https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/104772/oro-labs-raises-15-million-for-tokenized-gold-play

Utila raises $18M to meet demand for its institutional digital asset wallets

Digital asset operations platform startup Utila Inc. announced today that it has raised $18 million in new funding to scale up global operations to meet demand for its institutional multiparty computation wallets and expand its research and development efforts.

Founded in 2022, Utila is an institutional digital asset operations platform that enables organizations to securely manage and build on digital assets. Utila provides enterprise-grade, secure MPC wallets that ensure military-grade security against key mismanagement and potential threats. ​MPC wallets employ multiparty computation technology or MPC to enhance security by distributing private key operations across multiple parties, ensuring no single entity has complete control.

The Utlia platform offers a robust policy engine for user and transaction management that allows organizations to assign roles and set approval flows based on multiple parameters. Utila supports a wide range of integrations, including anti-money laundering services, banking, liquidity providers, exchanges, decentralized finance platforms, staking and disaster recovery solutions.

Stablecoins have also become a significant focus of the company as their adoption continues to reshape the financial landscape. In 2024, stablecoin transfers surpassed $27.6 trillion, exceeding the combined transaction volume of Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc., highlighting their growing role in global payments.

As the industry shifts from speculative trading to real-world financial applications, Utila is positioning itself to meet the increasing demand for secure and efficient stablecoin infrastructure.

Nyca Partners LP led Utila’s Series A round with participation from seed investors Wing Venture Capital and NFX Guild Management, as well as funds including Haymaker Ventures, Gaingels and Cerca Partners. Including the new funding, Utila has raised $35 million to date, including a round of $11.5 million in March 2024.

https://siliconangle.com/2025/03/19/utila-raises-18m-meet-demand-institutional-digital-asset-mpc-wallets/

Blockchain payments company Halliday raises $20 million from Andreessen Horowitz

Halliday, a startup that helps financial institutions automate services with blockchain and AI technology, has raised $20 million from venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz.

The company works with charter banks, payment service providers and other financial institutions that are interested in blockchain technology to help accelerate their entrance into the space by making it easier to design financial workflows, CEO and co-founder of Halliday Griffin Dunaif told Fortune.

Financial workflows—an organized sequence of steps required to move funds from one place to another—are integral to any company that handles money for their clients. In the crypto world, establishing these workflows requires engineers to program smart contracts, which can be a slow and arduous process, Dunaif said.

With Halliday’s Agentic Workflow Protocol, companies can easily connect services like verifying a transaction or issuing a payment, into one cohesive workflow. “It’s an engine that lets you stitch together services into workflows so that they can be automated,” Dunaif said.

Additionally, developers can implement agentic AI—a type of AI model that can solve problems and execute actions with limited supervision—within their workflows to automate decision-making. “We want to bring blockchain up to the agentic era, because no software will not be agentic as these technologies mature,” he said.

Other crypto companies also work with financial institutions to make their payment systems more efficient. Consensys, a blockchain company founded in 2014, has a product called the CodeFi Blockchain Application Suite, which includes a service that helps financial institutions automate workflows.

Other investors in this latest round included Avalanche Blizzard Fund, Credibly Neutral, and Alt Layer. Halliday previously raised $6 million from Andreessen Horowitz in 2022.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/blockchain-payments-company-halliday-raises-130000708.html?guccounter=1&guce

Mortgage as an employee benefit? Kleiner Perkins leads $23.5M Series A for Multiply Mortgage

After hitting record lows at the start of the pandemic, mortgage rates began to climb in 2022 and haven’t come down significantly since. 

With 30-year mortgage rates hovering at over 6.5% today (they were as low as 2.49% in 2020!), buying a home is simply not that attainable for many people.

One Denver-based startup is out to help change that. Founded in 2022, Multiply Mortgage originally set out to help tech employees access some of the value of their equity compensation while their employers were still private.

But interestingly, the founders, Michael White and Gautam Gupta — alums of Square, Opendoor, DoorDash, and Uber — observed that most of the employees were using their liquidity offerings for home purchases and related expenses.

“Homeownership has become increasingly out of reach for many Americans, and we don’t expect interest rates to fall to the levels we saw in 2020 ever again,” White told TechCrunch.

So in July 2024, the startup altered course to offer a mortgage benefit program that helps employees of its partner companies, which include the likes of Anduril and Ramp, navigate a home purchase.

Today, Multiply offers employees 1:1s with mortgage advisors, employee education sessions around the home purchase and financing process as well as mortgage interest rate discounts of up to .75%. The startup works with a network of 15-20 lenders to access discounted interest rates.

Multiply is not the only company that aggregates potential lenders. Others such as LendingTree do as well. But White asserts that the biggest difference between Multiply and LendingTree is the latter is more of a self-serve marketplace to find lenders and compare them. Multiply’s model is more of a concierge one that is also paired with reduced interest rates, he added.

…Multiply makes money by earning commission on mortgage originations.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/19/mortgage-as-an-employee-benefit-kleiner-perkins-leads-23-5m-series-a-for-multiply-mortgage/

Crossmint Raises $23.6M, led by Ribbit Capital

To bring every business and AI agent onchain

16 years in the making, blockchains are ready for scale. Stablecoins will transform commerce, every asset will be tokenized, and every business will move onchain, just as they moved online in the 2000s. 

AI agents are a massive new class of user that will gravitate to wallets and stablecoins as they facilitate an increasing portion of e-commerce spending, and take over the economy. 

However, for this transformation to happen, building and using onchain applications must become radically simpler—a core belief that drives everything we do at Crossmint.

Today, we’re announcing $23.6M in funding, led by Ribbit Capital, to help move every business – and AI agent – onchain, with an all-in-one platform that supports any use case. 

Building onchain is hard. To build a single application, companies must hire a costly team of blockchain engineers. 

From there, they need to tape together anywhere from 5-10 vendors (RPCs, indexers, wallet infra, treasury management, tokenization, crypto accounting, security plug-ins, and more). Onboarding takes months. 

Companies then must build internal processes for adding crypto to their balance sheet, managing a treasury, paying for gas—all while keeping private keys secure and staying on top of an ever-changing regulatory environment.

Even after overcoming these hurdles, the end-user experience remains frustratingly complex. Passphrases, transaction approval prompts, and gas fees make adoption difficult to achieve. 

Crossmint makes it easy. We transform the cumbersome process of building onchain through a suite of low-code APIs—for wallets, stablecoins, onramps, tokenization, and credentials—that can be combined to create any use case.

Our APIs don’t require extensive expertise to integrate. Companies can work with a single vendor. We handle treasury management and gas fees, so companies don’t need to hold crypto on their books, or worry about key management. 

The rise of AI agents. Soon, most economic transactions will be executed by AI agents. These new economic actors will buy your groceries, book your flights, and manage the inventories and balance sheets of entire companies. 

However, legacy systems have been designed to keep agents out. We know this particularly well given Crossmint co-founder Alfonso was formerly the PM behind Google’s “I’m not a robot,” reCAPTCHA, designed to block automated use. 

Agents will need new systems that don’t require them to circumvent captchas, two-factor prompts, and manual approvals designed for human users. This is why we’ve adapted our APIs to cater to this new and rising class of consumer. 

Our wallet, payment, and credential APIs now let agents securely hold funds, trade assets, and purchase goods and services. Crossmint’s GOAT SDK is the most downloaded open-source library for connecting AI agents to blockchain protocols, with 150,000 downloads in the past two months. 

What’s next. In the past year, we’ve seen our subscription revenue increase by 1,100%, with over 40,000 companies and developers now using the Crossmint platform across 40+ blockchains. This momentum confirms what we’ve long believed: the world is ready to move onchain.

https://blog.crossmint.com/crossmint-raises-23-6m-led-by-ribbit-capital/

Mena Banking-as-a-Service player NymCard raises $33 million

Abu Dhabi-based banking-as-a-Service vendor NymCard has secured $33 million in a Series B funding round.

Led by QED Investors, the round saw strong backing from existing investors including Lunate, Dubai Future District Fund, Mashreq Bank, Knollwood, Reciprocal, FJLabs, Shorooq and Endeavor, alongside new participation from Oraseya Capital

Operating across 10+ markets in Mena, NymCard’s full-stack infrastructure provides embedded card issuing and processing, lending and real-time money movement services to a client base comprising 50+ banks, enterprises, fintechs and telecom providers.

“This investment is a testament to the strength of our technology and our commitment to enabling financial innovation in Mena,” says Omar Onsi, CEO of NymCard. “With the backing of our investors, we will continue pushing the boundaries of payments and embedded finance, ensuring our clients have access to best-in-class payment infrastructure solutions backed up by solid programme management capabilities.”

https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/45673/mena-banking-as-a-service-player-nymcard-raises-33-million

Inn-Flow Secures $45 Million Growth Investment from Mainsail Partners

Inn-Flow has secured $45 million to help accelerate innovation, enhance customer experience, and fuel growth for its all-in-one hotel management and accounting platform

Raleigh, NC – March 14, 2025 – Inn-Flow, a leading provider of modern, all-in-one back-office management and accounting software specifically designed for hotels, today announced a $45 million growth capital investment from Mainsail Partners, a growth equity firm that specializes in partnering with vertical SaaS companies. This investment will help accelerate Inn-Flow’s ongoing product innovation, significantly enhance customer experience, and expand the team to better serve the evolving needs of hotel owners and management companies.

Originally developed in 2009 by hospitality industry veteran John Erhart to address operational challenges within his family’s hotel management business, Inn-Flow officially launched industry-wide in 2014. Since then, it has grown quickly into a comprehensive, cloud-based platform purpose-built to streamline hotel operations, enhance financial management, and optimize labor costs. Inn-Flow’s integrated solutions span accounting and bookkeeping, labor management, payroll, business intelligence, and more—enabling hotel operators to efficiently run and scale their businesses.

https://mainsailpartners.com/inn-flow-secures-45-million-growth-investment-from-mainsail-partners/

Fortis secures capital infusion

Fortis, a payments technology leader for software providers, ERP customers, and scaling businesses announced today that it has received a joint investment from Audax Private Equity (“Audax”) and existing investor Lovell Minnick Partners (“LMP”). This investment will support Fortis in accelerating its mission to become the global leader in payment technology and embedded commerce experiences for businesses. Fortis, under LMP’s stewardship, has experienced rapid expansion by delivering innovative, technology-driven solutions that empower businesses seeking to seamlessly integrate payments into their software and workflows. Audax and LMP will jointly participate in this growth-oriented recapitalization. This capital infusion positions the company for continued growth and expansion in the rapidly expanding $100 trillion B2B payments market.

Since the investment by LMP in 2019, Fortis has expanded its reach across the business-to-business platform and software ecosystem, providing tailored payment solutions that drive efficiency and improved customer and business experiences…

…Through this strategic investment, Audax will join LMP in its partnership with Fortis to enhance the embedded payments journey, enhance product and service offerings, and scale infrastructure to meet the evolving needs of businesses. By leveraging the deep expertise and resources of Audax in scaling middle-market companies and Fortis’ track record in embedded, ERP and business payments, the partnership is poised to strengthen Fortis’ market position and technological capabilities.

https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/104760/fortis-secures-capital-infusion

VENTURE FUNDS

In another good sign for fintech, Ribbit Capital is raising a new $500M fund

Ribbit Capital, a venture firm known for its fintech investments, is raising $500 million for a new fund, a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed on Wednesday.

The new capital appears to be a part of the Palo Alto-based venture firm’s latest flagship fund, titled Ribbit Capital Y, the SEC filing suggests.

In 2023, Ribbit Capital raised $800 million, reportedly for its tenth flagship fund, Ribbit Capital X.

The venture firm has invested in (and exited) some of the world’s biggest fintech startups, including Nubank, Affirm, and Robinhood. In addition to backing North American startups, the firm has invested in fintechs across emerging markets, including those in India, such as CRED, Fi, Groww, Razorpay, and PhonePe, among others. It also invested in crypto-focused companies including the likes of Coinbase, CoinSwitch, and Uniswap.

Interestingly, Ribbit Capital’s recent funds are significantly smaller than the $1.15 billion vehicle it raised in 2022. That followed a busy year for the firm, which closed deals even in markets like Latin America to capitalize on the global 2021 VC boom.

Nevertheless, since its inception in 2012, Ribbit Capital has backed 243 investments and led 90 of them, per the details available on Crunchbase. Crypto wallet infrastructure startup Privy’s $15 million round was the latest led by Ribbit Capital this week.

The firm also exited 24 of its investments, per Crunchbase.

The fundraise is yet another signal that the once-beleaguered fintech area is back on the upswing. Other signs include the planned IPO of international buy now, pay later darling Klarna and the rise in valuations of Ramp and Stripe. This after ServiceTitan had a blockbuster IPO in December that was a good omen for other fintechs.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/19/in-another-good-sign-for-fintech-ribbit-capital-is-raising-a-new-500m-fund/

Vento rolls out new €75M fund for Italian founders, no matter where they live

Over the last 15 years or so, as European venture capital shifted into a higher gear, one way to help a nation’s ecosystem flourish was to invest in founders from that country, regardless of where they were based. This would help re-patriate the entrepreneurial mindset back home. In Europe, the approach was pioneered in part by Paris-based Kima Ventures. Now a new venture firm hopes to replicate that idea from Italy. 

Vento, one of Italy’s most active private early-stage VCs, is launching its second fund, hard-capped at €75 million, specifically to back Italian startup founders at home and abroad.

The sector-agnostic fund originated from the organizers of Italian Tech Week (ITW), held annually in Turin, which has hosted the likes of Sam Altman, Reid Hoffman, and Elon Musk, among others. 

The event was originally launched by Fiat family scion John Elkann, chairman of Vento, as well as chairman of Stellantis (the parent company of Fiat) and Exor (the holding company of the Agnelli family, which controls Fiat and other assets).

https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/12/vento-hopes-new-e75m-fund-for-italian-founders-anywhere-will-kick-italys-ecosystem-into-life/

“Most of the insurance brokers are in their harvesting phase, so they have to reduce their liability risk and work on their portfolios to have a high automation rate in place. Insurers/MGAs have a lack of talent, especially when it comes to sales & underwriting capacities, so it requires an efficient & standardized process to identify profitable insurance portfolios.” 

This week we feature a Q&A with Maximilian Würz of Policentransfer, a marketplace for insurance broker portfolios.

Happy holidays and see you after a two week break!

Deal Highlights
Here are the early stage financing rounds and new funds to watch this week:

Ayan Capital, a London-based Islamic fintech, has secured £2.8 million in equity funding to expand halal car finance and other Islamic finance products in the UK.

NAO, which recently won the FinTech Germany Award, is an app-based co-investment platform for alternative investments, opening the door to alternative asset classes such as private equity, infrastructure, or hedge funds, previously reserved for a financially strong elite or institutional investors.

Superform Labs, the onchain wealth app to effortlessly grow your crypto portfolio, announced today it has raised $3 million in a strategic round led by VanEck Ventures.

Read on for more on the founders and investors in the news last week. If you are a startup, investor or corporate building or backing “what’s next in finance” and want to spread the word with our network of over 20k, reach out to Frank Schwab and Samarth Shekhar.

Q&A with Maximilian Würz of Policentransfer- marketplace for insurance broker portfolios

Tell us a bit about yourself. 

Max has a strong technical and business background with a degree in business administration. He worked in the last decade for consulting firms and multinationals, mostly in the field of insurance within EMEA. Furthermore, Max got elected to be part of an insurance association (BiPRO) to standardize APIs within the insurance industry.

What problem or opportunity do you address, and for which target customers? 

Most of the insurance brokers are in their harvesting phase, so they have to reduce their liability risk and work on their portfolios to have a high automation rate in place. Insurers/MGAs have a lack of talent, especially when it comes to sales & underwriting capacities, so it requires an efficient & standardized process to identify profitable insurance portfolios.

http://www.fintechforum.de/qa-with-maximilian-wurz-of-policentransfer-marketplace-for-insurance-broker-portfolios/

VENTURE FINANCING

Islamic fintech startup Ayan Capital secures £2.6 million in equity funding

Ayan Capital, a London-based Islamic fintech, has secured £2.8 million in equity funding to expand halal car finance and other Islamic finance products in the UK.

The round has been led by Cur8 Capital, a UK-based platform that offers ethical investment opportunities.

The team behind Ayan previously built Alif, a banking and fintech group in Central Asia, that has over 1,300 employees and serves 3.8 million customers.

Uzair Ali, principal at Cur8 Capital, says: “With 85% of Gen Z Muslims seeking to bank in line with their values, Ayan is going after a massive market. They have scaled impressively from car finance to broader solutions in line with their vision to build a digital Islamic neo-bank. With Abdullo’s proven track record and the team’s deep expertise, we are very excited for what comes next.”

https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/45198/islamic-fintech-startup-ayan-capital-secures-26-million-in-equity-funding

Perena completed approximately $3 million in Pre-Seed funding, led by Borderless Capital

ChainCatcher news, according to Coindesk, the stablecoin infrastructure protocol Perena has completed a Pre-Seed funding round of approximately $3 million, led by Borderless Capital. The protocol was founded by Anna Yuan, the former stablecoin head at the Solana Foundation.

Anna Yuan stated that Perena is building an exchange pool that allows traders of seven different stablecoins to swap between assets. Stablecoin holders will be able to earn additional yield by lending their assets into the pool.

In addition to the mining pool infrastructure, Perena also plans to establish a “synthetic currency,” which Yuan claims will be more resilient than the fiat currency most people hold in traditional bank accounts. This will take the form of a “collateralized debt position” (CDP) stablecoin backed by other stablecoins. Perena has not finalized its design yet, but Anna Yuan hopes that building the CDP alongside stable exchanges will create more “synergies.”

https://www.chaincatcher.com/en/article/2156526

Superform Raises $3M to Launch SuperVaults, Intelligent Onchain High-Yield Products, Led by VanEck Ventures

With $9.5M in total funding, Superform launches SuperUSDC to deliver optimized stablecoin yield with onchain simplicity.

Superform Labs, the onchain wealth app to effortlessly grow your crypto portfolio, announced today it has raised $3 million in a strategic round led by VanEck Ventures with participation from Polychain Capital, CMT Digital, Amber Group, Node Ventures, BlockTower Capital, Heartcore Capital, Maven11 Capital, and UpTop Capital. This follows its $6.5 million Seed round in November 2022, bringing Superform Labs’ total funding to $9.5 million.

The new funding coincides with the launch of SuperVaults, Superform’s flagship native yield products designed to redefine onchain earning with simplicity, security, and optimization and Season 2 of their rewards program, offering boosted rewards for SuperVault depositors. Acting as intelligent onchain high-yield savings products, SuperVaults empower users to earn more with their assets through automated, non-custodial yield management. These single-asset vaults seamlessly maximize returns while combining the reliability and accessibility of traditional finance with the earning potential of onchain finance.

“We’re excited to support Superform’s mission to redefine onchain wealth as one of the first investments from our new fund,” said Wyatt Lonergan, General Partner at VanEck Ventures. “We strongly believe a major platform opportunity will emerge in aggregating interest-bearing products in the open, ultimately catalyzing the next wave of innovation in wealth management. SuperVaults take this a step further by turning assets like USDC into optimized yield products leveraging blue chip protocols under the hood.”

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/superform-raises-3m-to-launch-supervaults-intelligent-onchain-high-yield-products-led-by-vaneck-ventures-1034130079

Berlin-based WealthTech startup NAO raises €3.4 million

Berlin-based WealthTech startup NAO has raised €3.4 million in a seed funding round from various family offices, private investors and existing investors, including FinTech veteran Jakob Schreyer and VC Zeitgeist X Ventures.

NAO, which recently won the FinTech Germany Award, is an app-based co-investment platform for alternative investments, opening the door to alternative asset classes such as private equity, infrastructure, or hedge funds, previously reserved for a financially strong elite or institutional investors.

Launched in mid-2023, the firm has struck up partnerships with banks and asset managers such as Baader Bank, Chartered Investments, FERI, UniCredit, UBS, and Vontobel, and expanded into Austria.

The firm claims that ‘several thousand’ customers now use the NAO investment app and invest an average of around €10,000.

NAO founder and CEO Robin Binder says: “Everyone should be able to invest in alternative asset classes like private equity as easily as they do in stocks or ETFs. That’s why we’ve created the first broker for private and alternative investments. The trust of our investors is helping us realize our vision. With the fresh capital, we want to attract even more top asset managers as partners, expand our customer base internationally, and use our technology to make a previously illiquid market liquid.”

https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/45183/berlin-based-wealthtech-startup-nao-raises-34-million

Double crosses $10M in AUM + $3.9M Seed Round

Double is proud to announce we crossed $10M in AUM within 3 months of our beta launch. This achievement underscores the demand for Double’s unique approach to zero expense ratio index investing.

“Reaching $10 million in AUM so quickly is a testament to the hard work of our team and the trust our users have placed in us,” said JJ Maxwell, CEO. “This is just the beginning of our journey to make investing more accessible and affordable for everyone”

We’re also happy to announce our $3.9 million seed round. This funding will enable us to deliver on our vision of bringing zero expense ratio funds to the masses. We’re proud to be backed by some of the best entrepreneurs in the business, including Ilya Sukhar (co-founder of Parse and now at Matrix), Garry Tan (co-founder of Posterous and now at YC), Jawed Karim (co-founder of YouTube), Jon Xu (co-founder of FutureAdvisor acquired by Blackrock), JJ Fliegelman (co-founder of WayUp), Rich Aberman (co-founder of WePay acquired by JP Morgan Chase), Nick Elledge (co-founder of DataFleets acquired by LiveRamp), Jason Freedman (42Floors acquired by JLL), and Roger Dickey (co-founder of Gigster) among others.

Double is an investment platform that allows you to invest in 50+ broad stock market indexes with zero expense ratios. Unlike traditional financial advisors or ETFs that charge a fee based on a percentage of your assets, Double charges a flat $1/month. Double works by buying fractional shares of the individual stocks that make up popular indexes (SPY, VOO, etc.), allowing for customization and tax-loss harvesting.

With Double, you can easily create and manage your investment strategy, deposit funds, and let the platform handle the rest, including rebalancing and tax-loss harvesting. Our goal is to bring the low-fee trend pioneered by Robinhood to ETFs and mutual funds, potentially saving each customer thousands of dollars over the long term.

https://double.finance/blog/10M-AUM

Blockchain platform Haven1 completes $4.6 million private fundraising, with participation from Animoca Brands and KuCoin Ventures

ChainCatcher news, according to TechiInasia, the blockchain platform Haven1 has completed a $4.6 million private fundraising, with participation from Animoca Brands and KuCoin Ventures. The funds will be used to enhance Haven1’s blockchain infrastructure, which focuses on improving decentralized finance and tokenized real-world assets.

Additionally, the Web3 asset data platform RootData shows that Haven1 is a purpose-built, EVM-compatible Proof of Authority (PoA) blockchain that provides a secure environment for on-chain financial transactions. Haven1 is built by Yield App

https://www.chaincatcher.com/en/article/2155453

YC-backed Finny is using AI to match financial advisors with prospects

Financial advisors have a big hurdle when it comes to finding new clients: Cold outreach rarely works. Often, the only way to find a good prospect is to tap your network for warm intros, or trawl platforms like LinkedIn, Pitchbook or ZoomInfo in hopes of landing a meeting, which may or may not convert.

Eden Ovadia says she learned that when she was working at Boston Consulting Group, helping big financial institutions with their growth strategies: “[Financial advisors] have no way to qualify these leads or reach their particular niche at scale, with the result that they spend an average of 58 hours going after unqualified prospects before converting a single one,” she told TechCrunch in an interview.

The problem’s apparently even worse for independent advisors, who often don’t have a big team doing outreach or finding qualified leads. Ovadia saw an opportunity there, and with the help of her two co-founders, Victoria Toli and Theo Janson, started Finny with a simple goal: To build an AI agent that could match advisors with prospects who meet their search criteria.

After a financial advisor signs up and provides what they’re looking for, Finny trawls through its database to narrow down potential clients in the advisor’s target niche. The startup also provides a prioritization score that’s essentially like a compatibility score because it is based on the predicted chances of a client converting.

In essence, then, Finny has the potential to provide what could almost be qualified as a “warm” lead, helping advisors find customers who they have the most chance of converting.

In addition, the platform suggests optimal channels to reach out to high-priority prospects, handles follow-ups, and schedules meetings.

Soon after it was founded in late 2023, Finny got into Y Combinator and joined the Summer 2024 batch. The company launched an MVP in May 2024 and has now raised $4.2 million in a seed round co-led by Maple VC and HNVR, with participation from Crossbeam Ventures, Liquid 2, and Y Combinator. Angel investors Morningstar CEO Kunal Kapoor, Gusto CPO Tomer London, and Deel COO Dan Westgarth also invested.

“Our target base is comprised of more than 90% RIAs [registered investment advisors], but we are in the process of setting up trials with some of the larger banks,” Ovadia said.

Its competitors include ZoomInfo, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Crunchbase, and Pitchbook. Other peers could be marketplaces that match clients with advisors. Platforms like Farther, Savvy Wealth, and Robinhood provide wealth management services.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/11/yc-backed-finny-helps-financial-advisors-find-new-clients/

AML firm Themis raises £7.25m

Financial crime prevention platform Themis has raised £7.25 million in scale-up funding.

With offices in London and the Middle East, Themis has developed know your customer and anti-money laundering technology to help clients manage their financial crime exposure.

The company says it has recently won contracts with regulators, sovereign wealth funds and investment managers, and has secured a UK Innovation grant to advance its AI capabilities and launched an AML registered firm in Saudi Arabia.
Matthew Hurn, chairman, Themis, says: “We’ve worked hard to identify the right strategic partners to scale Themis and showcase its superior AI technology. This funding positions us perfectly to accelerate innovation.”

https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/45204/aml-firm-themis-raises-725m

Interlace Secures $10 Million in Series B1 Funding, Expands Leadership Team to Accelerate Global Growth

SINGAPORE, Dec. 4, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Interlace, a global card issuance and digital asset management platform based in Singapore, announced today that it has raised $10 million in its Series B1 funding round. The round was led by Bitrock Capital, with participation from prominent individual investors in the fintech industry, including early employees and senior managers from leading companies such as Klarna and Robinhood.

To date, Interlace has issued over 4.5 million cards, partnered with 100+ integrated partners, and processes over 60 million transactions annually. The new funding willo support Interlace’s continued global expansion into key markets such as Asia-Pacific (APAC), the United States, and the United Kingdom. A significant portion of the investment will be allocated to building an international team, enhancing the company’s ability to serve a diverse and global client base.

Founded in 2019, Interlace delivers the most efficient and cost-effective cross-border, cross-currency, and cross-system financial solutions for Web3, cross-border e-commerce, B2B trade, developers, and more. Operating in strict compliance with global regulations, Interlace holds the highest security certification in the international card payment industry, PCI-DSS Level 1, and is licensed in the United States, Hong Kong, and Lithuania.

https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/interlace-secures-10-million-in-series-b1-funding-expands-leadership-team-to-accelerate-global-growth-302321909.html

HongShan, Peak XV back stablecoin-powered neobank KAST

Peak XV and HongShan, the Indian and Chinese investment firms that split from powerhouse Sequoia last year, have co-led a $10 million seed investment in KAST, a dollar-denominated neobank-like platform that lets customers hold and spend stablecoins through traditional payment avenues.

Kast also issues credit cards that work with standard merchant networks, enabling users to spend their stablecoin holdings at merchants who don’t support crypto transactions.

The startup is targeting emerging markets, where access to USD is restricted and remittance costs are high. KAST does not operate in India or China due to regulatory constraints, but it serves the large offshore workforce from these markets.

Co-founder Raagulan Pathy, who previously ran Circle’s Asia Pacific operations, told TechCrunch that banking infrastructure in many countries severely lacks cross-border capabilities. The platform aims to reduce friction in making international payments by bypassing traditional banking networks.

KAST’s launch comes as stablecoin adoption sees rapid growth. More than 20 million people use stablecoins every month across the world, and much of that is concentrated in emerging markets. Stripe’s $1.1 billion acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure provider Bridge in October has further signaled growing mainstream corporate interest in the technology.

The startup faces competition from both crypto-native firms and traditional fintech companies expanding into stablecoins. PayPal has launched its own dollar-pegged token, while Revolut and Ripple have announced plans to issue stablecoins. The sector is also heavily concentrated, with Tether controlling roughly three-fourths of supply.

The startup plans to launch savings products and expand its remittance services while maintaining a focus on stablecoin-based infrastructure.

Because KAST only works with stablecoins, it also offers its customers “a safe haven for hard-earned income when local currencies decline,” said Alex Svanevik, co-founder and chief executive of analytics platform Nansen.ai and an early-backer of KAST.

“As more digital nomads receive salaries in stablecoins, they can now bypass the hassle of legacy rails. International transfers that once took weeks can now be completed instantly and at virtually no cost,” he said in a statement.

Their former parent Sequoia is in advanced stages of deliberation to back fintech Vance, TechCrunch reported late last month. If the deal goes through, it would be the firm’s first investment in India since the separation.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/11/kast-stablecoin-neobank-hongshan-peak-xv/

Bitcoin Buy and Sell App Relai Raises $12M for Europe Expansion

Relai, a bitcoin (BTC) buy, sell and self-custody application, has raised $12 million Series A funding. The Switzerland-based company’s Series A was led by Ego Death Capital, a bitcoin only VC, which committed $4 million to the raise. Other participants included Plan B Bitcoin Fund, Timechain, and Solit Group. Following the maxim of “not your keys, not your coins,” trusted self-custody has proved popular in Switzerland, even among newcomers to crypto, according to Relai, which has had over 400,000 downloads. The plan is to use the new funding to expand further into Europe and become licensed under the new Markets in Crypto Assets regime (MICA), Relai said in a press release. “Despite the tough market conditions, our financing round was heavily oversubscribed. This fresh capital will massively accelerate our growth and support our mission to educate and onboard millions of Europeans to Bitcoin.” said Julian Liniger, co-founder and CEO of Relai, in a statement.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-buy-sell-app-relai-110000438.html

Accounting startup TrueWind raises $13M Series A

TrueWind, an accounting AI startup with a bookkeeping co-pilot, has raised $13 million in Series A funding led by Rho Capital and Thomson Reuters Ventures.

Why it matters: Regulations restrict AI usage in some corners of financial services, but investors believe accounting opportunities add up.

By the numbers: Founded in 2022, TrueWind sells to smaller companies and accounting firms, which CEO Alex Lee says has grown the company’s ARR four-fold in the past year to over $1 million.

It previously raised $4 million in funding by pitching itself as a co-pilot that would automatically pull financial information from a companies various data sources — and allow a human to make the final check.

https://www.axios.com/pro/fintech-deals/2024/12/11/accounting-ai-truewind-13-million

Lava Raises $10M to Enable Bitcoin-Backed Dollar Loans

Lava has secured $10 million in Series A funding from major VC firms Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund.

Lava, a New York-based Bitcoin lending platform, has secured $10 million in Series A funding from major VC firms Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund, according to a recent report from Fortune.

Founders Fund has maintained cautious activity in the crypto space. This has primarily been through partner Joey Krug, who joined from blockchain-focused Pantera in 2023.

Khosla Ventures Stayed Away From Crypto After Worldcoin Investment

Khosla Ventures, however, has largely stayed away since its high-profile $100 million investment in Sam Altman’s Worldcoin project in 2022.

Keith Rabois, who recently returned to Khosla Ventures from Founders Fund, told Fortune that the Lava investment was based on the entrepreneur and specific opportunity rather than signaling a broader pivot toward crypto.

Lava enables users to borrow dollars against their Bitcoin holdings. This aims to address a common challenge for crypto investors who want to leverage their assets without liquidating them.

“Our tagline is save in Bitcoin, spend in dollars,” Lava’s founder and CEO Shehzan Maredia said.

https://cryptonews.com/news/lava-raises-10m-from-major-vc-firms-to-enable-bitcoin-backed-dollar-loans/

Swedish fintech Mynt secures €22M Series B

The company is now valued at €175M.

Mynt, a provider of corporate credit cards and spend management software, has raised a €22M funding round at a  valuation of approximately €175M.

The round was led by Vor Capital, with participation from existing investors CNI, Incore and others. The Series B round brings Mynt’s total funding to over €50M.

With the incoming capital, Mynt plans to expand into the UK and other European markets, broaden its product offering and capitalise on growing demand for spend management among SMEs.

Mynt’s cutsomer base is made up largely of Nordic SMEs, to whom it offering corporate cards integrated with accounting systems. Mynt reached profitability on a month-over-month basis in September, while expanding its customer base from 3,000 to 12,000 SMEs during the past year.

During its next phase, Mynt will scale its spend management-as-a-service offering, the Mynt Platform, across the UK and Central Europe. This platform is designed for banks, ERPs, and fleet and mobility companies to enable them with proactive spend management and corporate card issuing capabilities. With curent notable partners such as Fortnox and Accountor rolling out card solutions to customers, Mynt hopes to translate the same success in central European markets.

https://tech.eu/2024/12/11/swedish-fintech-mynt-secures-eur22m-series-b/

Atlas Card Raises $27M in Series B Funding

Atlas Card, a NYC-based members-only concierge service and charge card provider focused on delivering access to coveted experiences through a seamless spending experience, raised $27M in Series B funding.

The round was led by Michael Gilroy and Gokul Rajaram’s Marathon with participation from angel investors including Eric Schmidt, Olaf Carlson-Wee, and Anton Levy.

The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and its business reach.

Led by CEO and Founder Patrick Mrozowski, Atlas offers members a charge card, mobile app, and text-based concierge service. Members get access to benefits including hard-to-secure reservations at peak times, upgrades and preferred rates at luxury hotels, and invitations to experiences such as concerts and sporting events. The spending experience is anchored by a mirror-finished metal card and software-enabled features like no pre-set spending limits, virtual cards with configurable limits, and support for multiple user profiles, including personal staff, business managers, and family members.

In 2025, the company aims to surpass $1 billion in purchase volume, expanding its offerings to provide cardmembers with access across new markets and categories.

FinSMEs

12/12/2024

https://www.finsmes.com/2024/12/atlas-card-raises-27m-in-series-b-funding.html

Jiko Secures $29 Million in Series C Funding, Strengthens Its Board and Advisory Committee

Jiko, the technology platform and bank that provides seamless access to U.S. Treasury bills, announced today the completion of a $29 million Series C funding round led by existing investors Upfront Ventures, with the participation from Airbus Ventures, Red River West, Radicle Impact and other undisclosed investors.

This latest investment strengthens the company’s operating capital as it continues to establish itself as a major player in the institutional and enterprise market.

The Jiko platform provides clients with the flexibility to open and manage digital corporate pockets of cash in real time. Jiko’s foundational innovation, Jiko Pockets, allows clients to conveniently purchase and sell T-bills programmatically, 24/7, offering a safer alternative to traditional investment vehicles like leveraged bank deposits and money market funds. Jiko’s uniquely integrated digital trading desk, banking charter, and cloud-based infrastructure have helped clients trade over $10 billion in T-bills.

As a result, treasury teams can for the first time access, configure, and manage digital pockets of sensitive corporate cash through Jiko’s online corporate dashboard, Jiko’s secure enterprise API, and Jiko’s cutting-edge integrations into a growing list of world-leading Treasury Management platforms.

“This funding round is a testament to the trust our investors have in Jiko’s mission,” remarks Stephane Lintner, Jiko Founder and CEO. “By connecting corporate treasurers directly to the US government’s yield and full faith, we are witnessing an unparalleled unlocking of financial flexibility and control for our globally-operative clients. We love to see our platform help treasury teams innovate beyond existing workflows–with the peace of mind that their investments earn the risk-free treasury rate at all times.”

“As a founder in the cloud and treasury space, I understand the need for modern, robust infrastructure that supports secure storage and seamless transfers,” said Jean-Luc Robert, former CEO and founder of Kyriba. “Corporate Treasury has long been underserved with outdated systems, and Jiko addresses a critical gap with its innovative digital platform. I’m thrilled to bring my experience to this mission and support Jiko as they modernize treasury management with the technology and agility that today’s companies need.”

https://financialit.net/news/fundraising-news/jiko-secures-29-million-series-c-funding-strengthens-its-board-and-advisory

Current raises first new funding since 2021

Current, the neobank startup valued at $2.2 billion in 2021, raised $30 million in equity and $175 million in additional financing as it aims for profitability in the second half of 2025, CEO Stuart Sopp tells Axios.

Why it matters: Some neobanks are coming up for air again after a challenging post-pandemic, post-ZIRP period.

Driving the news: This raise marks Current’s first since it was given that $2.2 billion valuation in 2021.

The equity came from existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Wellington Management, and Avenir.

https://www.axios.com/pro/fintech-deals/2024/12/12/current-new-funding-equity-debt

Stigg makes it easy to change your SaaS pricing

Stigg (not The Stig, just Stigg) describes itself as “the first scalable monetization platform for the modern billing stack.” There’s a lot going on in that sentence, but what it comes down to is that the startup, which on Wednesday announced a $17.5 million Series A round, helps SaaS companies model pricing, create pricing pages, decide (and change) which features and usage allotments should go with which pricing plan, manage customers, and more. One nifty aspect of Stigg is that it does all of this with an SDK that is available in most popular languages and aims to stay out of the developer’s way.

The company was founded by Dor Sasson and Anton Zagrebelny, who previously worked together at New Relic.

As with all good startup founding stories, the founders saw this as a gap in the market and decided to tackle it themselves. The team raised a $6.4 million seed round in 2021 (announced in 2022) from institutional investors like Unusual Ventures and Emerge Ventures, as well as a number of prominent angel investors. Today, Stigg counts the likes of AI21labs, Cloudinary, PagerDuty, Miro, and Webflow among its users.

The new funding round was led by Red Dot Capital Partners, with participation from Unusual Ventures, Emerge Ventures, Redseed, and Cerca Partners.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/11/stigg-makes-it-easy-to-change-your-saas-pricing/

Embedded investment API Upvest raises €100 million

Investment API Upvest is set to double its 170-strong team after closing on a €100 million Series C funding round.

The round was led by Hedosophia, and joined by Sapphire Ventures, alongside backing from existing investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, BlackRock, Earlybird, HV Capital, Motive Ventures, and Notion Capital.

Founded in Berlin in 2017, Upvest enables fintechs to offer end users access to fractional exchange-traded funds (ETFs), stocks, mutual funds, and soon derivatives, ELTIFs, and bonds in any currency.

In 2024, Upvest processed over 20 million orders on behalf of its clients, who include the likes of Revolut, Raisin, N26, and bunq.

The firm says it is now processing over one million trades per week, with revenue growing 25% per month on average.

https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/45209/embedded-investment-api-upvest-raises-100-million

Zest AI Announces $200 Million Growth Investment from Insight Partners

Leader in AI lending technology to further accelerate product innovation and take aim at high impact M&A opportunities

BURBANK, Calif., Dec. 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Zest AI, a leader in AI lending technology, announced a $200 million growth investment from global software investor Insight Partners to support the company’s next phase of transformation. The growth capital will enable Zest AI to double down on its current product portfolio, continuing to advance fraud protection and generative AI – all to build the future of lending through AI.

Zest AI transforms credit underwriting by using AI to provide more sophisticated and accurate scoring methods while also making the technology easy to use and explainable for all financial institutions. Unlike other credit scoring methods, Zest AI’s technology analyzes thousands of data variables—far surpassing traditional credit models that rely on 15–20 variables. With over 50 patents, Zest AI has developed and deployed over 500 active proprietary AI consumer credit models that help lenders make smarter lending decisions. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/zest-ai-announces-200-million-growth-investment-from-insight-partners-302330883.html

Report: Walmart and Ribbit Lead FinTech One’s $300 Million Funding Round

Walmart and investment firm Ribbit Capital are reportedly leading a funding round of more than $300 million for FinTech startup One, which is majority-owned by Walmart.

The round, which has not closed, would value One at $2.5 billion before the new money is raised, Bloomberg reported Thursday (Dec. 12), citing an unnamed source.

One aims to provide financial services to Walmart’s hundreds of millions of customers and its 1.6 million employees, according to the report.

The FinTech fully rolled out its products in Walmart’s stores about two years ago and now offers installment loans, debit cards, payments services and, for the retailer’s employees, early wage access, the report said.

One will launch Walmart’s credit card when the retailer issues that card with a new banking partner in 2025, per the report.

It now has a run-rate revenue of over $200 million and processes more than $15 billion in payment flow, according to the report.

https://www.pymnts.com/news/delivery/2024/i-do-delivered-doordash-davids-bridal-offering-shows-ecommerce-knows-no-limits/

M&A

Mambu Acquires Numeral

Mambu, an Amsterdam, the Netherlands-based provider of a cloud banking platform, acquired Numeral, a Paris, France-based payment technology provider for banks and fintechs.

The amount of the deal was not disclosed.

The acquisition strengthens Mambu’s position as an industry leader.

Founded in 2021, Numeral is a payment technology provider that offers financial institutions a universal gateway to connect to partner banks and access schemes and a modern payments hub to automate payment processing. The firm processes more than €10 billion in payments annually and has established a strong presence in Europe, having expanded its operations to the UK last year. Launched in 2021, Numeral provides the payment infrastructure for the most innovative European banks and fintechs like WorldFirst, Argentex and Alma and partners with Europe’s leading banks, including BNP Paribas, Barclays, BPCE, HSBC and LHV.

Led by CEO Fernando Zandona, Mambu is a provider of a SaaS cloud banking platform. Launched in 2011, it fast-tracks the design and build of nearly any type of financial offering for banks of all sizes, lenders, fintechs, retailers, telcos and more. Its composable approach means that independent components, systems and connectors can be assembled in any configuration to meet business needs and end user demands.

FinSMEs

05/12/2024

https://www.finsmes.com/2024/12/mambu-acquires-numeral.html

Capitolis acquires Capitalab for $46M to expand derivatives optimization offering

The acquisition by the fintech unicorn comes one week after it announced a $20 million funding round from leading global financial institutions Citi, Morgan Stanley, State Street, and UBS.

Fintech unicorn Capitolis has acquired British company Capitalab, which specializes in optimization and compression services to reduce the counterparty risk, size and costs of maintaining derivatives portfolios, from the BGC Group for $46 million. This acquisition will enable Capitolis to expand its offerings within the optimization industry. Capitolis reports that it has already facilitated the offsetting of over $10 trillion in interest rate derivatives.

“Optimization of interest rate derivatives is a significant and crucial area of the capital market, and executing it effectively is essential for the financial system and its participants,” said Gil Mandelzis, CEO and founder of Capitolis.

As part of the deal, Gavin Jackson, CEO of Capitalab, will join Capitolis’ management team. This acquisition follows recent investments in Capitolis by leading global financial institutions, including Citi, Morgan Stanley, State Street, and UBS. It also builds on Capitolis’ previous acquisition of LMRKTS in 2021.

Capitolis announced last week that Citi and State Street, both existing investors in the company, as well as new investors Morgan Stanley, and UBS, will invest $5 million and will join other existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, S Capital, Spark Capital, SVB Capital, Canapi Ventures, 9Yards Capital, Standard Chartered and J.P. Morgan.

Capitolis raised a $110 million Series D at a $1.6 billion valuation in March 2022. The company did not disclose its valuation in the latest funding round. Capitolis, which has raised a total of around $300 million to date, employs 130 people in Israel and the U.S.

Founded in 2017, Capitolis has developed a software as a service (SaaS) platform that provides financial resource optimization for capital markets, and enables financial institutions to allocate their capital more efficiently and in line with the constantly changing regulatory landscape.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/syreeyh7kl

FUNDS

OpenAI Startup Fund raises $44M in its largest SPV yet

The OpenAI Startup Fund, the early-stage AI investor affiliated with OpenAI, recently disclosed in a financial filing that it has raised over $44 million for its fifth Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) — its biggest so far.

Launched in 2021, the Fund has an unusual structure. It uses OpenAI’s name, but says OpenAI is not an investor. Originally legally controlled by OpenAI cofounder and CEO Sam Altman, it has raised money from outside LPs, including Microsoft, a big OpenAI backer, and “other OpenAI partners,” according to its website. Altman gave up legal control to general partner Ian Hathaway earlier this year.

Despite the flurry of activity, its website is sparse, with its most recent news posted a year ago. The website discloses only a few of its investments, like legal AI startup Harvey and AI note taking app Mem.

However, the fund is more active than its website indicates. Notable investments this year include include Thrive Health, an AI health venture between Sam Altman and Ariana Huffington, and warm outbound startup Unify.

The fund is also a seed investor in Anysphere, which is currently in the middle of a VC bidding war thanks to its AI code assistant Cursor.

These SPVs are all on top of the Fund’s original capital of $175.25m, which was raised back in October 2021.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/09/openai-startup-fund-raises-44m-in-its-largest-spv-yet/

Fly Ventures sets its eyes on technical founders with a fresh €80M fund

Fly Ventures, the Berlin-based VC that invests in seed-stage European startups within enterprise and deep tech, has launched its third fund at €80 million. The firm raised its last €53 million fund in 2020.

Aiming at technical founders, the firm claims Fund III was oversubscribed and raised in a single closing. Meanwhile, the small increase in fund size reflects the firm’s desire to operate as a boutique firm.

Founded by Gabriel Matuschka and Fredrik Bergenlid, Fly Ventures invests €1 million to €4 million in rounds of €2 million to €10 million at the inception stage.

Matuschka told TechCrunch: “We like doing things that at the time, other people think, what the … material science and AI?! These days, more people do it, but our game plan is to do these kinds of investments two or three years before anybody else cares.”

With Matt Wichrowski, Marie Brayer, Bergenlid, and Matuschka, the firm operates in an equal-GP model of four partners each distributed across Berlin, London, Paris, and Zurich.

“I think the Berlin/London thing specifically is also plus Munich, because from Berlin you can cover Munich. And for the more technical stuff, Munich tends to be a bit stronger. But it was always clear you had to do Germany and the UK. Then I guess over the last four years or so, Paris, on the more technical side, also really accelerated, which is the reason why we also added Marie, who is based in Paris,” said Matuschka.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/06/fly-ventures-sets-its-eyes-on-technical-founders-with-a-fresh-e80m-fund/

Heartcore Capital closes $180M fund to pivot toward infrastructure, synthetic biology, climate

Back in the heady days of 2021, Heartcore Capital planned to focus on consumer technology with a $200 million fund. Fast-forward to 2024, and its latest fund will now “leaven the bread” of that thesis, with a fresh $180 million (€170 million) to go broader and more generalist than that earlier thesis.

Some 17 years into the game, Heartcore’s Fund V will continue to be an early-stage fund and now counts companies like Boozt, Neo4j, Peakon, Tink, GetYourGuide, TravelPerk, and Podimo in its portfolio.

Aiming to be the first institutional money into startups, it is also ranked the 9th best VC globally in the HEC Paris-Dow Jones VC ranking.

Jimmy Nielsen, partner and co-founder, told TechCrunch over a call: “Basically, this fund is broader [than the last fund]. … We did a lot of consumer at the tail end of fund three and the beginning of fund four. The pendulum swung to the question of ‘Where does technology really pick up?’  So this fund is more generalistic in focus, more focused on productivity, software, infrastructure.”

That includes more of a focus on the compute stack, synthetic biology, productivity/AI, software infrastructure, travel, and climate tech. They plan to make 25 to 30 early-stage investments with Fund V and have so far put money into LLM compute infrastructure, database software, software for carbon capture, and consumer travel.

LPs in the fund include repeat investor Industriens Pension. It also has a smaller, dedicated, web3 fund.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/06/heartcore-capital-closes-180m-fund-to-pivot-towards-infrastructure-synthetic-biology-climate/

“£197bn of retail sales, or almost half of the UK’s annual retail sales in goods and services, are insurable. Amazon alone makes almost £1bn in insurance revenue, and most UK SMEs have never been offered the opportunity to distribute insurance.

Bolt Cover exists to help retailer make incremental revenue and customer LTV through embedded insurance, which projects to grow 25% per year through 2028 (Munich Re, 2023), especially in the UK market which is growing 8% per year (Statista, 2023)”

This week we feature a Q&A with Jamie Hamer of BoltCover: embedded insurance revenue engine for (online) retailers.

Deal Highlights
Here are the early stage financing rounds and new funds to watch this week:

Revenew offers an all-in-one solution for digital platforms and marketplaces (e.g. Amazon, Uber, AirBnB, Fiverr or Deliveroo) to help manage their payments, optimise their margins, streamline business operations, and improve the end-to-end customer experience driving growth and retention.

SatLayer allows users to earn rewards on their BTC by staking and liquid restaking. Similar to actively validated services, dApps and other providers on SaltLayer offer users the opportunity to lock their BTC for yield.

Swiss early stage VC Redalpine has closed its seventh fund of $200m — its largest early stage fund to date — and has opened a new office in London. The VC will write cheques of between €1-6m into 15-20 startups across AI, software, biotech, food, fintech, healthcare and energy.

Read on for more on the founders and investors in the news last week. If you are a startup, investor or corporate building or backing “what’s next in finance” and want to spread the word with our network of over 20k, reach out to Frank Schwab and Samarth Shekhar.

Q&A with Jamie Hamer of BoltCover: embedded insurance revenue engine for retailers

1. Tell us a bit about yourself / your co-founder(s)

I am a commercial entrepreneur with a significant exit (React News, now Europe’s largest paid commercial real estate news service). Tori Hutchinson worked with me there as an operational lead, and Richie Smith came onboard as a tech supplier who chose to invest into the business, work with us full-time and offer us engineering (and now full-time engineering employees) at cost.

http://www.fintechforum.de/qa-with-jamie-hamer-of-boltcover-embedded-insurance-revenue-engine-for-retailers/

Scaling Enterprise FinTech: with Samuel Falmagne of Akur8
This interview is part of the Scaling B2B FinTech series, launched in partnership with SixThirty Ventures.

1.​ Tell us a bit about yourself and your company.

I’m Samuel, CEO of Akur8. I started my career at IBM, where I spent 15 years in various international sales and sales management positions before joining Insurtech Shift Technology as Head of Sales. At Shift, I drove the internationalization of the company, including in the US. After 2 years at Shift, I decided to take on a genuine entrepreneurial adventure and joined Guillaume, our Chief Actuary, and co-founded Akur8.
Akur8 is a cloud-based B2B Insurtech, automating the rate-making process thanks to proprietary algorithms powered by Transparent-AI, while enabling to retain complete control over the process and the output.

http://www.fintechforum.de/scaling-enterprise-fintech-with-samuel-falmagne-of-akur8/

FINANCING ROUNDS

Peregrine Exploration raises $3.6 million from Polychain, Dragonfly for restaking-focused stablecoin protocol Level

Blockchain development and research company Peregrine Exploration raised $3.6 million in a funding round co-led by Polychain Capital and Dragonfly to develop a stablecoin protocol called Level.

Robot Ventures, Pier Two, EIV and Global Coin Research participated in the round, according to a press release. Angel investors Balaji Srinivasan, Jeff Feng, Julian Koh, Sidney Powell and others were also involved.

Level aims to be the first stablecoin protocol backed by restaked dollar tokens. These tokens are formed when someone stakes a dollar-denominated token (such as USDC or USDT) on a restaking protocol like EigenLayer in order to earn restaking yield. This yield is generated from the tokens being used to provide security for other blockchains. The Level platforms performs this restaking on the user’s behalf when they mint its stablecoin using other stablecoins.

EigenLayer, Symbiotic and Karak have all said they will support the use of any token for providing economic security, including dollar tokens, the press release noted.

Peregrine Exploration claims the project’s stablecoin will be launched in closed beta “in the coming weeks.” Its goal is to allow users to mint Level USD, earning Level XP points and yield from decentralized lending platform Aave on dollar-backed stablecoins such as USDT and USDC.

https://www.theblock.co/post/313461/peregrine-exploration-polychain-dragonfly-stablecoin-level

Lead investors: Polychain Capital and Dragonfly

Polychain Capital

Polychain invests in protocols and companies in the blockchain space, advancing the global adoption of cryptocurrencies.

https://www.linkedin.com/company/polychain-capital/about/

Dragonfly

A cross-border crypto venture fund. Global from day one.

https://www.linkedin.com/company/dragonfly-capital-partners/

Linker Finance Secures $3.7M Seed Round from Industry Leading Investors to Reimagine Digital Banking Solutions for Community Banks

PASADENA, Calif., Aug. 27, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Linker Finance, a platform that empowers community banks to take back control of their digital banking experience through a secure and holistic mobile and online digital banking platform, has successfully raised $3.7m in seed financing. The round is led by Ten One Ten Ventures and Chingona Ventures.

Additional participants included investments from Audaz Capital, Techstars, Commerce Ventures, Bank of Brodhead, and Angeles Investors, with support from angel investors including Edrizio de la Cruz, Ahmed Mirza, Michael Olson, and Roberto Medrano.

Jorge Garcia founded Linker Finance after experiencing firsthand the challenges of using community banks’ digital banking services while expanding one of his ventures. Despite the critical role community banks play in the U.S. economy — funding 80% of agriculture and 60% of small businesses — they struggle to compete with larger financial institutions and fintech companies in the technology aspect.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/linker-finance-secures-3-7m-seed-round-from-industry-leading-investors-to-reimagine-digital-banking-solutions-for-community-banks-302230654.html

Lead investors: Ten One Ten Ventures and Chingona Ventures.

Ten One Ten Ventures

TenOneTen Ventures is a Los Angeles based early stage venture capital firm. We invest in entrepreneurs that apply data and technology to disrupt existing industries, or create new categories entirely.

https://www.linkedin.com/company/tenoneten-ventures/about/

Chingona Ventures

Investing in the next generation of badass founders.

https://www.linkedin.com/company/chingona-ventures/

Lux Capital made its first investment in Brazil, a $4M seed for AI fintech Magie

Brazil fintech Magie raised $4 million in a seed round led by Lux Capital, marking the firm’s first investment in Brazil. The company, which has raised $5.1 million in total, is creating an AI-powered financial assistant. The current product allows people to send money and pay bills through WhatsApp.

For co-founder Luiz Ramalho and Lux partner Brandon Reeves, Magie is a broader bet on Brazil’s burgeoning fintech scene, which has been fueled by the massive success of Nubank, the Brazilian neobank that had a blockbuster IPO in 2021.

Reeves, who’s been at the forefront of many of Lux’s international investments — particularly Sakana AI, the firm’s first Japanese bet — said he saw firsthand how quickly Brazilians were “generally early adopters of new financial products” on a recent trip to São Paulo.

He cited Pix, an instant payments platform that the country’s central bank rolled out in 2020; by 2023, almost 42 billion payments were sent using Pix, exceeding credit and debit charges combined, according to Abecs, a Brazilian association for financial services.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/08/22/lux-capital-made-its-first-investment-in-brazil-a-4m-seed-for-ai-fintech-magie/

Lead investor: Lux Capital

Lux Capital is a venture capital firm investing in emerging science and technology at the outermost edges of what is possible. They partner with iconoclastic inventors who challenge the status quo and the laws of nature to bring their futuristic ideas to life. Over the past two decades, Lux has expanded from its New York City roots to Silicon Valley, and built a $5+ billion AUM firm of more than 30 full-time professionals, with a wide spectrum of technical backgrounds and the versatility to invest at any stage.

https://www.linkedin.com/company/lux-capital/

Revenew Emerges From Stealth With $4.55 Million Funding

Revenew, the new growth partner for the platform economy, has today announced it has secured $4.55 million in funding, following the success of its recent Seed round.

The raise was led by Fika Ventures, who invest in companies that leverage the power of data as a core component of their value proposition, and joined by Dash Fund and TTV Capital. The funding propels Revenew out of ‘stealth mode’ and is a testament to the conviction of these investors in the fintech company’s mission, team, and technology.

The infusion of capital also fuels Revenew’s mission to transform the platform economy by providing the clarity, control, and community needed to ensure platform businesses can prosper and grow.

At its core, Revenew is a growth partner for digital platforms and marketplaces. These are companies with complex business models like Amazon, Uber, AirBnB and often specific verticals like Fiverr or Deliveroo. Revenew offers an all-in-one solution to help such businesses manage their payments, optimise their margins, streamline business operations, and improve the end-to-end customer experience driving growth and retention. It does this through tools designed to provide new levels of visibility and control – such as detailed insights into payment profitability, automated reconciliation of PSP and payment network fees, and the ability to identify and help eliminate loss-making payments.

Revenew’s products and services work alongside existing payment service providers (PSPs) to establish profitable payment revenue streams, unlock new business opportunities, and understand the full lifecycle of a customer so they can grow. In other words, Revenew empowers their customers to master complexity and seize opportunities across their payments and business operations. Moreover, they can prosper with a data-driven strategy and sophisticated tools that turn typically tight margins into growth opportunities.

https://ffnews.com/newsarticle/funding/revenew-emerges-from-stealth-with-4-55-million-funding/

Lead investor: Fika Ventures

Fika Ventures is a Los Angeles based early-stage venture capital firm started in 2016 with over ~$350M in AUM. In 7 years, we’ve invested in transformative companies across enterprise/AI (BuildOps, Specright, Siro, Edge Impulse), fintech (Papaya, Pipe, Payabli), marketplaces (Upwards, Chowbus, Atticus), and health tech (Zentist, Noyo).

https://www.linkedin.com/company/fika-ventures/

Base DeFi protocol BSX raises $6.2 million ahead of token launch

BSX Exchange, a DeFi derivatives protocol built on the Ethereum  ETH -1.33% Layer 2 network Base, has raised $6.2 million in pre-seed and seed funding rounds.

The latest seed round, worth $4 million, was led by Blockchain Capital, BSX said Wednesday. The pre-seed round, which raised $2.2 million a year ago, is being announced together with the seed round, BSX added.

Investors across the two rounds include Bankless Ventures, No Limit Holdings, Cadenza Ventures, Breed VC and Arthur Hayes’ family office Maelstrom. Its angel investors include Coinbase head of listings Zach Segal, Delphi founder Tommy Shaughnessy and CoinFund investor Isaiah Washington.

BSX is a decentralized derivatives trading platform on Base focused on crypto perpetuals. Since launching in April, BSX says it has facilitated over $4 billion in trading volume and recently crossed the $1 million revenue mark. With fresh funding in place, BSX plans to expand beyond derivatives trading.

The team plans to launch a spot aggregator next month, Henry said, adding that earn and staking products are also in the pipeline and set to launch in the coming months.

“BSX Earn includes a borrowing and lending protocol where traders can access capital to trade on Base and BSX,” Henry said. “The second product is BSX Vaults, which will allow traders to earn rewards by depositing funds into automatically managed trading vaults.”

https://www.theblock.co/post/312432/base-defi-protocol-bsx-funding-token-launch

Lead investor: Blockchain Capital

Blockchain Capital was founded in 2013 with the mission of helping entrepreneurs build world-class companies and projects based on blockchain technology – providing founders with the tools they need to succeed: capital, domain expertise, partnerships, recruiting and strategy. Blockchain Capital is one of the earliest and most active venture investors in the blockchain industry and has partnered with some of the best founders in crypto since its inception. The company invests in both equity and crypto assets and is a multi-stage investor. Blockchain Capital believes that blockchain technology holds the promise to disrupt legacy businesses and create whole new markets and business models, and invests in founders who want to leverage blockchain technology to change the world in profound ways.

https://www.linkedin.com/company/blockchain-capital-llc/

BTC re-staking platform SaötLayer secures $8m in pre-seed funding

SaltLayer, a Bitcoin-powered restaking platform built on the Babylon staking protocol, has completed an $8 million pre-seed funding round.

According to an announcement posted on X on Aug. 22, the Bitcoin  btc-0.58%Bitcoin restaking platform received backing from several crypto-focused venture capital firms. Castle Island Ventures and web3 venture capital firm Hack VC co-led the pre-seed round. The protocol will use the financing to bring its restaking product to the growing Bitcoin market.

SatLayer allows users to earn rewards on their BTC by staking and liquid restaking. Babylon, which recently secured $70 million in a funding round led by Paradigm, powers the ecosystem. The platform allows proof-of-stake systems, including layer-2 chains, rollups, oracles and data availability layers, to leverage BTC in staking.

With SaltLayer, any decentralized application or infrastructure provider can join as Bitcoin Validated Services. Similar to actively validated services, dApps and other providers on SaltLayer offer users the opportunity to lock their BTC for yield.

…

Other venture capital firms that backed SaltLayer’s pre-seed round include Franklin Templeton Digital Assets, OKX Ventures, and Mirana Ventures.

https://crypto.news/btc-re-staking-platform-satlayer-secures-8m-in-pre-seed-funding/

Lead investor: Castle Island Ventures and Hack VC 

Castle Island Ventures

Public blockchain and cryptoasset venture firm located in Boston, Massachusetts.

https://www.linkedin.com/company/castle-island-ventures/about/

Hack VC 

Hack VC is a web3 venture capital firm. We partner on- and off-chain with hackers building the future of the internet.

https://www.linkedin.com/company/hackvc/

Amazon invests $20 million in Indian BNPL firm Axio

Indian buy now, pay later firm Axio has landed a $20 million equity investment from Amazon’s Smbhav Venture Fund.

Formed from a merger of Capital Float, Walnut and Walnut369. Axio enables e-commerce storefront to embed credit financing and money management tools at the checkout.

The firm, which claims nine million credit customers and 3000 merchants, provides the backbone for pay later services for Amazon in India, offering shoppers payment terms of between three and 12 months.

Axio co-founders, Sashank Rishyasringa and Gaurav Hinduja state: “This investment will enable us to further scale our loan book, enhance our checkout finance offering, and expand credit offerings to existing customers.”

“By combining product innovation with robust underwriting and risk controls, we aim to unlock access to credit for the next 200 million customers across India.”

Since its inception in 2013, Axio has raised $671 million in debt and $137 million in equity from a host of big name investors, including Creation, Elevation, Ribbit Capital, Sequoia and lightrock.

https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/44641/amazon-invests-20-million-in-indian-bnpl-firm-axio

Fast-growing immigrant-focused neobank Comun has secured $21.5M in new funding just months after its last raise

Comun, a digital bank focused on serving immigrants in the United States, has raised $21.5 million in a Series A funding round less than nine months after announcing a $4.5 million raise, TechCrunch is the first to report.

This is a crowded space, filled with a number of startups, including Tanda, Bloom Money, Majority, Welcome Tech, Maza and Pillar. So the fact that Comun was able to raise capital in back-to-back rounds in such a short amount of time is notable. PitchBook estimated its previous valuation, after its last raise, to be $62 million. CEO and co-founder Andres Santos said PitchBook’s valuation was “inaccurate” and that the company’s current valuation “has increased by more than 50%.”

The New York-based startup’s traction is what drew investors to double down. Comun grew monthly revenue by “50x” in the first six months of 2024, according to Santos. While that growth implies that its initial revenue was low, it does show a fast rate of adoption. He also said the company has grown in users and increased revenue per user by about 4x since the start of the year after launching new products.

Santos and his co-founder Abiel Gutierrez started Comun in late 2021 after facing financial exclusion in the U.S. when they migrated from Mexico. They set out to offer digital banking services, including instant payments and cash withdrawal at numerous locations, check deposits and early paychecks, to Latino immigrants.

…

Comun doesn’t charge fees for opening an account, and has no minimum balance, monthly or membership fees. It makes money from interchange fees and remittance fees, as well as interest on deposits and fees for facilitating instant transactions. However, it’s working to reduce its dependence on interchange revenue.

…

Redpoint Ventures led the startup’s Series A raise, which included participation from ANIMO Ventures, Costanoa Ventures, FJ Labs, RTP Global and South Park Commons.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/08/28/fast-growing-neobank-comun-raised-21-5m-just-months-after-its-last-raise/

nOps lands $30M to optimize AWS customers’ cloud spend

Companies don’t necessarily have to produce breakthrough technology to gain market traction. Undercutting rivals on price can be enough to make a dent in a competitive sector. So can leaning on connections to land customers in need of a timely solution to a problem.

A good example of the latter is nOps. Like countless other vendors, nOps sells software designed to “optimize” the budgets that businesses allocate to cloud products and services. But the firm has managed to expand faster — and bigger — than many of its rivals, perhaps in part because it serves AWS customers exclusively.

The company claims that its customer base grew 450% over the past 18 months and that it’s helping clients manage more than $1.5 billion in AWS cloud spend. That’s evidently impressed investors; this month, nOps closed a $30 million Series A funding round led by PE firm Headlight Partners, which brought nOps’ total raised to $40.5 million.

JT Giri, the founder and CEO of nOps, got his start in the cloud industry as a network engineer and DevOps consultant. In 2012, he decided to take those skills and co-found a consulting company, nClouds, focused on AWS solutions. In 2017, nOps launched as a spin-out from nClouds, and after Charles Thayne Capital acquired nClouds in 2022, Giri turned his attention to nOps full-time.

“There’s a growing issue in the cloud space,” Giri told TechCrunch. “As companies tighten budgets ahead of fiscal 2025 planning, a solution providing a comprehensive, automated view of cloud costs is critical.”

To Giri’s point, efficient cloud usage remains an aspiration, not a reality, for many companies, particularly as companies invest more in cloud-hosted AI projects. (Gartner projects that spending on cloud services will reach $675.4 billion in 2024, up from $561 billion in 2023.) In a 2024 Statista survey, 84% of organizations said that they found managing cloud spend to be a “significant” challenge thanks to blockers around governance, security and tech expertise….

Giri said, “nOps uses AI and machine learning to analyze compute needs and automatically optimize for efficiency, reliability and cost. For most of its products, nOps has a unique and flexible pricing structure where it doesn’t get paid until the client saves money; nOps receives a percentage of the cost saved.”

https://techcrunch.com/2024/08/27/nops-lands-30m-to-optimize-aws-customers-cloud-spend/

Bridge Fundraising for Stablecoin-Based Payments Network Totals $58M

Bridge, founded by Square and Coinbase alumni, recently raised $40 million in a round led by Sequoia and Ribbit.

Crypto startup Bridge, which wants to build a global stablecoin-based payments networks, recently raised $40 million in fresh funding, taking the total raised to $58 million, Fortune reported Friday.

The startup, which was founded by Square and Coinbase alumni Zach Abrams and Sean Yu, aims to “enable companies to use a stablecoin rail without thinking about it,” Abrams said in an interview, according to the report.

Stablecoins are crypto tokens pegged to the value of a traditional financial asset such as a fiat currency, usually the U.S. dollar. Building stablecoin provision into a business allows companies to dip a toe into the crypto economy without dealing with the volatility that can afflict bitcoin (BTC) and other tokens. However, they then face the challenge of linking to traditional financial systems and facilitating transfers across different tokens and blockchains.

Bridge, whose customers include SpaceX and Coinbase, aspires to become a Web3 version of payments processor Stripe, operating as a global payments system into which other developers can integrate seamlessly. Earlier this year, Stripe itself said it planned to add crypto payments through Circle’s USDC stablecoin.

Bridge did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for further comment.

https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/08/30/bridge-fundraising-for-stablecoin-based-payments-network-totals-58m-report/

N26-backer Redalpine closes seventh fund of $200m

The Swiss early stage VC has opened a new London office in a bid to “follow the deal flow”

Swiss early stage VC Redalpine has closed its seventh fund of $200m — its largest early stage fund to date — and has opened a new office in London.

The VC will write cheques of between €1-6m into 15-20 startups across AI, software, biotech, food, fintech, healthcare and energy. 50% of the fund will be reserved for follow-ons.

Since its founding in 2006, Redalpine has invested in 100 companies: including neobank N26, BNPL startup Klarna, tax-filing platform TaxFix and gen AI startup Mistral. The firm says its net annual returns to investors across all its active funds over the last 10 years is around 25% (the top quartile of VC funds between 2010 and 2020 had an average annual return ranging from 15-27%, according to research by Cambridge Associates.)

on.

https://sifted.eu/articles/redalpine-closes-seventh-fund-of-200m-news

European FinTech deals this week include Ark Capital, Candis, Monese and Topi

We feature Q&As with Sheila Kagan of Paykey and Enrique Lizaso Olmos of Multiverse Computing

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to us: Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.

Check out the B2B FinTech Radar, our microsite focused on SaaS / Enterprise FinTech founders with global ambitions

7 Questions with Sheila Kagan of Paykey

1.Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

I joined PayKey in March 2020 after years of working as a chief executive at a variety of public and private tech companies in the advertising and gaming industries. Throughout my life I’ve been drawn to the dynamics of the banking industry, and once the opportunity came, I knew PayKey is a FinTech uniquely positioned to leave a mark on an industry that is traditionally lagging behind.

At PayKey we are putting banks at the forefront of embedded banking, by weaving the financial services customers need within their everyday lives. Our patented mobile keyboard

solution allows customers to access a variety of mobile banking services including P2P payments, loans, investments and more within all the social & messaging apps they are regularly using like WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and others. With our solution, banks can contextually bring their services to where customers today chat, transact, and make their financial decisions.

http://www.fintechforum.de/scaling-enterprise-fintech-with-sheila-kagan-of-paykey/

7 Questions with with Enrique Lizaso Olmos of Multiverse Computing

1. Tell us a bit about yourself and your company.

Multiverse Computing. Largest European Quantum Software Company. Backed by the European Investment Council and large VC. Third largest in the world after two American not-so-much-larger competitors. Delivering solutions to financial problems in optimization, machine-learning and pricing that are not correctly answered (or even not answered) with classical computers. Problems that range from $200-300 to $3B in impact in net income. Working for large customers (Top 10 Banks in the world), appeared in the Boston Consulting Group reports, The Economist, Forbes… Single European Company in McKinsey’s Quantum global Technology Council. 24 new patents/year, 34 people now, we are nearly 3 yr old!.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-enrique-lizaso-olmos-of-multiverse-computing/

Ark Kapital Raises €15M In Acceleration Funding

Ark Kapital, a Stockholm, Sweden-based data-driven precision finance company enabling startups to grow through non-dilutive loans, raised €15M in acceleration funding.
The round was led by Annika Falkengren with participation from LocalGlobe, Creandum, Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen, Zettle founder Jacob de Geer, Hjalmar Winbladh, and Timo Soininen.
The company intends to use the funds to accelerate growth and expand operations.
Founded in the summer of 2021 and launched in November the same year– by six-time entrepreneur Oliver Hildebrandt (CEO), veteran banker Axel Bruzelius (COO), and Spotify’s ex-VP of Analytics and former EQT Ventures partner Henrik Landgren (CPTO), ArK Kapital developed a proprietary AI platform called the ArK Intelligence Machine (AIM) that connects to the raw business data of a company, which, combined with relevant external market data, unlocks hidden possibilities for growth and strategic foresight. Founders plug into ArK’s machine learning platform with all their growth related accounts and in return get access to a detailed 5-year forecast – from which they can access customized funding. ArK’s financial product suite currently consists of a large growth loan that spans between €1-€10m, lasting up to seven years, with repayments not starting for two-to-three years. The second loan product in the portfolio allows founders to get instant access to the money they’ve earned through various marketplaces or app stores, allowing reinvestment into growth peaks. Both products are fully non-dilutive.
This brings up the total capital pool available for founders to lend from to €300m.

https://www.finsmes.com/2022/09/ark-kapital-raises-e15m-in-acceleration-funding.html

Candis Raises $16M in Funding

Candis, a Berlin, Germany-based provider of a software solution for automating accounts payable processes, raised $16M in funding.

The round, which brought total funding to $30m, was led by Viola FinTech, with participation from Lightspeed and Viola Ventures.

The company intends to use the funds to launch credit cards which will provide a central overview of all expenses in real time, eliminating the need to wait weeks for a monthly statement.

Led by CEO Christian Ritosek, Candis provides an AI-driven software solution for small and medium-sized enterprises to automate financial processes such as invoice receipt, data entry, invoice approval, and data export. The company offers a cloud-based solution that can be used from anywhere and requires no onboarding.

Smart integrations with DATEV, Sage, Wolters Kluwer, and more further enhance the user experience enabling exportation of invoice data into the preferred accounting platforms.

Since its founding, the company has worked with over 4000 customers and 200+ partners.

UK-based Monese offers current accounts and money transfer services as an alternative to traditional banks. The mobile-only service provides accounts in Pounds sterling, Euros and Romanian leu.

FinTech Monese scores $35m investment from HSBC

According to Monese, the company and HSBC are closely aligned in their commitment to ‘opening up the full extent of digital banking possibilities’.

The investment, Monese claims, is a part of a broader, strategic partnership that will focus on Monese’s industry-leading, cloud-based Platform as a Service business.

The new funding will be used to support the continued growth of Monese’s FinTech platform.

In September 2021, Monese launched its PaaS business as well as a strategic partnership with Investec. As part of the collaboration, Investec led Monese’s Series C.

Monese CEO and founder Norris Koppel said, “Securing the support of a tier one global bank demonstrates the strength of our platform and the continued appetite from investors in the platform. I am delighted to have such a distinguished partner and investor in HSBC, who brings a great deal of experience in delivering exceptional banking services. We look forward to taking this partnership forward.”

Berlin-based topi scores €44.8 million to unlock seamless subscription-based transactions for retailers and manufacturers

Berlin-based fintech topi is empowering retailers and manufacturers to access subscription-based transactions and helping to fuel the shift to a circular economy. The startup has just secured €44.8 million and announced a strategic partnership with GRAVIS, a leading electronic retailer in Germany.
Shifting to a circular economy is one of the cornerstones of creating a more sustainable and equitable society. Not only does a circular economy rely on more conscious decisions from consumers, but it also needs businesses to rethink how they go about transactions and processes. At the same time, companies across Europe are facing uncertain and challenging economic times, and looking for ways to enhance their financial footing as well as operational efficiency.
It’s a big day for Berlin-based topi which has built infrastructure to address exactly these challenges. The startup has just announced a new capital investment of about €44.8 million alongside a new partnership with a leading electronics retailer – GRAVIS.
New funding, new partnerships
The Series A investment was led by Index Ventures and CREANDUM, with participation from Silicon Valley-based TriplePoint Capital.
It brings topi’s total raised to about €50 million from a range of investors, including prominent angels, such as founders and early employees of Adyen, Stripe, N26, HelloFresh, Cloudflare, Personio, and others.
GRAVIS is now a strategic partner for the firm as topi aims to become the standard choice for B2B.

€297m fund for European tech start-ups backed by AIB and ISIF

Claret Capital has raised €297m in funding for growing European start-ups in the technology and life sciences sectors, with contributions from AIB and the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF).

The nearly €300m figure significantly overshoots the €250m target that London-based Claret had aimed for with its European Growth Capital Fund III.

Some of the fund’s backers include long-time investors the European Investment Fund, British Business Investments, RAG-Stiftung, Certior Capital and KfW Capital.

New investors AIB and ISIF have together committed €25m to the fund, according to the Irish Independent.

There are already 29 businesses in the Fund III portfolio, with the first investment made in March 2021.

Claret said that along with this final close of growth fund, several co-investment deals offering loans of up to €50m have also been finalised to support start-ups. Together, this will see Claret pump more than €500m of capital into an additional 50 to 60 new companies over the next three years.

Johan Kampe, managing partner at Claret, said that the fund will seek to work with leaderships teams and “disrupt” the industries they work in – ranging from enterprise software and fintech to marketplaces.

“In a market where uncertainty is impacting venture capital funding, the outlook remains positive in growth financing and we’re excited to grow our portfolio business and founders,” he said.

As well as AIB and ISIF, some of the other institutional investors that backed the latest fund and helped it exceed its target include Aozora Bank, Banca March and HNA, as well as some private entrepreneurs and industry experts.

Two Sigma Ventures Raises $400M Across Two Funds

Two Sigma Ventures, a NYC-based venture capital firm, closed two venture funds, totaling $400M.

Approximately 85% of the new capital comes from external investors, primarily institutions such as college endowments, non-profit foundations, pension funds, and hospital systems, with the remainder of the capital coming from Two Sigma’s partners and senior employees.

They include:

• Two Sigma Ventures IV (TSV IV), which will invest in early-stage startups, and
• Two Sigma Ventures Opportunity Fund II (TSV Opps II), which will invest in growth-stage companies.

Two Sigma Ventures invests across many industries including enterprise SaaS, fintech, techbio, consumer tech, crypto and defi, and more. The new capital will allow TSV to invest in breakthrough companies fundamentally changing the ways society and technology interact, transforming traditional industries, and helping to move humanity forward.

Meet Us At: 

Sifted Summit, London, 5-6 Oct. 2022

Slush 2022, Helsinki, 17-18 Nov. 2022 

FinTech Forum 2022, Frankfurt, 24 Nov. 2022

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de

Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum

FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com

European FinTech deals this week include CapitalFlow, Muse Finance and Capital on Tap 

We feature Q&As with Gabriel Levie of Wequity and Hans de Back, Finch Capital

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to us: Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.

Check out the B2B FinTech Radar, our microsite focused on SaaS / Enterprise FinTech founders with global ambitions

7 Questions with Gabriel Levie of Wequity

1.Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

I was born and raised in Belgium and was lucky to have a Dutch-speaking mother and French-speaking father, which means I speak both languages fluently. Before starting Wequity I completed my undergraduate studies in Economics and Philosophy in the UK. Since 2019 I have been back in Belgium.

With my cofounder Franck we launched Wequity in February 2021, and we have been working full time with a team of 5 people. On the side I run, climb, and play the piano.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-gabriel-levie-of-wequity/

Q&A with Hans de Back, Finch Capital

Hans de Back: Sure. Okay, so my name is Hans de Back. I’m a General Partner at Finch Capital. I am Managing Partner at Finch Capital since 2015. I’m based in Southeast Asia. So we as a FinTech VC we invest in two regions, Europe and Southeast Asia. So I’m responsible for our Southeast Asian activities. Radboud is looking after Europe.

My background is that I’ve been an entrepreneur myself from 2000 till 2011,  but in the mobile marketing and advertising space. So I’ve built companies together with two partners all the way from a startup to an IPO to a listing. So I think it’s an entrepreneurial experience in the companies and I have leveraged that experience in the companies we invest in. Then from 2011 till 2014 I’ve been an angel investor. I moved to Singapore in 2011 and started investing as an angel in in technology companies with a very broad focus, ecommerce, social media, but also FinTech and that’s where I started to work with Radboud. We did some deals sharing and co-investments, and then decided to set up Finch Capital. So that’s a bit about my work.

http://www.fintechforum.de/scaling-enterprise-fintech-with-hans-de-back-finch-capital/

Bunq’s CapitalFlow Picks Up $10M for Green Financing

Ireland-based Capitalflow Group, owned by neobank Bunq, has secured 10 million euros (about $10 million) from the low-cost Energy Efficiency Loan Scheme (EELS) of the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI).

CapitalFlow specializes in offering loans to small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The funding will help Irish SMBs invest in energy efficiency financing projects so they can transition to sustainable energy, Silicon Canals reported Friday (Aug. 26).

“We’re delighted to be partnering with the SBCI once again in supporting the Energy Efficiency Loans Scheme and the move toward green finance,” said Capitalflow CEO Ronan Horgan in the report. “By investing now, helped by the Energy Efficiency Loan Scheme, businesses can help the environment and reduce their costs in the medium to long term.”

The money is part of 150 million euros (about $149 million), the SBCI EELS is offering as a catalyst for energy efficiency investments, the report stated.

“Capitalflow’s participation will assist SMBs and farmers in accessing low-cost, flexible finance for investment in energy-efficient equipment as they respond to the ongoing increase in energy costs,” said SBCI CEO June Butler in the report. “This scheme is our first dedicated climate action-related product. It has been specifically designed to help Irish businesses to improve their sustainability, cut their energy bills, and reduce their carbon emissions by investing in energy-saving measures.”

In Ireland, the government has set the target of becoming a net zero emissions economy by 2050, the report stated.

London-based Muse nabs $20 million to support small businesses

The investment will accelerate the startup’s expansion and support customers in the U.K and its launch in the U.S.

At a time when lending to small businesses in the U.K. has hit an all-time low, London-based SME financial services platform Muse Finance has raised $20 million in a debt facility round.

The fresh capital infusion brings the total amount raised by the company to $96 million. The debt facility comes ahead of its upcoming Series A round, which is planned for early 2023.

The investment will accelerate the startup’s expansion and support customers in the U.K and its launch in the U.S. The platform is being used by 5,000 customers in the U.K to supply finance for over 36,000 invoices.

Founded in 2018, the UK-based fintech aims to optimise the cash flow of SMEs to enable them to gain access to new funds. It offers advanced invoice collections, wherein users can gain instant access to funds owed to them on an invoice. The amount on the invoice is then collected by Muse on the due date.

Capital on Tap has secured a £200 million funding facility with JP Morgan and Triple Point to support UK small businesses. 

The funding will help small businesses access credit at a time when the UK is anticipating a recession and facing historic inflation rates.

Launched in 2012, London FinTech Capital on Tap provides an all-in-one small business credit card and spend management platform tailored to small businesses. Recently recognised by The Sunday Times and the Financial Times as one of Britain and Europe’s fastest growing businesses respectively, this funding facility will bolster their dramatic growth in the UK. Over 200,000 small business customers have spent £4 billion on their Capital on Tap business credit cards.

This new funding facility comes just four months after securing a $200m facility to power growth in the US. Both facilities are vital resources with ambitious expansion plans in place, following Capital on Tap’s impressive 61.98% annual sales growth over the last three years.

Meet Us At: 

Digital Insurance Agenda, Munich, 28-29 Sep. 2022 

Sifted Summit, London, 5-6 Oct. 2022

Slush 2022, Helsinki, 17-18 Nov. 2022 

FinTech Forum 2022, Frankfurt, 24 Nov. 2022

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de

Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum

FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com

European FinTech deal this week include Unstoppable Finance, Griffin, Super Payments and Ageras Group

We feature Q&As with Stefan Klauser of Aisot and Max Lautenschläger of Iconic Holding

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to us: Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.

Check out the B2B FinTech Radar, our microsite focused on SaaS / Enterprise FinTech founders with global ambitions

7 Questions with Stefan Klauser of Aisot

 1.Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

Hi, I am Stefan, Co-Founder & CEO at aisot. We are a leading provider of (predictive) analytics for the financial industry. I always had a passion for both entrepreneurial work and predictive tools. The Oracle of Delphi was by far the coolest thing in Latin class. And my first business I „founded” as a kid, when selling cherries from our garden on our village’s streets. In my free time, I like to be in nature or sing. I have played in rock bands since I was a teenager.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-stefan-klauser-of-asiot/

7 Questions with Max Lautenschläger of Iconic Holding

Born and raised in Heidelberg I started my professional career in consulting and after a few years, I transitioned more towards finance. In particular, the alternative investment space has always been very attractive to me. This is why I decided to do the MBA program at the Frankfurt School of Finance and in parallel, I did the CAIA designation. After a few years in Private Equity, Venture Capital and FinTech Company Building, I decided to found my own business Iconic, of which I’m still one of the main shareholders and managing partners.

I’ve never been this 5-hour-startup guy, who begins his business on the side while still working full-time on something else. As soon as Pat (Co-Founder, Managing Partner) and I had the idea for Iconic we went “all-in”, quit our jobs, moved to Berlin and bootstrapped our startup. And so far, it seems as if it has been the right approach. If you love something and are convinced of its potential, just do it! The worst result could be failing and even this will give you more joy, experience, and learnings than any corporate job could.

When it comes to leisure time, I love sports, spending time with good friends and traveling. Since I think relationships are one of the most important things in life, I try to see all of my friends on a weekly basis. Independently from how busy I am, I try to fit sports into my schedule 5 times a week since this refreshes not only my body but also my mind.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-max-lautenschlager-of-iconic-holding/

German fintech Unstoppable Finance bags €12.5M to build DeFi wallet and investing platform

Unstoppable Finance, a Berlin-based fintech firm, announced on Wednesday that it has secured €12.5M in a Series A round of funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. 

New investor Anagram also participated in the round along with existing investors Speedinvest, Rockaway Blockchain Fund, Backed, Inflection, Discovery Ventures, and Fabric Ventures.

The Series A round was closed in early July, nine months after raising €4.5M in a Seed round. 

Fund utilisation

The German company says it will use the funds to launch and scale its DeFi wallet & investing platform, Ultimate, announced last month. Soon after the official announcement, the platform quickly garnered interest from over 300K beta users globally who joined the waitlist, says the company.

Maximilian von Wallenberg-Pachaly, co-founder and CEO of Unstoppable Finance, says, “We are proud and excited to attract such prominent investors, especially during this tough market environment. With this funding, we’ll pursue our mission to bring DeFi to retail investors worldwide with our app Ultimate. We’d like to thank our old and new investors for their vote of confidence and trust in our product and our mission.”

Lightspeed Venture Partners is a multi-stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends in the Enterprise, Consumer, and Health sectors. Over the past two decades, the Lightspeed team has backed hundreds of entrepreneurs and helped build more than 400 companies globally, including Snap, Affirm, Nest, Nutanix, AppDynamics, MuleSoft, OYO, Guardant, and GrubHub. Lightspeed and its affiliates currently manage $10.5B across the global Lightspeed platform, with investment professionals and advisors in Silicon Valley, Israel, India, China, Southeast Asia and Europe.

UK fintech Griffin lands £12.5m in latest funding round

Super Payments Raises $27M in Funding 

Super Payments, a London, UK-based payments startup, raised a $27m in funding.
The round was led by Accel, with participation from Union Square Ventures, LocalGlobe, and angels.
The company intends to use the funds to continue to continue to develop the platform, expand operations and its business reach.
Founded in 2022 by Samir Desai CBE, founder of Funding Circle, and a team of experienced executives, Super Payments aims to transform the online shopping experience powering free payments for businesses, and rewarding shopping for members. Instead of charging merchants transaction fees, businesses on Super will only pay a commission if it brings to an increase in sales.
Accel is a leading venture capital firm that invests in people and their companies from the earliest days through all phases of private company growth. Atlassian, Braintree, Cloudera, CrowdStrike, DJI, Dropbox, Dropcam, Etsy, Facebook, Flipkart, FreshWorks, Jet, Qualtrics, Slack, Spotify, Supercell, UiPath and Vox Media are among the companies the firm has backed over the past 35 years.

https://www.finsmes.com/2022/08/super-payments-raises-27m-in-funding.html

Amsterdam-based Tellow’s parent company Ageras Group raises €35M to help SMEs with their financial need

Ageras Group, a Danish fintech startup, announced on Thursday that it has secured €35M in growth capital financing from CIBC Innovation Banking. 

Earlier this year, the Copenhagen-based company raised €30M from a group of European and American investors. The round brings the total fund raised to $145M (approximately €140M) since 2021. 

The latest funding announcement comes a few days after acquiring Berlin-based neo-bank Kontist, its third acquisition in the last 12 months. 

Fund utilisation

Ageras Group will use the funds to accelerate its strategic acquisitions pipeline and to expand its suite of software tailored to small businesses.

“CIBC Innovation Banking’s investment will help us focus on the mission: acquiring companies whose tech can fit into—and enrich—Ageras’ one-and-done financial cockpit for small businesses,” says Ageras Co-founder and CEO Rico Andersen. 

He adds, “In the last year, we’ve acquired and added three companies to our product offering. Now, with CIBC Innovation Banking’s €35m investment, we’ll look to buy more, especially companies that have developed best-in-class products that either cement our position in one market or add mission-critical features that we can offer to all existing customers.”

Sesami acquires FinTech Planfocus

Sesami Cash Management Technologies, a global cash ecosystem integrator and technology company, announced its acquisition of Planfocus Software GmbH, a global FinTech offering highly advanced cash optimisation technology.

“With this acquisition, Sesami becomes the global leader in cash optimisation solutions, with an unrivalled technology stack now up-scaled with the addition of planfocus’ cutting-edge cash optimisation software,” said Steph Gonthier, Chief Executive Officer of Sesami. “Integrated to our enterprise cash ecosystem software platform, planfocus’ AI based technology and strong team will further enable Sesami to deliver the only true end-to-end tech-enabled cash ecosystem solution to financial institutions and consumer businesses,” he added.

Founded in 2004 and based in Munich, Germany, planfocus’ cash optimisation software solutions help reduce logistics spending and cash holding costs while improving availabilities and service levels for clients. Its technology empowers financial institutions and consumer businesses worldwide to drive process optimisation and bring tangible cost and service efficiencies throughout their cash ecosystem.

“We are extremely proud to be joining forces with Sesami, a state-of-the-art innovator and disruptive global leader, to offer a true end-to-end and fully integrated cash software solution enabling financial institutions and consumer businesses to seamlessly manage and outsource their entire cash ecosystem. As part of Sesami, we will now be able to truly scale our next generation technology and bring our unmatched cash optimisation solutions to a broader global client base,” said Dr. Joachim Walser, CEO and Co-Founder of planfocus.

The integration of planfocus further expands Sesami’s global client portfolio to include some of the world’s leading financial institutions and consumer businesses. Integrating its existing technology stack will also broaden its cash optimisation offering for its client base. Currently, planfocus optimises the operations of over 78,000 bank branches, ATMs and cash processing centres, and driving over 300 billion Euros in physical cash shipments every year.

London-based VC 2xN unveils $120 million fund to back quantum computing startups

The ticket size of investment will range from $3 million to $5 million starting from pre-seed to Series A in each company in Europe

London-based VC 2xN has rolled out $120 million fund to back startups in quantum computing across Europe. Bringing high-growth value of network effects to early-stage founders, 2xN’s Fund II will invest in up to 25 early-stage startups in Europe and the U.S.

The ticket size of investment will range from $3 million to $5 million starting from pre-seed to Series A in each company. The fund will focus on quantum startups and companies in the sectors of mobility, collaboration, marketplace and edtech.

The company had earlier unveiled its first fund of $50 million in stealth mode in 2021. The last fund had made 21 investments in companies, including Quantinuum, and StudySmarter.

The 2xN’s oversubscribed fund is backed by the Danish Growth Fund and several family offices, including the founders of e-scooter startup Voi and wine marketplace Vivino; and Ilyas Khan, founder of Quantinuum. The fund reflects the rise of serial entrepreneurs and operators turning to invest in an increasingly mature European market. While it’s a trend that has gained momentum in the U.S, single GP funds are still a rarity in Europe.

The company’s colloabrative approach has already seen 2xN co-invest alongside the likes of Sequoia, A16Z, Kleiner, Founders Fund, Accel, YCombinator, and Owl Ventures, while getting access to oversubscribed rounds.

Talking about the new fund, Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen, general partner and co-founder of 2xN said: “Instead of being just another fund, I believe 2xN represents a key moment in the evolution of European VC. Ex-operators and founders are increasingly becoming investors, while the speed of startups increases, and founders are repeat entrepreneurs. This represents a huge opportunity for Niels and I to help share decades of experience, strengthen global networks and  build an ecosystem of investment with the next-generation of founders and their innovations. This is only possible by shifting away from the closed systems of old and creating a culture of openness, transparency and shared deals in a way that benefits everyone.”

Meet Us At: 

Digital Insurance Agenda, Munich, 28-29 Sep. 2022 

Sifted Summit, London, 5-6 Oct. 2022

Slush 2022, Helsinki, 17-18 Nov. 2022 

FinTech Forum 2022, Frankfurt, 24 Nov. 2022

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de

Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum

FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com

European FinTech deal this week include auxmoney

We feature Q&As with Allindex and Margaris Ventures

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to us: Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.

Check out the B2B FinTech Radar, our microsite focused on SaaS / Enterprise FinTech founders with global ambitions

7 Questions with Christian Kronseder of Allindex

 1.Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

Work: Before starting ALLINDEX, I was global COO of STOXX and Head of Markets at Royal Bank of Scotland, Switzerland. I have a professorship for data science which is a synergetic activity also for building our FinTech.

Leisure: I live in Switzerland and hence very much enjoy the hiking and skiing opportunities, spending my free time with my family.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-christian-kronseder-ceo-of-allindex/

7 Questions with Spiros Margaris of Margaris Ventures

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

My name is Spiros Margaris, and I am a venture capitalist (VC) and the founder of Margaris Ventures. I have been in the investment business for quite some time, with more than 25 years of international experience in investment management/research and startups. In my role as a VC, I also act as an advisor to my globally spread FinTech and InsurTech startup portfolio. I am the first international influencer to achieve ‘The Triple Crown’ of influencer rankings by being ranked the global No. 1 FinTech, artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain influencer by Onalytica in 2018. I am very fortunate to regularly appear in the top three positions of the established global industry influencer rankings due to the generous support of great FinTech industry friends and participants. In 2017, I had the opportunity to give a speech at the TEDxAcademy Talk. In addition, for the enterprise software vendor SAP, I wrote an AI white paper, ‘Machine learning in financial services: Changing the rules of the game’.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-spiros-margaris-margaris-ventures/

German digital lending platform auxmoney bags €500M from Citi, Natixis

Düsseldorf-based auxmoney, a digital lending platform, announced on Wednesday that it has secured €500M from US banking firm Citigroup and French asset management company Natixis. 

The company says it will use the funds to invest in consumer loans on its platform. To date, the company has raised $3.64B in funding. 

Daniel Drummer, CFO of auxmoney, says, “With two renowned financial institutions providing funding at scale, this deal underlines the profound trust of investors in auxmoney and the appeal of digital lending as an asset class, even in a more volatile market environment. In addition, this funding commitment further strengthens auxmoney’s excellent standing as a tech-enabled platform for institutional investors.”

The announcement comes over a year after the company raised €250M from Citigroup and Chenavari Investment Managers. 

German Neobank Acquired by Ageras Group as Fintech Continues European Expansion

The Berlin-based neo-bank focused on the complex accounting and banking needs of Germany’s growing populations of microbusinesses and self-employed workers, Kontist, has been acquired by Ageras Group, the financial matchmaking service, as it looks to expand its all-in-one fintech offering for SMEs.“This acquisition is a critical step in Ageras’ growth,” said Ageras co-founder and CEO Rico Andersen. “Kontist has created the best product in Europe’s largest market. It’s a one-stop financial shop for approximately 50,000 German small business owners today, and it’s perfectly positioned to become the go-to financial platform for future generations of small business owners in need of modern banking and accounting tools.”

Founded in 2016 by fintech veteran Christopher Plantener as Germany’s first neo-bank focused on freelancers and the self-employed, 150-person Kontist has developed a reputation for its modern business banking and its highly sophisticated digital tax and accounting software.

Kontist offers self-employed and microbusiness owners bank accounts, payment cards and accounting features, as well as tax returns calculation and filing, all via its app. Also, Kontist’s bank accounts automatically calculate relevant sales and income taxes and set aside estimated taxes due, among other services designed to protect business owners amid Germany’s uniquely complex tax laws.

“Under Ageras, we will be able to benefit from an international accounting and financial ecosystem and continue to foster our position as the number one financial services and tax player for the self-employed,” said Kontist co-CEO Benjamin Esser. “With annual growth rates of nearly 100 per cent over the past few years, we have only scratched the surface of what is a tremendous opportunity.”

African fintech acquires health insurer 

Nigeria-based Royal Exchange Healthcare has sold a majority stake to Dot and will use the proceeds to fund operations and expand staff numbers.
Africa-focused financial services company Dot has taken a majority stake in health insurance provider Royal Exchange Healthcare (REH).
Aluko & Oyebode provided legal advice to Dot and its affiliates on the transaction, for which deal values were not published.
Amsterdam-headquartered Dot was founded in 2021, and leverages technology and a 27,000-strong agency network to expand access to financial and insurance services to consumers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Africa.
Operating under Nigeria’s National Health Insurance Scheme, Lagos-headquartered REH functions as a financial intermediary between healthcare users and providers, designing and selling a variety of medical health plans to suit differing needs.
The deal will provide additional working capital for sustaining REH’s operations and increasing staff numbers across many aspects of the business, with a view to transforming it into a pre-eminent health maintenance brand in Nigeria.
Aluko & Oyebode used a team led by partner Ajibola Asolo, with assistance from associates Amarachi Nickabugu, Michael Nwanneka and Gregory Yinka-Gregg.

PayStand Acquires Yaydoo in One of Latam’s Biggest Tech Mergers

Blockchain-enabled B2B payments company PayStand has acquired Mexican FinTech Yaydoo, marking what the company called “one of the biggest technology unions” in Latin America.

PayStand said in a Wednesday (Aug. 3) press release that the scale of the combined company could put it on the path to an initial public offering (IPO) in the next two years.

Both PayStand and Yaydoo have created accounts receivable (AR) and accounts payable (AP) solutions for American and Latin American businesses, and they have built B2B decentralized finance (DeFi) payment networks in both the United States and Mexico, the release stated.

“The combined company will be one of the first global B2B blockchain platforms at a significant scale,” said PayStand CEO Jeremy Almond in the release. “The resulting company will have processed over $5 billion in payments, added 300 additional employees, and built a network of over 500,000 connected businesses, the largest of any commercial B2B blockchains in the world.”

Yaydoo CEO Sergio Almaguer said in the release that the acquisition will open opportunities to automate supply chain finance “through the imports and exports of one of the most active trade corridors globally” while also forming B2B payments alliances between the U.S. and Mexico.

Last month, PayStand launched what it called the world’s first dynamic discounting application for seller AR teams, powered by Ethereum smart contracts.

Concept Ventures rolls out £50 million pre-seed fund to back 60 startups in the UK

The ticket size of the UK-based VC’s investment would be in the range of £100,000-£600,000 for the 60 startups in the next five years

London-based venture capital firm Concept Ventures has launched £50 million fund in the U.K to back over 60 startups in its pre-seed stage. According to the company, it is the largest dedicated pre-seed fund in the U.K. 

The oversubscribed fund includes a £30 million commitment from the British Business Bank’s Enterprise Capital Funds (ECF) programme, the U.K. government’s economic development bank.

The ticket size of its investment would be in the range of £100,000-£600,000. The company will invest in 60 startups in a span of five years.

Founded in 2018, the VC has backed over 100 founders at the pre-seed stage, with Concept backed-founders seeing a 71 per cent graduation rate from pre-seed onward. The new companies will join the portfolio companies, including corporate gifting platform Reachdesk, live-streaming video pioneers Condense, and female financial education platform, Your Juno.

Seedstars announces first close of $30m emerging market seed stage fund

The Switzerland-based Seedstars has launched its second emerging market seed stage fund with a first close of US$20 million.

Since 2013, Seedstars has supported over 90 emerging market venture ecosystems, while its first investment fund – Seedstars International Ventures – backed 81 companies in over 30 countries, including Nigeria’s Omnibiz.

The Seedstars International Ventures II fund is backed by notable investors including the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Visa Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, and Symbiotics.

With US$20 million of its US$30 million target already raised, Seedstars plans to invest in 100 pre-seed and seed stage companies across Asia, Africa, MENA, and LATAM in the next three years. Investments will be focused on companies building for the future of finance, commerce, health, work and education, with follow-on investments up to Series A. The fund also includes a blended finance component with a first-loss tranche that provides downside protection for investments in the lowest-income markets.

“I have no doubt about the abundance of talented founders or the market opportunities, but the challenges can’t be ignored. Our strategy innovates on so many levels to mitigate risk, be it through our country diversification, portfolio construction strategy, value creation platform, or the blended finance structure. We have a unique recipe, an incredible team, and backers in place to build on the success of the first fund and level the playing field for tech entrepreneurs around the world,” said Seedstars partner Charlie Graham-Brown.

Seedstars has also developed a Value Creation Platform to help portfolio companies scale up rapidly. The primary component of the Value Creation Platform is the Growth Track, a three-month mentor-led sprint, where portfolio companies are equipped with the tools and methodologies to run a professional growth team. The platform also provides companies with access to a vast network of 1,300 mentors, support with fundraising, a group of peers, and various other benefits.

Flashpoint unveils $102 million fund to back startups from Emerging Europe, ropes in first institutional investment partner

The Hungarian fund manager Széchenyi Funds will invest $20 million in Flashpoint VC III fund to reach its target fund size

London-based investment firm that manages venture capital, growth secondary, and venture debt funds, Flashpoint has wrapped up $102 million for its VCIII fund. The fund will focus on global Series A tech startups originating in Emerging Europe.

The company has also roped in its first institutional investment limited partner, Széchenyi Funds. The Hungarian fund manager will invest $20 million in Flashpoint’s VC III fund. While Széchenyi Funds’ focus is on financial institutions, large corporates, and more mature SMEs, it provides startups with ‘smart money’ through domestic incubators and accelerators and especially through fund of funds investments.

Michael Szalontay, co-founder and general partner at Flashpoint said: “We have reached our initial goal of over $100 million for our fund despite the extremely challenging backdrop for fundraising. Being a Hungarian, I am especially proud that our first institutional investor is from Hungary as we are pursuing a shared mission in developing the venture capital ecosystem in Hungary and the Carpathian basin.”

Meet Us At: 

Digital Insurance Agenda, Munich, 28-29 Sep. 2022 

Sifted Summit, London, 5-6 Oct. 2022

Slush 2022, Helsinki, 17-18 Nov. 2022 

FinTech Forum 2022, Frankfurt, 24 Nov. 2022

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de

Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum

FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com

European FinTech deal this week include Bunch, Wallife, Element

We feature Q&As with Weavr.io and Swisscom Ventures

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to us: Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.

Check out the B2B FinTech Radar, our microsite focused on SaaS / Enterprise FinTech founders with global ambitions

7 Questions with Alex Mifsud of Weavr.io

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

I’m an entrepreneur, so no surprise that I’m intensely curious about why things are the way they are, and what would happen if we can change how they are.  That’s true for me in business and everything else I do – it drives my family a bit crazy, but someone has to do it.  Otherwise we’d still be in the Stone Age.  I basically like to tinker – doing little experiments, whether I’m cooking a meal or building a business. It’s fun, experiencing old things in new ways, although it can sometimes be disastrous too. Not everyone likes my cooking.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-alex-mifsud-of-weavr-io/

7 Questions with Semih Kacan of Swisscom Ventures

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

My name is Semih Kacan, and I am Investment Manager at Swisscom Ventures. I’ve joined Swisscom Ventures at the beginning of 2021 to strengthen the Fintech and Blockchain allocation in the portfolio. Prior to Swisscom Ventures I spent over 10 years in Strategy Consulting, Corporate Strategy, Business Development and Asset Management at Credit Suisse, BearingPoint and Haspa before I co-founded and successfully exited my venture in Zurich. I hold a Master Degree in Corporate Finance from Henley Business School.

I enjoy the time with friends and family and a cup of coffee on sunny days at the beautiful Zurich Lake but also like reading books and watching videos to educate myself about upcoming trends/technologies.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-semih-kacan-of-swisscom-ventures/

Private markets investing platform Bunch raises €7.3m seed to expand across Europe

It’s safe to say private market investments — that means asset classes like venture capital, private debt, real estate and private equity — have been having a bit of a moment the last couple of decades. (Everyone’s an angel investor now, right?) There’s growing awareness of the potential for moneymaking in these sectors, and people in the tech industry — from founders to operators — want to help the next generation invest more easily.

Cue Berlin-based investing platform Bunch, which has just raised a €7.3m seed round for its operating system (OS) that aims to open up access to these asset classes for individual investors. 

What does Bunch do?

Bunch has built a software platform with three target customers: founders, business angels and venture fund managers. In other words, people who work in and around startups and have money to invest.

Why founders? Bunch says that by enabling investors to pool their investments it helps founders keep their cap tables clean by adding one single investor of record rather than 20-50 individual investors, thus avoiding the administrative costs they come with. 

Business angels can use the Bunch platform to pool and manage their deals, while venture fund managers can quickly set up special purpose vehicles (SPVs) to invest into their portfolios. 

Who’s investing in Bunch?

• Berlin-based early-stage VC firm Cherry Ventures.
• Embedded capital, which led its undisclosed pre-seed round.
• Angel investors including founders and C-level executives from Adyen, Klarna and Juni.

Cherry Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm led by a team of entrepreneurs with experience building fast-scaling companies such as Zalando and Spotify. The firm backs Europe’s boldest founders, usually as their first institutional investor, and supports them in everything from their go-to-market strategy and the scaling of their businesses.

Italy-based insurtech company Wallife bags €12M from United Ventures, others: Know more

Rome, Italy-based Wallife, an insurtech company that protects individuals from new risks originating from the technological and scientific progress of genetics, biometrics and biohacking, announced on Wednesday that it has raised €12M in a Series A round of funding.

According to Crunchbase, Wallife now ranks seventh in Europe in the insurtech sector by the value of the Series A investment round.

The investment was led by United Ventures, an Italian venture capital firm that specialises in digital technology investments. Since 2013, the firm has partnered with over 30 technology startups, supporting their growth and international expansion process.

The round also saw participation from a pool of selected Italian and international investors and business angels, including Aptafin.

Massimiliano Magrini, Managing Partner of United Ventures, says, “Scientific and technological progress introduces changes in our lives at an extremely fast pace. In this context, we were attracted by Wallife’s pioneering vision to build the world’s first company capable of providing answers on safety and protection from emerging and unknown risks.”

Headquartered in Milano, United Ventures provides support and funding across all the stages of new ventures, by investing seed stage, early stage and growth capital, with both start-up companies and estabilished ones launching onto new markets.

Insurtech Element raises 21.4 million euros

Frankfurt The Berlin-based insurance start-up Element has received a further 21.4 million euros from investors. The new financing round is led by the pension fund of the Berlin Dental Association (VZB). Alma Mundi Ventures from Spain, the Hong Kong investment company Witan Group and the Luxembourg fintech investor Ilavska Vuillermoz Capital also participated in the insurtech again, as the company confirmed. However, information on the evaluation of the start-up is not available.

Element had already collected 16 million euros last summer. The total investment now amounts to 88 million euros. The largest investors in the company, which was founded in 2017, are Finleap and Signals Invest, which held 45.1 percent and 18.5 percent of Element, respectively, at the end of last year.

It was only on Wednesday that it became known that the former Axa board member Astrid Stange will lead Element from August as a double seat with the previous CEO Christian Macht. Together, the management duo will lead the digital insurer into the next phase of growth. Element intends to use the fresh capital from the financing round to expand its market position in Germany and integrate new product categories into its portfolio.

VZB is the Pension fund for the employees of Berlin dental association. 

iDenfy announces its new cyber insurance by landing a massive contract with Lloyds

Kaunas, Lithuania (July 26, 2022) – iDenfy, the Lithuanian-based global identity verification and fraud prevention platform, announced a new collaboration with Lloyd’s, the leading insurance and reinsurance marketplace. iDenfy selected the Technology Errors and Omissions Coverage insurance as well as the Cyber protection package to meet the highest security standards.

iDenfy invested in adding an extra layer of security and purchased insurance from Lloyd’s. According to iDenfy, they are one of the few identity verification experts in the market to safeguard their services with high-class insurance, such as Lloyd’s. The newly selected Technology Errors and Omissions Coverage insurance ensures technology performance, protects from potential technology failures, and shields iDenfy from manufacturing its innovative services.

iDenfy claims that operating in a risky field and managing sensitive data naturally demands greater security. For this reason, the company decided to benefit from cybersecurity insurance. According to Domantas Ciulde, the CEO of iDenfy, the goal behind the partnership with Lloyd’s was to guarantee the absolute safety of iDenfy’s customers:

“We operate in a rather risky sector. Our team works with particularly sensitive data, such as biometrics or government-issued documents. Where there’s personal information, there’s always more risks of potential cyberattacks.”

Meanwhile, Lloyd’s, presenting itself as the world’s leading insurance platform, is well known for its wide range of specialists. A part of the capital available at Lloyd’s is based on a subscription, meaning that Lloyd's underwriters join together as syndicates and where syndicates unite to underwrite risks and programs. iDenfy’s chosen insurance plan from Lloyd’s is also supported by a professional Claims Department and an in-house legal team, providing 24/7 support.

As per Lloyd’s, its collective intelligence and risk-sharing expertise of the market’s underwriters and brokers create a safer environment. Considering this situation, iDenfy states that the new cyber insurance will set grounds for an even stronger cybersecurity policy, helping the company prevent data theft and regulatory fines. The contract with Lloyd’s enables additional protection from cyber extortion, negligence in technology services, GDPR and AML fines, etc.

iDenfy’s CEO, Domantas Ciulde, added: “Cybersecurity insurance is essential. It acts as a bridge to attract investments and new partnerships while simultaneously helping us maintain a good reputation and a high level of security. We’re thrilled to unite with Lloyd’s, a business committed to building a safer digital future.”

FNZ acquires private banking fintech

FNZ, the global wealth management platform, has acquired New Access, a specialized private banking technology firm primarily active in the markets of Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg.

These markets are key to serving and administering client wealth globally and will support FNZ in delivering on its promise to open up wealth and serve the US$240 trillion global wealth market.

The strategic acquisition of New Access represents a further investment by FNZ into the growing private banking and cross-border wealth sector after a number of customer successes and the acquisition of the Swiss tech innovator Appway in February 2022.

Private banks are under significant pressure to adapt and scale offerings to their existing and new clients but are often constrained by legacy technology, complex delivery models and new regulatory requirements. FNZ is transforming the industry landscape with its full service, end-to-end wealth platform. Combining cutting-edge technology, infrastructure and investment operations into a single state-of-the-art platform, FNZ enables wealth managers to rapidly deliver personalized services and innovative wealth products.

Fintech GoHenry acquires Pixpay

UK-based GoHenry, which offers prepaid debit cards and a financial education app for kids aged six to 18, has acquired French fintech start-up Pixpay for an undisclosed sum.

GoHenry says the new deal will enable it to expand its user base and boost its growth in Europe.

The company claims to have “more than doubled” its revenue during the pandemic to $42 million in 2021. It secured a $40 million funding round in December 2020.

Founded in France in 2019 by Benoit Grassin, Nicolas Klein and Caroline Ménager, Pixpay offers an alternative to banks for teens.

The firm provides a Mastercard payment card and a mobile app that allows users to pay, get paid, save money or get discounts on brands. It also has a mobile application for parents, offering them a secure, educational and practical solution to follow and accompany their children on a daily basis.

With claims of nearly 200,000 members, Pixpay plans to expand into Italy and Germany later this year. It has raised more than €11 million since April 2019.

GoHenry and Pixpay will continue to operate under their own brands with no change in leadership, headquarters or headcount.

US-based Carta acquires London-based Vauban

Carta, a San Francisco-based fintech startup, announced that it has acquired London-based Vauban, an online platform that helps investors back private companies. The value of the acquisition has not been disclosed. 

As a part of the acquisition, Vauban’s team will join Carta, says the company. It  will also result in the integration of Vauban’s fund establishment platform into the existing Carta business offering.

Vrushali Paunikar, VP of product for investor services at Carta, mentions in a blog post that more than 50 per cent of SPVs and funds in the US have at least one non-US LP.

“On one combined platform, syndicate leads and fund managers can now launch funds from the US, UK, British Virgin Islands, and soon, from Luxembourg,” she wrote. 

The announcement comes after Carta raised $500M at a $7.4B valuation last year in a round led by Silver Lake Partners. The US company planned to use the funds to acquire other firms, reports The Information. 

COI Partners rolls out €120-million fund to expand deal-by-deal platform for DACH growth companies

The growth investor will invest between €15 million and €30 million in initial and follow-on investments per company in the DACH region

Swiss-German growth investor COI Partners has rolled out €120-million fund to focus on deal-by-deal investments in the DACH region. The COIP DACH Growth II SCSp is a Luxembourg-based fund that will target growth companies.

The company, which was earlier called Co-Investor Partners, will invest between €15 million and €30 million in initial and follow-on investments per company. The firm has historically focused on sectors such as IT and software, consumer and retail, life sciences, technology, and industrials, however, continues to pursue an industry-agnostic approach.

The fund will match each future deal-by-deal investment by COI Partners. This will bring the company’s assets under management to over €300 million and strengthen its mission of partnering with outstanding companies and entrepreneurs. Primarily focussing on DACH, the fund will look at growth companies with a proven business model, and positive unit economics, and are ready to scale.

Amsterdam-based Welt marks first close of VC fund at €35M

Amsterdam-based Welt, a venture capital firm, announced on Tuesday that it has closed the first round of its VC fund at €35M from a group of tech entrepreneurs and private individuals.
The Dutch VC intends to close the fund at €75M, which is expected after summer, six months sooner than projected.
According to Welt, the latest VC fund has two purposes:
Democratising Venture Capital by enabling individual investors to invest in top-tier Venture Capital and Growth Equity funds.
Invest in the next generation of European startups and unicorns.
Bouke Marsman, Managing Partner at Welt, says, “Now is an interesting time to invest in Venture Capital since the correction of tech shares is taking place in the private markets as well. In the process, the distinction between promising and less promising startups and scale-ups is becoming clearer. This presents opportunities for the top Venture Capital funds in particular. Thanks to their track record and experience, it is easier for them to invest in the unicorns of the future. This is reflected in the returns. Historically, funds started during or immediately after crisis years (for example 2001 and 2009) have shown very strong results.”

https://siliconcanals.com/news/startups/amsterdam-welt-closes-35m-fund/ 

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de

Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum

FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com

European FinTech deal this week include Asset Class, Griffin, Oxbury Bank, Zilch, Cleo, YuLife, ArK Kapital, WeFox

We feature Q&As with Brian Nolan and Zbi Czapran of Finteum and Christian Knott, Capnamic Ventures

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to us: Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.

Check out the B2B FinTech Radar, our microsite focused on SaaS / Enterprise FinTech founders with global ambitions

7 Questions with Brian Nolan and Zbi Czapran of Finteum

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

Hi, we are Brian from Ireland and Zbi from Poland, both living in London. Together we have worked for 20 years in banking and in building technology solutions for enterprise. Brian was a director for UBS in Treasury in Zürich and New York in liquidity management, and before that in Bank of Ireland. Zbi has built technology for enterprise and financial services companies, such as IHS Markit. Outside work, Brian likes to stay healthy and go running. Zbi used to have free time for travelling and trying out European beers, but now his home life takes up most of the free time.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-brian-nolan-and-zbi-czapran-of-finteum/

7 Questions with Christian Knott, Capnamic Ventures

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

Well, I am the typical business student, did my bachelor in Cologne, Master in Leipzig. Worked briefly for the European Commission but that was not my hometurf. Started working in Venture Capital in 2010 and am with Capnamic for 5.5 years now. Since 2018, I am partner. 

In my private life I have a fiancée (wife at the end July), who I love to travel with. The more remote and beautiful the place the better.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-christian-knott-capnamic-ventures/

Asset Class Secures $11.6M Series A Funding

Asset Class, a NY-based financial technology company, raised $11.6M in Series A funding.
The round was led by Canapi Ventures with participation from Live Oak Ventures, Plexus Capital and Total Technology Ventures.
The company intends to use the funds to expand its employee headcount, specifically in the areas of software and business development.
Led by CEO Ferdinand Roberts, Asset Class provides a range of innovative, custom investment management software solutions to clients across financial sectors, with a focus on private equity, venture capital, financial advisory and commercial lending. The company now services more than 300 funds, totaling $33 billion in assets under management, and a network of over 15,000 accredited investors.
Asset Class has offices in Dublin, New York, Atlanta and London.

Founded in 2018, Canapi incubates and invests in transformative financial services technology companies that deploy solutions on modern platforms in an increasingly open and interconnected world. Backed by the United States’ top regulatory experts and leading financial institutions, Canapi provides capital, customers, and guidance to founders building the digital financial services ecosystem of tomorrow.

https://www.finsmes.com/2022/07/asset-class-secures-11-6m-series-a-funding.html

Banking as a Service Provider Griffin Raises $15.5 Million

Griffin, a banking as a service (BaaS) provider, has raised an additional $15.5 million as it pursues its mission of becoming the “bank Fintechs can build on.” The Fintech has raised $27 million to date.
The funding round was led by Notion Capital, with participation from existing investor EQT Ventures as well as angel investors including William Hockey, co-founder of Plaid and founder and co-CEO of Column, Nilan Peiris, VP of Growth at Wise, Rob Straathof, CEO at Liberis and Shane Happach, CEO of Mollie and ex CCO Worldpay.
Griffin said that it had added Stephen Chandler, Notion Capital co-founder and managing partner Stephen Chandler, to its board of directors.
Based in London, Griffin is rethinking the tech stack that powers financial services. Griffin aims to offer an “API first” banking platform. Griffin previously reported that it is seeking a banking license having filed with the PRA and FCA. Griffin has not indicated its anticipated date of approval or the status of the authorization process.
David Jarvis, Griffin CEO and co-founder, said they were thrilled to be working with Notion Capital and adding Chandler to the board.

Headquartered in London, Notion is a venture capital firm, investing in European SaaS and enterprise tech with more than 80 investments to date

Oxbury Bank lands £20m in additional funding

Oxbury Bank, a UK-based start-up bank focused on the agriculture sector, has raised £20 million in equity from new and existing investors.

The round featured participation from founder investors Frontier Agriculture and Hutchinsons Group as well as existing technology investors Hambro Perks and Grosvenor Food and AgTech.

It comes just three months after Oxbury Bank raised £31 million in a Series C round, while also acquiring its core software provider, Naqoda.

The new cash injection takes the firm’s total capital raised to £68 million.

The latest funds will be put towards the development of its Oxbury Earth core banking platform which, the bank says, will support funding British farmers.

In its first 15 months since launch, Oxbury claims it has “already disrupted the incumbent banks” with £500 million worth of lending completed or in progress. The bank says it is forecast to break even by the end of the year.

“For decades farmers have had a very limited choice between very similar incumbent banks, and we appreciate how many farmers now want to be part of Oxbury,” says James Farrar, co-founder and CEO of Oxbury.

“They are critical to food production and we support them at a very practical level with a team grounded in the sector.”

Oxbury’s fintech platform offers financing and data solutions to help farmers deliver “improved sustainability, provenance and productivity across the farming and food supply chain”.

Zilch Raises $50M; Brings Total Series C To $160M

Zilch, a London, UK-based credit payment innovator, secured an additional $50m in funding, taking the total raise for its Series C to $160m.

The extension brings total funding to more than $460m in debt and equity.

The company intends to use the funds for business growth, with a focus on the US market where Zilch recently opened its Miami office and launched with more than 150,000 pre-registered customers.

Co-Founded by Philip Belamant (CEO) and Sean O’Connor, Zilch is advancing products for customers to manage cash flow and to ensure consumer protection and financial health from the start. Utilizing Open Banking technology and so credit checks, the company uses its real-time view and understanding of customerʼs affordability to give accurate recommendations of what they can afford to borrow.

Zilchʼs direct-to-consumer proposition offers its customers unrestricted access to all 37m merchants that accept Mastercard, online or instore via Tap and Pay. It works with some of the most advanced fintech enablers including: Amazon Web Services, Cross River, Checkout.com, Cashflows, Experian, GPS, Monavate, Marqeta, Mastercard, Onfido, Provenir and Socure.

The company has over 250 employees based across its offices in London, Miami and Krakow.

Investors in Zilch include Ventura Capital, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Gauss Ventures, DMG Ventures, M&F Fund and Limited Ventures.

Cleo Raises USD80M in Series C Funding

Cleo, a London, UK-based digital assistant that supports people throughout their financial lives, from their first paycheque to their first home, raised USD80M in Series C funding.

The round was led by Sofina, with participation from EQT Ventures, Balderton and LocalGlobe.

The company intends to use the funds for continued US growth, including a significant increase in employee headcount from 140 to over 220 and continue iterating and improving on its product suite.

Founded in 2016 by Barnaby Hussey-Yeo, CEO, Cleo supports and empowers young people to form better money habits via a digital assistant. With a chat, Cleo can automate a money life and remove the stress of decision making with personal advice based on the user’s specific needs and financial history.

Sofina is a Belgium-based investment company listed on the Brussels stock exchange and a supportive partner of entrepreneurs and families managing growing companies. Sofina invests both directly and through Private Equity funds. Its geographical scope is Europe, the United States, and Asia 

YuLife Raises $120M in Series C Funding

YuLife, a London, United Kingdom – based tech-driven insurance company, raised $120M (~£95M) in Series C funding.

The round, which brought total funding to $206M since the company was founded in 2016, was led by Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company (TSE: 8750) with participation from some undisclosed existing investors.

The company will use the capital to broaden its reach into new global markets and scale its product range, delivering financial products that improve lives and reward wellbeing.

Led by Sammy Rubin, CEO and Founder, YuLife is a tech-driven insurance company harnessing technology and the latest behavioural science to provide an insurance model that focuses on risk prevention, not just claims compensation. The company rewards employees for healthy living, supporting mental, physical and financial wellbeing helping foster healthier, and more motivated teams.

YuLife now covers >500k policyholders across small to large businesses, with over $50bn (~£40bn) of cover in place.

ArK Kapital announces a US$152mn extension to lending pool

Swedish fintech ArK Kapital has announced an extension to its Lending pool following events taking place in the current economic climate. 

The fintech, which was launched in 2021, enables startups to grow by providing frictionless long-term loads based on risk-assessed data. The financing company’s services allow founders to maintain control of their startup, while the loan conditions also reduce the risk for investors. 

According to reports, the US$152mn extension to the lending pool has been introduced as a response to strong traction in the Nordic markets and will be used to help drive European expansions. 

The $152mn extension also means ArK Kapital can offer over $300mn in loans to European technology founders. Data shows that the initial $168mn seed round was $152mn debt-based and $15m equity-based. The equity portion of the round was led by LocalGlobe, with participation from Creandum and angel investors including founders of iZettle, Supercell, King, and EQT Ventures. This extension comes as a response to strong traction in the Nordic markets and will be used to help fuel European expansion.

Founded in 1999 in London, LocalGlobe has seeded impactful founders at places like Citymapper, Improbable, Lovefilm, Moo, Wise and Zoopla. 

Insurtech start-up Wefox raises $400m and hits $4.5bn valuation

While some European start-ups are struggling, Wefox’s valuation is on the rise and it plans to grow its headcount to 2,000 by the end of the year.

German insurtech Wefox has raised $400m in a Series D round of funding to help with product development and expansion across Europe.

The round comprised both equity and debt funding. Mubadala Investment Company led the equity raise, with participation from Eurazeo, LGT, Horizons Ventures, OMERS Ventures and Target Global.

The latest funding round values Wefox at $4.5bn, which is an increase from its $3bn valuation after raising $650m last year.

Wefox, which was founded in 2015, sells insurance, such as house and motor insurance, through intermediaries on its platform. Earlier this month, the company reached 2m customers and said it was one of the first insurtechs to hit this milestone.

The Berlin-based start-up plans to use the funding for product development and European expansion, with a goal to move into Asia and the US after.

Mubadala Investment Company — a sovereign investor — manages a diverse portfolio of assets and investments in the United Arab Emirates and abroad, to generate sustainable financial returns for its shareholder, the Government of Abu Dhabi.

Amundi Austria acquires fintech Finventum GmbH to utilise its Savity advisory platform

Amundi Austria has acquired fintech Finventum GmbH from Austrian retail banking company BAWAG P.S.K. and the company founders.

The acquisition aims to meet the growing need for digitalised financial services in Austria, especially for digital portfolio management.

Finventum owns Savity Vermögensverwaltung GmbH (Savity), an established, licensed and regulated Austrian advisory platform offering digital asset management services.

Expanding its technology solutions range with Savity will enable Amundi to better serve its partners, distributors and its retail clients in Austria, the asset management company says.

Guillaume Lesage, chief operating officer at Amundi, says: “At Amundi, our goal is to serve our distribution partners beyond the product offering to meet their customers’ growing need for investment advice and innovative, tailored and cost-effective technology solutions.

“Savity exactly meets these requirements and enhances the Amundi Technology footprint in the B2B segment. This powerful technology, combined with our expertise in robo-advising and the extensive portfolio management capabilities of Amundi, will drive further the development of Savity.”

Gabriele Tavazzani, CEO of Amundi Austria, comments: “This new offer will enhance our development as the credible leading European technology provider in the Austrian market. Thanks to the extensive capabilities of Amundi, we will be able not only to serve existing Savity direct clients, but also provide new digital tools and services to our partners.”

CoinShares Acquires Napoleon Asset Management

CoinShares International Limited (Nasdaq First North Growth Market: CS; US OTCQX: CNSRF), a European digital asset investment firm, acquired Napoleon Asset Management, one of the first ever digital asset managers, licensed under the AIFM Directive since March 2019.

The amount of the deal – signed and completed on 30 June 2022 – was not disclosed.

The acquisition of Napoleon Asset Management allows CoinShares to offer AIFM compliant products and services, in addition to its market leading position as an issuer of crypto Exchange Traded Products (ETPs).

The transaction follows the acquisition of the Napoleon Group last December and fits with CoinShares’ strategy of developing into a full-service digital asset investment and trading group, within a strong regulatory framework. On 30 November 2021, CoinShares entered into a sale and purchase agreement to acquire the entire Napoleon Group. The transaction was completed on Thursday, 16 December 2021. The Group SPA contained an option to acquire Napoleon Asset Management, the exercise of which was subject to prior approval of the change of control by the Autorité des Marchés Financier. That approval was received on 28 June 2022. CoinShares exercised its option to acquire Napoleon Asset Management and entered into a sale and purchase agreement pursuant to the terms set out in the Group SPA which signed and completed simultaneously on 30 June 2022.

CoinShares is an advocate of regulation in the digital asset industry and has an extensive list of regulated products and services. The Alternative Investment Fund Manager (“AIFM”) licence is one of the most rigorous European regulations for Asset Managers and is a key component in CoinShares’ ambition to become the leading investment group in the digital asset sector.

PLC swoops for FinTech Fluent

FinTech Fluent Money Group has been acquired in a £72.7 million deal.

London-listed Mortgage Advice Bureau, which is headquartered in Derby, has swooped for the fast-growing mortgage and specialist lending intermediary.

MAB now owns 75.4% of Fluent, based in Horwich, Greater Manchester.

Fluent has formed strong relationships with aggregators – such as MoneySuperMarket – and other national lead sources operating across first charge, second charge and lifetime mortgages, as well as bridging loans where people are, for example, building a property.

With a model built on an end-to-end digital customer journey, supported by telephony advice, its MyFluent customer portal – developed in partnership with Sputnik Digital – allows for faster loan processing and messaging in a WhatsApp-style interface.

GoHenry acquires French fintech Pixpay to drive European expansion

UK-based GoHenry, which offers prepaid debit cards and a financial education app for kids aged six to 18, has acquired French fintech start-up Pixpay for an undisclosed sum.

GoHenry says the new deal will enable it to expand its user base and boost its growth in Europe.

The company claims to have “more than doubled” its revenue during the pandemic to $42 million in 2021. It secured a $40 million funding round in December 2020.

Founded in France in 2019 by Benoit Grassin, Nicolas Klein and Caroline Ménager, Pixpay offers an alternative to banks for teens.

The firm provides a Mastercard payment card and a mobile app that allows users to pay, get paid, save money or get discounts on brands. It also has a mobile application for parents, offering them a secure, educational and practical solution to follow and accompany their children on a daily basis.

With claims of nearly 200,000 members, Pixpay plans to expand into Italy and Germany later this year. It has raised more than €11 million since April 2019.

GoHenry and Pixpay will continue to operate under their own brands with no change in leadership, headquarters or headcount.

Pan-European Climentum Capital to launch a €150 million Fund to support innovators accelerating the green transition

Aiming to supercharge Europe’s green transition by launching a new climate tech Fund, Climentum Capital is raising €150 million to invest in early-stage startups helping Europe become carbon neutral. 

As Europe continues on the journey to becoming carbon neutral by 2050, Climentum Capital has today announced it is launching a new €150 million Fund I. Europe’s ambitious journey to Net-Zero is reliant upon new innovations and tech-first approaches that can make society more sustainable and accelerate a green transition – and it’s a journey with a long way to go. This new fund is sure to be a pivotal part of getting us there. 

“Now is the time to invest in Climate Tech. We need to see results within the next decades and see momentum from all sides: governments and corporations are pushing for real change, the best talent is moving into the space and technology has developed massively”. Dörte Hirschberg. 

Founded in 2021, Climentum Capital is a pan-European venture with bases in Copenhagen, Berlin and Stockholm. The VC firm is investing in European startups that are dedicated to cutting down CO2 emissions in a concrete, measurable and sustainable way. This freshly launched fund aims to avoid millions of tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, accelerating the transition to a sustainable future. It’s among the first article 9 funds in Europe, with a dedicated focus on CO2 emission reductions from day one.

Stefan Maard commented: “There is a concrete value-add to both founders and investors. “Investors gain access to a cutting-edge Article 9 fund that delivers climate impacts and the associated data to help them achieve and report on their own climate and ESG targets. This is something that has resonated well with especially institutional and more forward-looking investors. Looking toward the founders, they are keen to work with truly mission-aligned investors that are also willing and able to help them mature on their own sustainability journeys – including documenting climate change impacts and leveraging that to access non-dilutive capital such as carbon credits, grants and ESG related project financing.”

Almost a billion for startups: Headline sets up the largest fund in the company’s history

The venture capital firm Headline, formerly E.ventures, has completed the largest fundraising in its 23-year history: The VC has collected 917 million euros (943 million dollars) and now wants to invest them in tech startups from the B2B and B2C sector worldwide. The money will be distributed over three new funds: headline US VII, which focuses on start-ups in North America, headline EU VII, which will provide 320 million euros to European founders, and Headline Brazil III, which will invest in Latin America.”Despite recent market shifts, we continue to aggressively pursue the next wave of world-changing innovation,” headline co-founder Mathias Schilling said. “I have already experienced some market fluctuations in the last 20 years, and in these times we have always continued to seek and promote the long-term entrepreneurial spirit.”

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de

Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum

FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com

European FinTech deal this week include Flowdesk, Hokodo, SumUp

We feature Q&As with Christian Knott of Capnamic Ventures and Shane Riedel of Elucidate

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to us: Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.

Check out the B2B FinTech Radar, our microsite focused on SaaS / Enterprise FinTech founders with global ambitions

7 Questions with Christian Knott of Capnamic Ventures

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself and your company.

Well, I am the typical business student, did my bachelor in Cologne, Master in Leipzig. Worked briefly for the European Commission but that was not my hometurf. Started working in Venture Capital in 2010 and am with Capnamic for 5.5 years now. Since 2018, I am partner.

In my private life I have a fiancée (wife at the end July), who I love to travel with. The more remote and beautiful the place the better.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-christian-knott-capnamic-ventures/

7 Questions with Shane Riedel of Elucidate

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

I spent most of my career in diplomacy with the United Nations and in finance (spread between London, Zurich and Singapore) and, as such, the shift to a FinTech start up has been both challenging and liberating. The cultural and operational contrast between a bank and Elucidate could not be more extreme, but for me it has been deeply satisfying to build a dynamic team and a product that transcends the capabilities of any one person or function.

I live in Berlin, which is a fantastic FinTech hub and offers a great quality of life.  In my spare time I enjoy cycling and spending time outside of the city…perhaps harkening back to my upbringing in rural Ohio in the US.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-shane-riedel-of-elucidate/

French platform Flowdesk rakes in $30 million to drive financial services for cryptocurrencies

The Parisian digital asset service provider allows interconnection with more than 60 cryptocurrency exchange platforms

Paris-based crypto-asset trading platform Flowdesk has raised $30 million in funding to drive the growth of financial services for cryptocurrencies. The round saw the participation of Eurazeo, Aglaé Ventures, ISAI, Speedinvest, Fabric, Ledger, and Coinbase, and 20 angel investors, including Alexandre Prot (Qonto), Nicolas Julia (Sorare), Pascal Gauthier (Ledger) and Sébastien Borget (The Sandbox).

Founded in 2020 by Guilhem Chaumont, Paul Bugnot, François Cluzeau and Balthazar Giraux, the startup has developed an infrastructure that allows cryptocurrencies to interconnect and trade on various exchanges while guaranteeing the redundancy and scalability needed to support the growing number of crypto projects. The company offers four services, including asset management, brokerage, custody and market-making.

Currently, the French digital asset service provider allows interconnection with more than 60 cryptocurrency exchange platforms. Flowdesk recently opened offices in Singapore in March 2022 and now plans to open an office in the U.S. with the new funding.

Headquartered in Paris, Eurazeo is a leading global investment group, with a diversified portfolio of €18.8 billion in assets under management, including €12.5 billion from third parties, invested in over 430 companies. With considerable Private Equity, real estate, private debt and fund of funds expertise, Eurazeo accompanies companies of all sizes, supporting their development through the commitment of its nearly 300 professionals and by offering deep sector expertise, a gateway to global markets.

Hokodo Raises $40M in Series B Funding Round

Hokodo, a London, UK based digital trade credit provider, raised $40m in Series B funding.

The round was led by Notion Capital, with participation from Korelya Capital, Mundi Ventures, Opera Tech Ventures, Anthemis and Mosaic Ventures.

The company intends to use the funds for its expansion into new European markets and the development of BNPL solutions for telesales and in-store purchases.

Led by Louis Carbonnier, and Richard Thornton, Hokodo provides Buy Now, Pay Later solutions to the B2B market, enabling business customers to benefit from instant, interest-free payment terms. A leader in the field in the UK, the company is currently expanding into continental Europe, and working on the creation of new products devised to serve the B2B market. 

With new merchants recently onboarded in France (Paris Fashion Shops) and Spain (Katoo), following launches in Belgium and the Netherlands (Ankorstore) earlier this year, a portion of the new funding will see the company expand its efforts to become the B2B BNPL category leader in continental Europe.

Notion Capital with its headquarters in London is a Venture Capital investing firm focused on European SaaS and Cloud, with more than 100 investments to date.

European fintech SumUp raises €590 million

SumUp, a London-based maker of point-of-sale payments solutions for small businesses, raised €590 million in equity and debt funding led by Bain Capital Tech Opportunities at an €8 billion valuation.

Why it matters: This reflects softening valuations for European fintech, given reports from earlier this year that investors were floating a €20 billion mark for SumUp.

Caveat: This is still a massive step-up for the company, which last raised equity funding in 2017. Or, put another way, SumUp isn’t in the same boat as Swedish fintech Klarna — once Europe’s most valuable startup with a $45 billion valuation, which now is said to be seeking new funds at around $15 billion.

Details: The round was split evenly between equity and debt. Other investors include BlackRock, btov Partners, Centerbridge, Crestline, Fin Capital and Sentinel Dome Partners.

The bottom line: “I can very comfortably say the €8 billion is a true and fair valuation, because that’s the price people put on the company in the worst of markets… In this environment we think we will see good opportunities for M&A deals once people realize that money is not free any more.” — SumUp CEO Marc-Alexander Christ to the FT

Bain Capital Tech Opportunities pursues investments in application software, fintech and payments, healthcare IT and infrastructure and security. Bain Capital, LP is one of the world’s leading private investment firms with approximately $160 billion of assets under management that creates lasting impact for our investors, teams, businesses, and the communities in which we live

iDenfy launches a new Business Verification platform and partners with the Swedish Fintech Juni

Kaunas, Lithuania (June 28, 2022) – the Lithuanian identity verification and compliance company iDenfy, joined forces with Juni, the financial management platform made for ecommerce. iDenfy’s mix of built-in identity verification and Business Verification services will protect Juni from fraud.

Reduced costs, personalization, greater convenience, or speed are all factors that make ecommerce and fintech players successful in today’s digital sphere. While the benefits paint a positive picture, there’s also a riskier part to online business. According to iDenfy, cybercrime takes a toll on the fintech and ecommerce markets, making fraudsters and their crimes an issue that’s hard to tackle.

Juni follows a similar approach, and as an industry innovator, the fintech player constantly looks for new ways to bridge the gap between security and speed. For this reason, Juni decided to upgrade its fraud prevention package and implement iDenfy’s latest product, the Business Verification platform.

The goal at Juni is to provide its clients with the best-in-class financial ecosystem while at the same time, ensuring complete transparency and safety. Businesses that use Juni’s services can track their entire business profile in one place. Juni claims to have created one dashboard where companies get a centralized overview of bank accounts, ad networks, and payment gateways. This helps them monitor their business activity and improve cash flow more efficiently.

Once started with remote ID verification, iDenfy now offers many fraud prevention tools that help businesses detect and prevent criminal activity as well as comply with ever-changing regulations. According to Juni, iDenfy presented a unique opportunity to combine identity verification with Know Your Business (KYB) services. iDenfy will provide its partners with the Business Verification platform that helps detect bogus companies.

As per iDenfy, its Business Verification removes the struggle for Compliance officers who need to follow strict laws and check multiple data points manually. iDenfy’s platform assists Juni in automating its onboarding process in accordance with global and local regulations. iDenfy’s Business Verification platform can block certain IPs or activity codes from onboarding. It helps Juni detect and prevent fraudulent activity automatically by running Sanctions, PEPs, and Adverse Media verification checks.

According to Juni, iDenfy’s new services have already improved its ability to screen the identity of applicants more efficiently, which is one of the main factors that the fintech’s customers expect. Juni also claims to be working with iDenfy to develop the Business Verification platform further. The next stage will be to add more automation features to reduce the likelihood of human error quicker.

“We are actively collaborating on building a very special platform. iDenfy is known as a solid identity verifier, but very few, if any, providers offer both a KYB tool and an ID verification tool that we could find. For that, we are very grateful.” – noted Patrick Ryan, FinCrime Director, Juni.

“Our team strives to create safe solutions that allow other businesses to focus on their primary goals without needing to do the administrative work. Our Business Verification and identity verification platform is a ready-made service that helps compliance officers to eliminate fraud risks faster. We’re glad that our partners at Juni share a similar vision and have the same values regarding security.” – explained Domantas Ciulde, iDenfy’s CEO.

About iDenfy  

iDenfy, a platform of identity verification services and fraud prevention tools, ensures AML and KYC compliance for every company — from large-scale businesses to small organizations. The rapidly growing business was named the best “Fintech Startup” in 2020. The company also received recognition for winning a Baltic Assembly Prize for innovation in 2021.

For more information and business inquiries, please visit www.idenfy.com.

About Juni

Founded in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2020, Juni aims to be the financial companion for ecommerce. Listed as the fastest-growing fintech startup in Europe in 2021, Juni empowers ecommerce entrepreneurs to make better decisions, scale-up and unlock the full potential of ecommerce. With Juni, you can track your entire business in one place: a dedicated online space, tailor-made for ecommerce.

For more information, go to juni.co.

Breega is now armed with a fresh €250 million fund, and counts half a billion in assets under management

Having backed 83 companies across 7 countries, and completing four fundraising rounds over the course of seven years, this latest collection of capital provides Breega with over half a billion in assets under management.

Parisian built-by-founders-for-founders VC firm Breega returns to the pitch with a fresh €250 million fund specifically aimed at supporting approximately 20 founders raising capital at Series A and above levels, specifically, but not solely limited to the those operating in the fintech and insurtech industries.

If you’ve been playing along at home, you might remember that the Ben Marrel, Francois Paulus, and Maximilien Bacot-founded firm closed a €110 million seed fund no fewer than 16 months prior, as well as wracking up another €20 million for a ‘opportunities’ vehicle in October of the same year.

After completing four fundraising rounds over the course of just seven years, Breega has backed 83 companies across 7 countries, and seen 9 exits. With this latest collection of capital, the fund now manages over half a billion in assets.

According to a Breega spokesperson, the firm has already begun deploying capital from the new fund, investing in several startups including fintech Keebo, proptech UKIO, and insurtech Mila. 

As is de rigueur in today’s VC funding landscape, Breega prides itself on an inhouse, free-of-charge ‘Scaling Squad’; a unit comprised of professionals experienced in the arts of business growth and pairing, talent acquisition, and naturally, marketing and communication.

Presto Ventures Closes Fund II, at €30M

Presto Ventures, a Prague, Czech Republic-based venture capital firm, investing in early-stage B2B startups from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), closed its Fund II, €30m.

The fund is backed entirely by private investors, including family offices and a number of successful entrepreneurs and exited founders committed to expediting business connections and additional capital in follow-on rounds.

Through this fund, Presto will invest in up to forty B2B tech startups at seed and pre-seed stages in the CEE region, supporting them with fast access to capital, fast business development, and fast growth.

Presto has already invested in startups such as Cloudtalk, IP Fabric, Yieldigo, Sharry and Wolf3D.

Led by Přemysl Rubeš, Founder and Managing Partner, a former mathematician, holding scientific and engineering degrees from the Nuclear Sciences Faculty at CTU Prague and ENSTA ParisTech, the firm also announced the appointment of three new partners. They are:

• Roman Nováček, a CFA charterholder and ex-analyst at US private equity firm GTE. Recently named on Forbes 30 Under 30 list for 2022,  Nováček is also one of the youngest partners at a CEE VC firm, and will oversee financial planning and analytics at Presto,
• Vojta Roček, who founded and sold business intelligence startup Stories.bi to Workday, and
• Eduard Kučera, who built and managed the Business Intelligence department of cybersecurity giant Avast.

These new additions boost the fund’s credentials in diverse areas such as blockchain, data, cybersecurity, enterprise software and SaaS.

Meet us at:

Digital Insurance Agenda, Amsterdam: 29–30 June 2022

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de

Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum

FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com

European FinTech deal this week include Urban Jungle, Mosdex, Upvest, Instanda, Cleo

We feature Q&As with Sheila Kagan of Paykey and May Wang of Fin VC

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to us: Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.

Check out the B2B FinTech Radar, our microsite focused on SaaS / Enterprise FinTech founders with global ambitions

7 Questions with Sheila Kagan of Paykey

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself and your company.

I joined PayKey in March 2020 after years of working as a chief executive at a variety of public and private tech companies in the advertising and gaming industries. Throughout my life I’ve been drawn to the dynamics of the banking industry, and once the opportunity came, I knew PayKey is a FinTech uniquely positioned to leave a mark on an industry that is traditionally lagging behind.

At PayKey we are putting banks at the forefront of embedded banking, by weaving the financial services customers need within their everyday lives. Our patented mobile keyboard

solution allows customers to access a variety of mobile banking services including P2P payments, loans, investments and more within all the social & messaging apps they are regularly using like WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and others. With our solution, banks can contextually bring their services to where customers today chat, transact, and make their financial decisions.

http://www.fintechforum.de/scaling-enterprise-fintech-with-sheila-kagan-of-paykey/

7 Questions with May Wang of Fin VC

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

I’m an investor at Fin VC, a B2B Fintech/Insurtech focused global venture capital, based out of San Francisco. Fin VC is a team of FinTech nerds with capital, based in SF/NYC and focus on FinTech SaaS in the US and EU/UK. We deploy out of 3 strategies: Regatta (pre-seed, checks of $100K-$1M), Flagship (Early Stage – Seed->B, checks of $1-10M) and Horizons (Growth – C+, checks of $25-50M+, primary/secondary) and have an operating value playbook focused on global BD, corp dev, capital formation, product/GTM, key talent sourcing, and board leadership.

Personally, I’m an avid traveler and a global citizen who has lived in 4 countries across 3 continents. When not at work, you’ll find me hiking/surfing in the summer and skiing in the winter. I’m also mentoring students from underrepresented communities, and an advisor at a Uganda-based NGO.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-may-wang-of-fin-vc/

London insurtech Urban Jungle scores £16.5 million for European expansion

The insurance provider plans to double its customer base by the end of the year and create 100 new jobs in the U.K.

London-based insurance technology startup Urban Jungle has raised £16.5 million in their latest Series A funding round. The round was led by North American-based venture capital investor Intact Ventures and Ingka Group, which controls hundreds of IKEA stores globally. The investment was also backed by existing investors, including Mundi Ventures, Eka Ventures and former Prudential UK CEO Rob Devey.

The company had raised €9 million in its earlier funding round last year. The Series A round brings the total amount raised by the business to £32 million. The insurtech firm will use the funding to rapidly scale its home insurance business in the U.K. and add new markets.

Founded by CEO Jimmy Williams and former Google developer Greg Smyth,  it aims to change the insurance industry by putting fairness and transparency at its core. Talking about expansion beyond its home turf, Urban Jungle co-founder and CEO Jimmy Williams said: “We’re already one of the leading insurance brands for the renters and homeowners in the U.K. But our ambition is to become the number one insurance business in the U.K. and beyond. This funding is a big step towards that, and we’ll use it to rapidly grow our customer base and roll out our simple, fair insurance into other markets in the year to come. It will also allow us to create 100 new jobs in the U.K.”

North American-based venture capital investor Intact Ventures invests in early-stage companies and are backed by a global insurer to support the growth of portfolio companies across multiple geographies. They manage $400 million across two funds

Mosdex Raises $20 Million in Funding

Mosdex, a Helsinki, Finland-based cryptocurrency arbitrage platform startup, raised $20m in funding.

The round was led by Evli Bank PLC with participation from the venture division of Lifeline Ventures, NordicNinja VC, Petteri Suorsa, Magnus Eskelinen and Jouni Väisänen.

The company intends to use the funds for:

• global expansion of its platform,
• purchasing other blockchain-based companies, as well as
• opening up offices in New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, London, Tokyo and Dubai.

Launched in 2022, Mosdex provides a platform designed to automate cryptocurrency arbitrage platforms for cryptocurrency exchanges, consumers and institutions. Developed by a group of developers with expertise in finance, machine learning, and blockchain engineering software, the solution allows users to easily conduct cryptocurrency arbitrage.

The company also plans to advance products, budgets, and derivative tools for the market.

Evli Fund Management Company Ltd is a Nordic fund management boutique established in 1989 focusing on institutional investors. Their funds are actively managed with an ESG overlay, a long time-perspective and focus on free cash flow.

Berlin based Fintech Upvest Acquires $42M via Series B Led by Bessemer Venture Partners

Berlin-based infrastructure Fintech Upvest announced the closing of a $42 million Series B round – “one of the largest German Fintech funding rounds in 2022.”

Bessemer Venture Partners is leading the Series B “with Earlybird and ABN AMRO Ventures doubling down as previous investors and participation of Notion Capital, Partech, 10x Group, Speedinvest and Maximilian Tayenthal (N26).”

The raised capital will be used “to advance Upvest’s Investment-API, lay the ground for the internationalization, and gradually expand Upvest’s team.”

Since its Series A, Upvest is “backed by the venture capital firms Earlybird, HV Capital, Notion Capital, ABN AMRO Ventures, Speedinvest and Partech, as well as the fintech founders Maximilian Tayenthal (N26) and Felix Haas (IDnow).”

Upvest’s product offering is “fully up and running in the market and enables fintechs to offer their end customers products in the field of capital market investments, from ETFs and stocks to crypto assets.”

Upvest built “the first end-to-end cloud native core banking system for investments and is one of the few financial institutions in Europe owning all BaFin licenses for securities and crypto brokerage, and custody.”

Designed as a plug-and-play solution with fully-fledged process automation at its core, Upvest’s API and core banking system “help Neobanks- and brokers, as well as established banking players, to significantly save on the cost side since they do not need to develop their brokerage and custody infrastructure from scratch.”

With more than 135 IPOs and 200 portfolio companies in the enterprise, consumer and healthcare spaces, Bessemer supports founders and CEOs from their early days through every stage of growth. 

Bessemer’s global portfolio includes Pinterest, Shopify, Twilio, Yelp, LinkedIn, PagerDuty, DocuSign, Wix, Fiverr, and Toast and has $19 billion of assets under management. Bessemer has teams of investors and partners located in Tel Aviv, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, New York, London, Boston, Beijing and Bangalore. 

Insurance services infrastructure provider Instanda banks $45 million

Led by Toscafund, no-code insurance products management and distribution software maker Instada now shifts into high gear, targeting further traction across Europe, UAE, Japan, and US markets.

London-based Instanda has raised $45 million in a Series B funding round. The company provides a no-code core infrastructure for insurers, allowing them to deploy and orchestrate product portfolios quickly and easily, ten times faster the industry norm, according to Instanda. The new capital will be used to expand the company’s market presence across Europe, UAE, Japan, and US markets. Since 2016 Instanda has raised approximately $73 million.

“Instada’s no-code insurance core platform was built by insurers for insurers based on the belief that technology should be used to accelerate change and innovation at low cost,” explained CEO and co-founder Tim Hardcastle. “This is what sets Instada apart from the crowd. No other platform allows carriers and MGAs across all lines of insurance to fully embrace the diversity of insurance and respond to the anticipated change in consumer needs and behaviour.”

Servicing some 70+ clients globally, Instada counts Atlanta (part of Ardonagh Group), Hamilton Fraser (part of GRP Group), HDI Global SE, and Standard Bank, amongst its client base, with the company adding 21 new clients in 2021 alone.

Headquartered in London, Toscafund Asset Management LLP is an independently owned asset manager that provides investment solutions to respond and capitalise upon ever-evolving market conditions. With multi-billion $ assets under management, the firm’s investment platform spans financials, small to middle capitalisation equities, private company credit, commercial property and private equity. 

Fintech Cleo raises additional $80m following backing from Brussels investor Sofina

UK financial app Cleo has raised an additional $80m following backing by Brussels tech investor Sofina. 

The funding round took place over months but was finalised following pressure on valuations of growth companies, Sky News first reported. 

Sources close to the deal told the outlet’s City editor Mark Kleinman that the backing raised Cleo’s valuation by a five-fold to around $500m.

The $80m funding was the latest of several rounds, as the previous one took place a year and a half ago when Cleo raised $40m from investors. 

Existing backers include VC Balderton Capital and LocalGlobe, as well as the founders of Skype and Wise. 

The new capital injection will help the company – a digital assistant that gives financial advice to Gen Z customers – expand services as well as recruit more staff. 

Despite its UK birth, the company made the US its primary market.

While Cleo declined to comment, Sofina told Sky News: “We are excited to form this partnership with Cleo, a company and App that is truly loved by its users, many of whom Cleo already had a positive impact on.”

Sofina is a Belgium-based investment company listed on the Brussels stock exchange and a supportive partner of entrepreneurs and families managing growing companies. Sofina invests both directly and through Private Equity funds. Its geographical scope is Europe, the United States, and Asia

Fintech Rewire acquires prepaid card provider Imagen

Israel-based fintech Rewire has acquired Imagen to provide prepaid debit cards for migrants in Israel.

The acquisition is Rewire’s first and means the fintech can now provide prepaid debit cards for migrants in Israel, a service it has already rolled out in its other locations across the UK and Europe. The move comes after Rewire signed partnership agreements with value SIM provider Lebara and payments platform Paysafe. The fintech also recently rolled out insurance products for migrants in its British and European markets.

Rewire’s prepaid card is a solution for economic migrants who may struggle to open a bank account when they first arrive in their host country. With no permanent address or credit history, migrants are left underserved by traditional banks, as per the press release. Through technology and strategic partnerships with key financial institutions, the company is able to bridge this gap and provide financial services that work for migrants’ unique cross-border financial needs.

Imagen currently operates more than 30,000 active prepaid MasterCards connected to the Bank of Jerusalem. It works directly with organisations that employ migrant workers and enables employers to pay salaries directly onto the card. Once money has been loaded onto the card, it can be used in the same way as any other debit card. The acquisition brings Rewire a step closer to its aim of providing a holistic migration package that serves migrants and their families throughout their time overseas.

Imagen’s officials stated that becoming part of the Rewire family made sense for them. Imagen’s solutions are tailored to those who cannot open a conventional bank account, and working migrants make up a large part of our customer base. By integrating their prepaid card into the Rewire portfolio, their existing customers will have augmented access to additional financial services that they may have been excluded from in the past.

Shard Credit Partners launches £75 million venture debt fund to back fintech and SaaS firms

With typical loan sizes in the range of £2-6 million per borrower, the fund will complete around 15 investments per annum during the three-year investment period

Venture debt is becoming increasingly popular with high-growth technology companies globally in recent years.  While the asset class is highly developed in the U.S., the venture lending market is in its infancy in the U.K. 

Betting big on the untapped potential, UK-based alternative investment fund manager Shard Credit Partners has unveiled its maiden tech-focused £75 million venture debt fund. The fund will make investments in senior secured loans with equity warrants to VC-backed businesses in the SaaS and fintech sectors in the U.K.

The fund will target borrowers with annual recurring revenues of at least £2 million, that are finding it increasingly difficult to source long-term financing from traditional lenders. Typical loan sizes will range between £2-6 million per borrower, with maturities of up to five years. It will complete around 15 investments per annum during the three-year investment period.

According to the company, the fund has already completed two investments with total commitments of £6.5 million ahead of first close. This included the fund’s first exit in December 2021, PassFort.

Meet us at:

Digital Insurance Agenda, Amsterdam: 29–30 June 2022

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de

Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum

FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com

European FinTech deal this week include Factris, Defacto, Bud, Juni

We feature Q&As with Nigel Verdon of Railsbank and Maximilian Schausberger of Elevator Ventures.

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to us: Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.

Check out the B2B FinTech Radar, our microsite focused on SaaS / Enterprise FinTech founders with global ambitions

7 Questions with Nigel Verdon of Railsbank 

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself and your company.

Railsbank is the leading global Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform. It enables banks, businesses and brands to define the future of consumer and SME finance.

Marketers, product managers, developers, CEOs and founders are able to take their financial product vision and rapidly prototype, launch and scale using Railsbank’s open finance platform which consists of operations, regulatory licensing and a rich set of APIs.

Railsbank was founded by myself and Clive Mitchell in 2016, in London.

My own background started in the financial services industry. My first job working as an engineer in the motor industry and seeing the high levels of automation and “just in time” manufacturing achieved back in the late 1980’s early 1990’s. In the banking world this is called “straight through processing (STP)” and the financial world could learn much from manufacturing/process engineers in the motor industry.

I then learnt so much working in the capital markets business in one of the most innovative banks in the industry Swiss Bank Corp (today called UBS). This was back in the early-mid 1990s when this “internet thing” appeared on the scene.

Swiss Bank Corp were really the first real innovator to leverage technology in the capital markets area of banking to leapfrog the competition (e.g. better risk management, better options pricing etc.).

I built my first startup, Evolution, based on my experiences at Swiss Bank Corp to take the “internet enablement of capital markets” to many amazing customers like Goldman Sachs and UBS.

Roll on to 2007 and I had just left Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein to set up Currency Cloud. I founded Currency Cloud because the experience of a traditional currency broker at the time (name not mentioned!) was charging me 4% “no commission” and asked me to fax back my confirmation note and payment details to them! I didn’t own a fax machine!

So, with a colleague, Nick Bourner from Evolution (who is now currently Chief Architect at Railsbank) we built the Currency Cloud platform to offer straight through processing of physical FX and payments via APIs (we were the trail blazers in the API led fintech industry).

At Currency Cloud, we worked on jump-starting many fintech 1.0 clients like Transferwise, Revolut, Azimo and World Remit, which were born out of a demand by consumers to take more control over their finances and after the trust lost in banks in the aftermath of the credit crunch.

However, the Currency Cloud experience gave me an insight into how the old world banking industry worked, with a realisation that both the banking infrastructure and the banking industry itself, was clearly not adapted to the new digital world, and certainly had no clue about what a well designed API led business should look like. So, this experience led me to co-founding my current startup Railsbank, focused on solving this industry pain point for customers.

http://www.fintechforum.de/scaling-enterprise-fintech-with-nigel-verdon-of-railsbank/

7 Questions with Maximilian Schausberger of Elevator Ventures

1. A year since the first lockdowns- is this is a good time to be building or scaling an Enterprise FinTech (/InsurTech) firm in Europe?

Despite all the difficulties that 2020 has brought for entrepreneurs, some sectors have also benefited. We see Enterprise FinTech benefiting from an increased need for digitalization and for efficient operations in banking and insurance. As an example from the financial sector, Raiffeisen Bank International saw double-digit growth in its mobile banking users over the first half of 2020 (see here). This also creates many opportunities, which seem to have fueled investor appetite in 2020.

http://www.fintechforum.de/scaling-enterprise-fintech-with-maximilian-schausberger-of-elevator-ventures/

Amsterdam fintech company Factris raises €10M to help finance trade-related invoices for European SMEs

Factris, an Amsterdam-based fintech company, announced on Thursday that it has raised €10M through its partnership with NN Investment Partners (NN IP), a Goldman Sachs-owned asset manager specialising in fund management, fixed income strategies, and integrated client solutions.

The fintech startup says that the funds will be used to finance trade-related invoices for European SMEs.

Founded in 2017 by Brice Laurent and Marcel Meijer, Factris is on a mission to provide quick and affordable capital to SMEs across Europe using financial technology with personalised guidance.

Factoring, which is Factris’ primary form of financing, helps customers by providing working capital using their unpaid invoices.

Factoring is a financial transaction and type of debtor finance in which a business sells its accounts receivable (i.e., invoices) to a third party (called a factor) at a discount. A business will sometimes factor its receivable assets to meet its present and immediate cash needs.

Factris claims that this alternative form of financing has proven to be faster in sourcing the required cash flow to businesses when compared to the more traditional forms of financing, such as businesses applying for a bank loan.

According to a statement, Factris’ double-digit growth over the last year reflects the increased demand for invoice factoring from SMEs. For instance, the company claims that its portfolio grew by 41 per cent in 2022 compared to 2021, and over 32 per cent more customers than the year before. 

The war in Ukraine and the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, both of which are posing enormous financial challenges to SMBs across the EU, are contributing to the rise in demand for finance.

Defacto Raises €15M in Funding

Defacto, a Paris, France-based API-first B2B lending platform, raised €15m in funding.

The round was led by Northzone with participation from Headline, Global Founders Capital, and business angels Thibaud Elzière (founder of eFounders), Rodolphe Ardant (founder and CEO of Spendesk), Didier Valet (former Deputy Chief Executive Officer).

The company intends to use the funds to expand its activities in Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

Founded in June 2021 by Jordane Giuly, the former co-founder of Spendesk (the expenditure management platform recently valued at more than 1.5 billion euros), Morgan O’hana and Marc-Henri Gires, Defacto provides transparent and instant financing to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This solution, which uses an API, integrates directly with marketplace tools, e-commerce platforms and others.

Since its launch in France, Defacto has developed partnerships with more than 15 major B2B marketplaces, FinTechs and e-commerce companies. The company has granted more than €30 million in short-term financing to SMEs through partners.

Bud, an open banking fintech used by HSBC, raises £64m

Bud, an open banking fintech startup used by the likes of HSBC and Credit Karma, has banked $80m (£63.8m) in a Series B funding round.

Bud said it will use the capital to continue developing its platform, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to let financial organisations offer customised products and automate lending decisions.

As part of the investment, Chronos will rebrand to Founders Law but will operate as an independent business.

The move is aimed at providing legal services to high-growth tech scaleups in Founders Forum’s network in areas including fundraising, commercial agreements, employment law and data protection.

“Most tech businesses require flexible legal services that don’t fit the traditional law firm model,” said Tom Bohills, founder of Chronos Law. “Our services are designed to scale with the ambitious startups we support.”

Founders Forum did not disclose the financial terms of the Chronos Law deal but said it will replicate the approach it took with Founders Keepers, an executive job search company that now provides hiring services to the group’s network.

Juni, a Swedish FinTech Platform for eCommerce, Raises $206M

Swedish eCommerce FinTech Juni has raised $206 million in a Series B and venture debt funding round, a press release said, with the money going to fuel hiring and growth, as well as product development.

Juni was founded in 2020, and is a financial management platform working with businesses on physical and virtual cards, credit cards, accounting, analytics and digital ads, and gives businesses a “holistic view” of their finances.

E-commerce sales have reportedly been forecasted to hit “trillions” by 2025, with digital ad spending also likely to grow. The company has been working on expanding, and has rolled out U.S. dollar accounts and cards, a new Google Ads integration and a new brand identity, the release said.

Juni Co-Founder and CEO Samir El-Sabini said he knew “first-hand the frustrations of running an eCommerce business and time wasted on spend management, the lack of visibility of cashflow and scaling ad campaigns.”

“With this funding, we will help ecommerce businesses win by building the right insights, features and integrations while injecting capital into their marketing spend,” he said. “We’re committed to building the best financial companion for ecommerce and we’re thrilled to have fantastic investors onboard who share our strategic vision.”

The company raised $100 million in a Series B round, and $106 million in venture debt funding from TriplePoint Capital.

The Series B was led by Mubadala Capital. EQT Ventures, Felix Capital, Cherry Ventures and Partners of DST Global, all of which are existing investors with the company, also participated, the release said.

Fleetcor to acquire cross-border paytech Global Reach

Fleetcor Technologies, a global business payments company, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Global Reach, a UK-based cross-border payments provider.

The acquisition, says Fleetcor, “strengthens its position as one of the largest non-bank global cross-border providers in the world”.

The transaction is expected to close in Q4 2022, subject to regulatory approval and standard closing conditions.

Founded in 2001, London-based Global Reach has developed a presence in the UK, Canada, Spain and the Netherlands. It claims “thousands” of corporate clients primarily in the UK and Canada, providing an overlapping footprint to Fleetcor’s current cross-border payments business.

Fleetcor’s main focus is on corporate payments – it provides solutions that enable and control expense-related purchasing and payment processes.

London’s Felix Capital wraps up €562 million fund to back Web3 startups

The newly unveiled fund will support 20-25 companies across Europe and selectively in North America

London-based VC firm Felix Capital has closed its fourth fund at €562 million. The biggest fund, since its launch in 2015, takes the total managed by the VC to $1.2 billion.

The newly unveiled fund will support 20-25 companies across Europe and selectively in North America. One key area the firm hopes to grow into is Web3.

Operating at the intersection of tech and creativity, focusing on innovations that enable digital lifestyles, Felix wants to partner with entrepreneurs for ground-breaking ideas and help them build trusted brands that push the world forward. The firm will invest in every key aspect of people’s personal lives, including food, shopping, health, wellness, personal finance, entertainment, communication, or gaming.

HTGF launches new fund of 400 million euros – “positive sign” for the scene

The semi-public High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) is setting up a new fund, its fourth and largest to date: more than 400 million euros have been raised in the first closing, according to its own information. The investment commitments come from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection and KfW Capital. More than 130 million also come from private donors. Among them are several family offices that do not want to be named, as well as large German companies such as Deutsche Bank or SAP.

A second closing is scheduled for later this year. In view of the uncertainty that currently prevails in the startup scene, the deal should be seen as a positive signal to the startups, HTGF CEO Alex von Frankenberg told Handelsblatt.

The Ukraine war, rising interest rates and inflation as well as supply chain problems have put a temporary end to the golden startup times in this country as well. Some people already see parallels to the bursting of the dot-com bubble. According to Handelsblatt, there have also been two cases at HTGF in which investment commitments have been cancelled at short notice. Nevertheless, the investment company is calmly looking at the current market situation.

Cathay Innovation and Ledger Launch €100M Fund

Ledger, the crypto-security platform securing cryptocurrencies, NFTs and tokens, and Cathay Innovation, a global venture capital firm, have launched a €100M ($110M) early-stage venture fund focused on Web3.

Supported by French public investment bank Bpifrance and led by Cathay Innovation’s Denis Barrier and Ledger’s Pascal Gauthier and Michael Louzado, Ledger Cathay Capital will cover cryptocurrencies, decentralized finance (DeFI), blockchains, NFTs, DAOs and the tokenization of everything.

The funding will invest globally in Seed to Series A companies focused on emerging DeFi, security, infrastructure, digital ownership technologies, protocols and more. Ledger has also made direct early investments in startups that will be managed by the Ledger Cathay Capital team.

It gives creators and founders the capital, tools and direct industry access needed to innovate at scale from the very start.

The partnership, already counting various French and international leaders, looks to connect and stimulate a global Web3 ecosystem while bringing greater opportunities to entrepreneurs across Europe, North America, Asia and beyond. The fund will bring a collaborative and community-based approach that helps crypto and Web3 builders meet talent and potential partners, innovate, reach customers and share business strategies to capitalize on major trends and scale products and services worldwide.

Meet us at:

Digital Insurance Agenda, Amsterdam: 29–30 June 2022

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de

IDA Ireland https://www.idaireland.com

Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum

FinTech Innovators https://fintech-i.com/?sumsrc=ftf

FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com

European FinTech deal this week include Getquin, Urban Jungle, Mondu, Trade Republic

We feature Q&As with Terrie Smith of DIGISEQ and Cynthia Nadal of SeedX Liechtenstein

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to us: Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.

Check out the B2B FinTech Radar, our microsite focused on SaaS / Enterprise FinTech founders with global ambitions

7 Questions with Terrie Smith of DIGISEQ

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

Hello! I am Terrie Smith. I’m going to start by talking about myself and how I got here When I was 17, I worked at an insurance firm and experienced gender inequality first-hand. Being a tenacious young lady (or maybe just glutton for punishment), I hardened to this, left the company, and moved into the even more male-dominated environment of information technology. And that’s pretty much how it all started.

Today, I’m a mobile payments expert with over 20 years’ experience and a proven track record in product development and management. I have always had a zealousness for innovative payments and NFC technology, and am included in fundamental patents related to provisioning and tokenisation. I managed the development of MasterCard’s MOTAPS solution, a pioneering Trusted Service Manager (TSM) solution and was instrumental in shaping the MasterCard Digital Enable System (MDES), used to support Apple Pay. In June 2014, I started my very own passion project with my friend, Colin Tanner, and together we co-founded the award-winning IoT platform, DIGISEQ.

You may ask… why did I decide to launch a start-up? (I sometimes ask myself that when I am working at midnight). The reality is that it was a move towards personal goals and me attaining control. It was a big risk, no doubt, but I was raised and supported to believe that I can do anything I put my mind to, and I upheld this mantra. Challenging, one might say, but beyond exciting and fulfilling.

Work aside, everyone you ask will tell you I’m pretty much a butterfly – I don’t sit still! If I’m not working, I’m grabbing a coffee, cooking, spending time with my family, or FaceTiming my daughter and the grandkids – there are endless things for me to do and simply not enough time in a day.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-terrie-smith-of-digiseq/

7 Questions with Cynthia Nadal of SeedX Liechtenstein

1.Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

My name is Cynthia, I am a Partner at Seed X Liechtenstein. I am an operator turned investor and I have previously worked with different accelerators including Techstars, King’s College and Founders Factory in London. Prior to being an investor I have worked for 11+ years at the fintech unicorn Markit (Now IHS markit, being bought by S&P). I learned there everything I know about great product development, corporate innovation and the hurdles of fast growth (IPO on the NASDAQ in 2014 at $5bn valuation, merger with IHS in 2016, now worth more than $40bn).

Work-wise I like connecting the dots and people, understanding the big problems needing solving and who we can learn from. Having the right network also helps to support founders in their growth.

Some of my spare time is also spent on tech boards that I sit on, and supporting female entrepreneurs across Europe.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-cynthia-nadal-of-seedx/

Meet getquin: Social network for investors from Berlin scores $15 million to expand beyond DACH

The fintech startup provides an online community where people can discuss and analyse stocks, cryptocurrencies and other investment opportunities

Berlin-based fintech that has created a social investment platform, getquin has wrapped up a $15 million Series A round. The funding was led by Portage Ventures and backed by Horizons Ventures , existing investors embedded/capital and sino AG and angel investors such as N26 founder Maximilian Tayenthal and Scalable Capital founder Erik Podzuweit.

With over 200, 000 users in Germany and the DACH region as of now, the startup aims to expand its English-speaking community to make its service accessible to a broader user base.

Founded in early 2020 by Christian Rokitta and Raphael Steil, the platform provides an online community where people can discuss and analyse stocks, cryptocurrencies and other investment opportunities. It allows users to connect and aggregate their existing brokerage accounts, create and consume content and take part in discussions with other users.

Christian Rokitta, co-founder and CEO said: “While there is already a substantial amount of financial news and content providers, the recent months have shown that people mostly trust their connections and communities when it comes to financial information. The new investment allows us to invest significantly in the product to transform getquin into the primary source of information for investors around the globe.”

Headquartered in Toronto, Portage Ventures is a global investor dedicated to supporting FinTech companies. The Portage team has deep entrepreneurial and industry experience and provides founders with privileged access to the firm’s partners, in-house experts, and broader global ecosystem. Portage Ventures has a presence in Canada, the US, Europe and Asia. 

London insurtech Urban Jungle scores £16.5 million for European expansion

London-based insurance technology startup Urban Jungle has raised £16.5 million in their latest Series A funding round. The round was led by North American-based venture capital investor Intact Ventures and Ingka Group, which controls hundreds of IKEA stores globally. The investment was also backed by existing investors, including Mundi Ventures, Eka Ventures and former Prudential UK CEO Rob Devey.

The company had raised €9 million in its earlier funding round last year. The Series A round brings the total amount raised by the business to £32 million. The insurtech firm will use the funding to rapidly scale its home insurance business in the U.K. and add new markets.

Founded by CEO Jimmy Williams and former Google developer Greg Smyth,  it aims to change the insurance industry by putting fairness and transparency at its core. Talking about expansion beyond its home turf, Urban Jungle co-founder and CEO Jimmy Williams said: “We’re already one of the leading insurance brands for the renters and homeowners in the U.K. But our ambition is to become the number one insurance business in the U.K. and beyond. This funding is a big step towards that, and we’ll use it to rapidly grow our customer base and roll out our simple, fair insurance into other markets in the year to come. It will also allow us to create 100 new jobs in the U.K.”

According to the company, it recently hit the milestone of helping 100,000 customers get better home insurance in the country. The platform uses latest technology to help keep insurance affordable for its customers, by offering its customers 100% online services, or through its use of AI and machine learning to catch fraud.

Intact Financial Corporation is the largest provider of property and casualty (P&C) insurance in Canada, a leading provider of global specialty insurance, and, with RSA, a leader in the U.K. and Ireland. Our business has grown organically and through acquisitions to over $20 billion of total annual premiums

Mondu Raises $43M in Series A Funding

Mondu, a Berlin, Germany-based B2B payments company, raised $43M in Series A funding.

The round was led by Valar Ventures with participation from existing seed investors FinTech Collective, Cherry Ventures, and angel investors from Klarna, Zalando, and SumUp, among others.

The company intends to use the funds to scale its BNPL for B2B solution for merchants and marketplaces by investing in its product and customer acquisition across more European countries later this year, starting with Austria this summer, and hire for a wide range of senior and junior positions, including its tech, risk, sales, and operations teams. 

Founded in August 2021 by serial entrepreneurs Philipp Povel and Malte Huffmann as well as Gil Danziger, Mondu provides a Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) solution for B2B merchants and marketplaces. The solution integrates with merchants, and is accessible through APIs, plug-ins, and checkout widgets. The company, which has hired a team of over 100, has served thousands of businesses to date, with customers ranging from beauty and cleaning to manufacturing and raw materials.

Headquartered in New York, Valar Ventures is a VC firm focused on startups outside of Silicon Valley. Valar invests in high-margin, fast-growing technology companies that are pursuing huge market opportunities

European Savings Platform Trade Republic Finalizes €250M Series C Extension

Trade Republic, which claims to be Europe’s largest savings platform, announces a €250M Series C extension.

The investment round is led by Ontario Teachers’, which is one of the world’s largest pension funds and institutional investors, “along with the participation of existing investors.”

The extension is “based on a post-money valuation uplift to €5.0B (previously €4.4B), underlining Trade Republic’s strong business performance and growth.”

Ontario Teachers’ manages the assets of over 333,000 teachers in Ontario, Canada, “with more than C$240B in net assets invested globally.”

This investment is “made by the High Conviction Equities team, which provides flexible, partner-centric capital across the equity capital structure – focusing on companies that are public or on a growth trajectory to go public.”

Ontario Teachers’ is one of the world’s largest pension funds and institutional investors with $227.7 billion in assets under management. They invest in everything from agriculture to artificial intelligence in order to deliver retirement security for 331,000 Ontario teachers

Accenture Acquires ARZ

Accenture’s acquisition of ARZ in Austria will help expand the global IT consulting firm’s banking platform-as-a-service capabilities across Europe, the buyer said. ARZ has locations in Vienna and Innsbruck and operates a technology competence center for innovation and technology services in the banking sector in Austria. ARZ was majority-owned by Volksbanken Group and Hypobanken Group as well as other private banks.
The acquisition will expand Accenture’s cloud-based banking platform-as-a-service offerings, ranging from core banking services to online banking as well as regulatory services for banking clients across Europe, Accenture said. ARZ’s approximately 600 employees will join Accenture and will continue to work in ARZ’s existing offices.
Roland Smertnig, senior managing director in Accenture’s financial services practice in Europe, commented:
“Our vision is to develop an innovative cloud-based banking platform-as-a-service offering for new and existing clients across Europe. By acquiring ARZ, we are expanding our digital transformation capabilities to help banks of the future as they look to move more of their core functions to the cloud, enable new business models, and reinvent the services and experiences they provide to customers.”
Michael Zettel, Accenture’s country managing director in Austria added,
“With this acquisition, we are expanding our team in Austria and will develop a comprehensive center of excellence at the Innsbruck location to serve our clients in Austria and across Europe. The ARZ team has the experience and talent to help us grow and meet our banking clients’ needs now and, in the future, and we look forward to welcoming them to Accenture.”
Gerald Fleischmann, CEO of Volksbank Wien said,
“The move to Accenture is a strategically smart development. Volksbanken and their customers will benefit from the combined expertise, the innovative services and collaboration between ARZ and Accenture.”

Fintech Trustly acquires Ecospend in UK expansion

Swedish banking firm Trustly has acquired British rival Ecospend as it looks to expand its presence in the UK, and improve customer experiences.

Swedish fintech Trustly, a payments platform for digital Account-to-Account transactions (A2A), has acquired UK-based competitor Ecospend, as part of a plan to strengthen the company’s position in the British market.

Founded in 2008, Trustly is a global leader in Open Banking Payments. Serving 8,100 merchants, connecting them with 525 million consumers and 6,300 banks in over 30 countries, the company handles the entire payment journey. 

A licensed Payment Institution under the second payment services directive (PSD2) and operating under the supervision of the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority in Europe, in 2021 Trustly processed over US$28bn in transaction volume in its global network. 

Four years after PSD2 made Open Banking a regulatory requirement in the UK, the market presents a dynamic ecosystem, with rapidly accelerating consumer adoption, and strong transaction volume growth, according to the company.

Metin Erkman, Founder of Ecospend: “Together with Trustly we will be able to further accelerate our expansion in the UK and continue to raise the bar for service excellence to our customers. We will continue to leverage our market-leading technology and bank connectivity in the UK and, together with Trustly, broaden our capabilities to stretch across Europe and further markets. We are really excited to join the Trustly family.”

Crane Venture Partners aims to sweep the leg with new $140 million fund

After raising $90 million for its first fund in 2019, London’s Crane Venture Partners is back for round two with a narrowed investment focus and $140 million in hand.

After posting a >75 percent graduation rate from seed to Series A with its first fund, London’s Crane Venture Partners is back for round two; armed with $140 million and aimed squarely at backing European, Israeli, and American startups. Across both funds, the firm counts over 50 portfolio companies and is looking to repeat, if not improve upon this industry-leading figure.

Crane’s second fund places a heavy emphasis on software and deep tech startups, specifically operating in the open-source, artificial intelligence, data and developer tools sectors.

“The future is being built today by passionate and diverse entrepreneurs from every corner of the world, and our funds focus on exactly those humans,” commented Crane co-founder and GP Krishna Visvanathan, co-founder. “We are in service of our founders and understand that entrepreneurship is a path to professional and personal realisation. When we focus there, the returns naturally follow.” 

Founded in 2015, Crane specifically points to the last five years as a game-changer when it comes to European early-stage investment appetite. 

“When Crane raised its first fund, European and US investors had yet to recognise the caliber and depth of early-stage technical founders to be found across the continent. But with highly visible and successful exits for European technology companies, such as Amsterdam-based Adyen in 2018 and Bucharest-based UiPath in 2021, LPs and other venture capital ecosystem participants have started to invest heavily in the region.”

Parisian investment firm Alven announces new €350 million fund to boost European entrepreneurs

There’s been a lot of chatter in the European VC space over recent weeks. And now, adding to the conversation, Paris-based Alven has just announced its sixth generation fund. The initial target was €300 million, but Fund VI has closed at a hard cap of €350 million – making it the largest early-stage fund raised in France.

Alven VI secured commitments from a wide range of high-quality European, North American and other global institutions, and all investors in the prior fund are reinvesting. Known for its eye for making unicorn investments, Alven has been a part of the success stories of Qonto, Dataiku, Algolia, Stripe and Ankorstore, and now has €2 billion in assets under management.

Launched in 2000, Alven is an early-stage fund centred in Paris but with a global reach. The firm recently opened a new London office and has about 160 European teams backed across Europe and the US. The French investors have extensive experience backing and supporting exceptional founders at the earliest stages, writing cheques to kickstart growth ranging from €100k to €15 million, with substantial reserves for follow on investments.

Meet us at:

Digital Insurance Agenda, Amsterdam: 29–30 June 2022

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de

IDA Ireland https://www.idaireland.com

Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum

FinTech Innovators https://fintech-i.com/?sumsrc=ftf

FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com

European FinTech deal this week include TransferMate, Elwood Technologies, in3, MarketFinance, Modulr and Thought Machine

We feature Q&As with Dmitry Tsymber of MultiPass and Karim Rabbani of RGAX

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to us: Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.

7 Questions with Dmitry Tsymber of MultiPass

1. Tell us a bit about yourself and your company.

I’m Dmitry Tsymber, a Co-Founder of Dyninno Group and a founder of the group’s latest venture in the neo-banking space – MultiPass. I can describe myself as a seasoned CEO with 25 years of experience in retail banking and consumer finance. My expertise and interests lie in FinTech and international business scale-up

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-dmitry-tsymber-of-multipass/

7 Questions with Karim Rabbani of RGAX

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

I’m a Senior Analyst in the Ventures & Acquisitions team of RGAX, based out of Amsterdam. RGAX is the transformation engine of RGA, promoting and accelerating innovation within the Life and Health insurance sectors by means of organic and inorganic initiatives. RGA is one of the largest global life and health reinsurance companies.

I joined the organization in 2018 to support the EMEA region on deal sourcing activities, executing partnerships and managing our portfolio of 30+ startups globally.

Prior to joining RGAX I worked in Corporate Banking at ABN AMRO and in Port Logistics at the Port of Rotterdam. I hold a Master Degree in Business Management from Cass Business School in London and a Corporate Communication’s Master from the University of Amsterdam.

Personally, I enjoy travelling and experiencing new cultures. I’m also a sports fan and play soccer and squash. In addition, I volunteer for a foundation that promotes dialogue and understanding between the Arab World and Europe through education.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-karim-rabbani-of-rgax/

TransferMate Raises $70M in Funding

TransferMate, a Dublin, Ireland-based provider of a B2B payments infrastructure as-a-service, raised $70M in funding at $1BN valuation.

Railpen, one of the UK’s largest and longest established pension funds whose Fintech investments include Starling Bank and Bill.com, participated in the round.

The company intends to use the funds to expand its teams globally and further invest in its technology innovation and product suite.

Led by CEO Sinead Fitzmaurice, and Founder Terry Clune, TransferMate – a subsidiary of CluneTech — is a provider of B2B payments infrastructure as a service, enabling companies to send and receive cross-border payments. It allows businesses and individuals to make cross-border payments in more than 201 countries and 141 currencies, with transparency of the transaction through to the point of final reconciliation. The company has created integrations for banks like ING and AIB, who are also investors. The API solution allows partners to digitalise the payments flow within their software, enabling all businesses to achieve time and financial savings.

British crypto trading platform raises $70 million from Barclays and Goldman Sachs

Cryptocurrency trading platform Elwood Technologies founded by British hedge fund billionaire Alan Howard has raised $70 million in funding. The round was co-led by B2B investor Dawn Capital and Goldman Sachs, with participation from Barclays, BlockFi Ventures, Chimera Ventures, CommerzVentures, Digital Currency Group, Flow Traders and Galaxy Digital Ventures. The present financing valued the six-year-old company at over $500 million.

Aimed to meet the needs of institutions seeking exposure to digital assets, the British digital asset platform’s end-to-end platform provides low-latency connectivity to global crypto exchanges and deep liquidity via one single API.

James Stickland, CEO, Elwood Technologies, said: “The rich mix of investors participating in this raise reaffirms the movement of financial institutions working closely with their native digital asset technology providers. Together, we aim to provide broader mass market involvement in digital assets and cryptocurrency. We look forward to working with our investors to further enhance our offerings and broaden their market adoption.”

Mathew McDermott, global head of digital assets, Goldman Sachs, added: “Our investment in Elwood demonstrates our continued commitment to digital assets and we look forward to partnering to expand our capabilities.”

in3 Raises $85.3M in Series B Funding Round

in3, an Eindhoven, Netherlands-based Buy-Now-Pay-Later’ (BNPL) fintech company, raised $85M in Series B funding.

The round was led by Force over Mass, Waterfall Asset Management and Finch Capital. 

The company intends to bus the funds to scale operations and business reach.

Founded in 2018 by CEO Hans Langenhuizen, n3 provides more than 1,500 online and offline merchants with Buy Now Pay Later  payment solutions. Working with payment partners, it offers consumers the ability to pay for purchases in three instalments at zero costs: no interest – or transaction costs and without credit registration.

Current customers include Kwik Fit, EP, La Souris, Matt sleeps, Dekbed-Discounter among others.

MarketFinance raises £100 million debt financing from Deutsche Bank to fund UK SMEs

The UK fintech is offering businesses access up to £500,000 within less than 24 hours of applying, to help them hit their business targets and manage cash flow as lending to small businesses falls to lowest levels on record

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB)’s quarterly Small Business Index (SBI) recently revealed that lending to the U.K. businesses has hit an all-time low with fewer than one in ten (9%) small firms applying for finance in Q1 2022 – the lowest proportion since SBI records began.

Hot on the heels, London-based fintech credit and payments company MarketFinance has topped up with £100 million in a debt raise from Deutsche Bank. The company will use the new cash to offer new lending to support the U.K. SMEs with their investment and working capital needs. This will include loans to the 3.2 million under-served sole traders and partnerships in the U.K.

According to the fintech, the U.K. SME borrowers will now be able to access between £10,000 and £500,000 within 24 hours of applying to aid their growth plans.

UK Fintech Modulr Finalizes $108M Series C Led by General Atlantic

Modulr, an embedded payments platform for digital businesses, recently announced that it has raised $108m (£83m) in Series C funding that was led by General Atlantic, a global growth equity firm.

The investment round also “included significant participation from existing investors including Blenheim Chalcot, Frog Capital, Highland Europe, and PayPal Ventures.”

As covered, Modulr claims to be a pioneer in the provision of embedded payments “across a range of vertical markets.”

Its technology “enables businesses to build payments directly into their own platforms without needing to build complicated payment systems, become regulated themselves or manage the complexities of payment network membership.”

Modulr delivers payments infrastructure for over 200 top-tier customers, “including Revolut, Wagestream, Sage and BrightPay, and their millions of customers.”

Modulr has seen significant user growth and adoption, “now processing an annualised transaction value of more than £100bn.”

It has a deep understanding of embedded payment requirements “in specific vertical markets undergoing digital transformation including accounting & payroll, travel, and hyper growth markets like next generation banking and fintech.”

Modulr intends to “use the funding to accelerate its geographic footprint, extending its client and partner coverage in existing and new market verticals in the UK and Europe.”

The funding is anticipated “to help Modulr stay at the forefront of innovation in the automation of real-time embedded payments, further expanding the use of Account-to-Account payments and Open Banking payments as well as providing actionable data insights and seeking to broaden its suite of services for current and future customers.”

Thought Machine dreams big with $160 million in Temasek-led round

London-based Thought Machine has raised $160 million in a Series D funding round led by Temasek. Through its big thinking software solutions, the startup helps banks and financial institutions transition away from legacy IT systems. Building upon successful market entries in New York, Singapore, and Australia, the new capital will be used to carry the momentum, with APAC markets Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines on tap. Thought Machine is now valued at $2.7 billion, a figure up 100% in just six months.

Founded in 2014 by former Google engineer Paul Taylor, Thought Machine provides modern, cloud-native core banking technology to some of the largest financial institutions around the world including investors and clients, Intesa Sanpaolo, Lloyds Banking Group, ING, SEB, and Standard Chartered.

An early investor and participant in this round, Lloyds Banking Group has announced that it will extend its license agreement with the startup through 2029.

Joining Temasek’s lead, the round saw participation from Intesa Sanpaolo and Morgan Stanley, as well as follow-on investments from existing investors including Eurazeo, ING, JPMorgan Chase, Lloyds Banking Group, and SEB.

“We are investing c.£40m into Thought Machine, a fintech innovator and partner we consider strategic to the industrial upgrade of Intesa Sanpaolo. Their cloud-based technology is fundamental to our transformation from incumbent to digital challenger, improving our core banking technology and providing the foundation for our new digital bank, Isybank,” commented Intesa Sanpaolo managing director and CEO Carlo Messina.

Ebury Acquires Bexs to Expand Global Payments to Brazil

Ebury, the Banco Santander-backed provider of corporate banking services to SMEs that trade globally, has reportedly agreed to acquire Bexs in a deal that further expands its international payments offering to Brazilian markets.

The transaction, currently subject to regulatory clearance, reportedly includes the companies Bexs Banco (foreign exchange) and Bexs Pay (payments), widening Ebury’s product offering of global funds transfer solutions for small businesses.

Bex will also assist with offering all-digital services to companies that sell their products online in Brazil, especially marketplaces, applications, and software firms.

Bex was established back in 1989 as Didier Corretora de Câmbio, becoming a foreign exchange bank in 2010.

Then in 2012, it introduced its cross-border digital commerce tech and almost 4 years ago, it became an API platform, enabling direct integration of its systems with key players in the digital world (in Brazil and other jurisdictions).

The company’s tech allows smaller digital commerce firms based in China to sell in Brazil through a marketplace and accept payments directly in US dollars or another major foreign currency.

As mentioned in the update, a social network may use the platform to ensure a steady flow of compensation to influencers, a transaction type with (usually) a high volume of micropayments with currency conversion.

Berlin-based Earlybird gets 2 new unicorns and closes new megafund at €350 million

We are (somehow) almost halfway through 2022 and Europe’s startup ecosystem is continuing to grow this year at an exciting pace. Contributing to this is, of course, the close of big funds that help startups scale and find success. These funds are a great vital sign of health in Europe’s innovation community.

Today, Earlybird Venture Capital has closed its seventh early-stage fund out of the firm’s Digital West investment team at a cap of €350 million – making it one of Europe’s largest early-stage funds! Earlybird is further consolidating itself as one of Europe’s leading VC firms in Europe as it has also just witnessed the birth of two new unicorns in its portfolio. Founded in Berlin in 1997, Earlybird is investing in innovation and entrepreneurship that’s shaping society for good.

Hendrik Brandis, Partner & Co-Founder at Earlybird: “Our portfolio companies Isar Aerospace, Aleph Alpha, Marvel Fusion or SimScale show that deep tech startups are on the rise and stem from continuous work of scientific institutions across Europe. Our role is to offer these highly scientific young companies, besides our other focus sectors such as Fintech, Enterprise Software and Sustainability, commercialization and growth opportunities on a global scale, in order to make ground-breaking ideas available to society.”

Meet us at:

Money2020 Europe, Amsterdam: 7-9 June 2022 

South Summit 2022, Madrid: 8–10 June 2022

SuperVentures Berlin: 14–15 June 2022

Digital Insurance Agenda, Amsterdam: 29–30 June 2022

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de

IDA Ireland https://www.idaireland.com

Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum

FinTech Innovators https://fintech-i.com/?sumsrc=ftf

FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com

European FinTech deal this week includes Stanhope, Scalapay, Argent, Kevin, Starling Bank, Paddle

We feature Q&As with Enrique Lizaso Olmos of Multiverse Computing and Hala Zahran of AB Accelerator

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to us: Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.

7 Questions with Enrique Lizaso Olmos of Multiverse Computing

1. Tell us a bit about yourself and your company.

Multiverse Computing. Largest European Quantum Software Company. Backed by the European Investment Council and large VC. Third largest in the world after two American not-so-much-larger competitors. Delivering solutions to financial problems in optimization, machine-learning and pricing that are not correctly answered (or even not answered) with classical computers. Problems that range from $200-300 to $3B in impact in net income. Working for large customers (Top 10 Banks in the world), appeared in the Boston Consulting Group reports, The Economist, Forbes… Single European Company in McKinsey’s Quantum global Technology Council. 24 new patents/year, 34 people now, we are nearly 3 yr old!

Me: Mathematician, 20+ yr in finance (also Computer Engineer, PhD in biostatistics, MBA from IESE Business School -and also MD, yep). I can just speak when my Physics cofounders let me do 

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-enrique-lizaso-olmos-of-multiverse-computing/

7 Questions with Hala Zahran of AB Accelerator

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

I am an early stage investor focusing on FinTech primarily B2C in MENA and B2B globally. I also spend a lot of time thinking and reading about the future of finance and ways technology can close the wealth gap across the globe and improve lives. I am a strong believer in the power of many, and the depth and breadth of the impact collaborative ecosystems and communities can have. I seek such opportunities.

http://www.fintechforum.de/questions-with-hala-zahran-of-arab-bank/

Stanhope Financial Group Raises USD10M in Series Funding

Stanhope Financial Group, a Dublin, Ireland-based global fintech company that provides businesses with a full suite of banking services, raised over USD 10m in Series A funding round.

The round was led by Gate Ventures.

The company intends to use the funds to develop its product offerings, strengthen the management team, increase its market share, and prepare for the launch of its upcoming affiliate digital assets division, SH Digital.

Led by Kevin von Neuschatz, Group CEO, and Mohit Davar, Executive Chairman, Stanhope Financial Group operates:

SH Payments, licensed as an Electronic Money Institution, which offers businesses banking services to send and receive money globally, including FX, multi-currency accounts, and innovative payments solutions

SH Capital, licensed in the DIFC, Dubai, which allows institutions and family offices to gain access to premium global investment products across all capital markets

SH Digital, which offers cryptocurrency liquidity and trading services.

Stanhope Financial Group has also been granted financial services licences by both the Bank of Lithuania and (IPA) by Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA).

Scalapay Raises $27M USD in Funding

Scalapay, an Italian Buy Now – Pay Later provider, raised $27M USD in funding in a Series B extension.

Poste Italiane made the investment.

This funding, an extension of Scalapay’s $497M USD Series B fundraising round, which was announced in February 2022, will go towards the continued expansion and development of the team, product development, and brand building. The company is also planning on expanding its executive team and company board. The additional funding brings total funding to date to $727M USD.

Scalapay is an innovative payment solution for e-commerce merchants across the globe that allows customers to buy now and pay later, without interest. Their BNPL offerings include three options for customers (Pay in 3, Pay in 4, and Pay Later) in which customers are not required to make any payments upfront, and can instead opt to pay in 3 installments, 4 installments, or entirely after 14 days. They are making the purchasing experience more delightful and easy for customers by lightening the financial impact.

Scalapay is an innovative payment solution for e-commerce merchants across the globe that allows customers to buy now and pay later, in three convenient pleasurable installments, without interest.

Argent decodes $40 million to scale DeFi and Web3 super app globally

The UK-based platform is building a single app for all things DeFi and Web3, and is actively exploring new features and verticals, including virtual real estate, gaming, DAOs and NFTs

London-based wallet for Ethereum-based digital currencies and blockchain applications, Argent has raised $40 million in funding to accelerate its mission to build one app for all things DeFi and Web3. The Series B round was led by Fabric Ventures and Metaplanet, with existing investors Paradigm, Index Ventures and Creandum and strategic investors, including Starkware, Jump and Animoca.

Founded in 2017, the platform is enabling customers to buy, trade and earn crypto at the tap of a button, reducing transaction fees from hundreds of dollars to cents, eliminating dated security measures, such as seed phrases, and all within a simple and clean user interface.

Since the launch of its new Layer 2 account last year, it has attracted more than 500,000 users. Going forward, the platform is building a single app for all things DeFi and Web3, and is actively exploring new features and verticals, including virtual real estate, gaming, DAOs and NFTs. 

Itamar Lesuisse, co-founder and CEO, Argent said: “For crypto to live up to its potential, it needs to break the stranglehold of big exchanges and incumbent wallets. The experience is too scary, expensive and insecure for most people. Argent fixes this.”

https://tech.eu/2022/04/28/argent-decodes-40-million-to-scale-defi-and-web3-super-app-globally/

Accel backs Vilnius startup with $65 million

Lithuanian fintech startup that provides advanced account-to-account (A2A) payment infrastructure to replace costly card transactions, Kevin. has raised $65 million in funding.

The Series A round was led by Accel, with participation from Eurazeo and existing investors, including OTB Ventures, Speedinvest, OpenOcean and Global Paytech Ventures. Other angel investors including Harry Stebbings, founder of 20VC; Ilkka Paananen, CEO and co-founder of Supercell; Amitabh Jhawar, former CEO of Venmo also participated.

The Series A funding comes just six months after the company secured its $10 million seed round and brings the total funding raised to $77 million.

Founded in 2018, kevin. offers innovative and convenient payment solutions that eliminate unnecessary intermediaries in the payment process. The company has taken advantage of the huge opportunity presented by open banking. Recently, the startup also dabbled in payments at point-of-sale terminals in physical stores by introducing NFC A2A payment solution with a seamless user experience comparable to that of a card payment.

Starling Bank Raises £130 Million at £2.5 Billion Valuation

Starling Bank, a top digital bank operating in the UK, has raised more money. According to multiple reports, Starling has raised £130 million at a £2.5 billion valuation. It was reported that Starling may use some of the new money to target acquisitions to complement its digital banking operations.

Goldman Sachs Growth Equity was said to lead the round as part of an extension of a Series D round from last year that valued Starling at £1.1 billion. As the valuation has jumped by more than 2X, it probably should be described as a Series E.

Anne Boden, CEO and founder of Starling, was quoted last month on the digital banks stellar growth. Boden stated: “We’ve had some big successes recently, we now have 7.5% market share of the SME market in the UK and we’ve done that in just four years. We’re now the most switched to bank in the UK in the last four quarters. More people are switching to Starling than any other bank and 68% more than our next competitor Lloyds Bank.”

According to Starling’s website, it has over 2.8 million individual accounts. At the beginning of he year, Starling reported that deposit base now stands at £8.4 billion, up from £4.8 billion this time last year, while we’ve expanded our lending from £1.9 billion to £3.1 billion.

As for potential acquisitions, one report said that Starling was eyeing platforms in the lending sector.

Paddle Raises $200 Million in Series D Funding

Paddle, a London, UK-based provider of a complete payments infrastructure for SaaS companies, raised $200m in Series D equity and debt financing at a valuation of $1.4bn.

The round, which brings the total raised to date to $293m, was led by KKR, with participation from existing investors FTV Capital, 83North, Notion Capital, Kindred Capital, and debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank.

The company intends to use the funds to strengthen the growth of its platform and expand its business reach.

Led by Christian Owens, CEO, Paddle provides SaaS companies with a payments infrastructure platform which integrates checkout, payment, subscription management, invoicing, international taxes and financial compliance processes.

The payments infrastructure is used by over 3,000 software companies in more than 200 markets worldwide.

The company has a team of 275 across offices in London and New York, with more hires expected to match its acceleration as a business.

Irish tech unicorn Wayflyer buys funding platform for content creators

After Dublin-based revenue-based financing platform Wayflyer raised $150 million in an all-equity Series B funding round to join the unicorn club at a $1.6 billion valuation in February, the startup is inching up to expand its presence in the influencer marketing space. It has now acquired creator funding provider Peblo.

The new buy will enable individual creators to access up to $2 million in financing, and expects to advance over $500 million to creators over the next year.

Founded in 2019, Wayflyer offers financing and analytics solutions to e-commerce businesses. Following the deal, Peblo will remain a standalone brand and its team of six will join Wayflyer’s team.

There are around 2 million creators globally earning an average of $100,000 each per year. These creators often have to wait up to 120 days to get paid by their partnering brands, which restricts their ability to grow their business. Peblo solves this pain point by providing funding to creators, plugging the gap between upfront cost and client payment. Customers are able to view invoices, brand deals and outgoings on an easy-to-use platform. By enabling creators to pay expenses and increase their spend on content, the platform allows them space to pursue more ambitious brand deals and accelerate their growth. 

Peblo will also be able to efficiently connect influencers with relevant e-commerce brands through Wayflyer’s platform, making the process of selecting and brokering influencer agreements seamless.

Neobank Bunq Acquires Belgian FinTech TriCount, Adding 5.4M Users

Neobank Bunq, by acquiring Belgian FinTech TriCount, will add 5.4 million new users, a company press release said, and become Europe’s second-largest neobank, behind Revolut. It will also be updating its app to add features.

The bank will also introduce features like Bunq Jackpot, which gives Dutch, German and French users three chances to win €10,000 every month by using the app.

The users will be able to increase their chances of winning by using Bunq cards, by adding and keeping money in their Bunq accounts, and through inviting friends.

The release also noted that there will be other in-app changes, including upgrading its Home and Community tabs. The Home tab will let users group accounts, cards and other things, to customize the app to meet their needs.

The Community tab will add to ways users can interact with Bunq and other users, with sharing and responding options for posts like a social media app. The release said this will let users improve the experience of the app for others through sharing experiences.

The bank has also been vocal about wanting to boost its mergers and acquisitions, and buying TriCount will let the bank add easy access to various features to help make managing money easier.

“TriCount’s commitment to simplicity, transparency and community perfectly aligns with our own values,” said Ali Niknam, CEO and founder of Bunq.

January Ventures Closed $21M Fund II

January Ventures, a Boston, MA- and London, UK-based venture capital firm, closed its second fund, at $21M.

Fund II investors include institutions like Wellington Management, Bank of America, IDEAL Investments, and The Kapor Foundation.

The fund will continue investing in formation stage B2B software startups. Out of this new $21M Fund II, the firm plans to invest in 35 to 40 companies.

Led by Maren Bannon, and Jennifer Neundorfer, January Ventures provides funding and connects founders to an operator network with more than 100 tech leaders who have worked at over 50 unicorn companies, including Uber, Twitter, Miro, Compass, Toast, Airbnb, Google, Amazon, and Stripe.

Since 2018, the firm has invested in 50 early stage tech startups including Ethena, Kapwing, PlanetFWD, Sonantic, Ntropy, Sorcero, Gable, Oula Health, Kinside and Elektra Health.

January Ventures has proactively built an investor base that reflects the diversity of its portfolio –  60% of its LPs identify as women.

Cipio unveils €202 million fund to back software-enabled businesses in Europe

Targetting B2B SaaS and software-enabled business models, the German company will typically make an investment of €5-15 million in each firm

Munich-headquartered growth stage technology firm Cipio Partners has wrapped up its latest fund with €202 million. Cipio VIII will follow the same investment strategy as its €174 million predecessor fund, CPF VII, which held a final closing in 2017.

According to Roland Dennert, managing partner, Cipio, the company will typically make an initial investment of €5-15 million in each firm. Giving more details about the sectors that will be backed by the recently closed fund, Dennert added: “The fund will focus on B2B SaaS and software-enabled business models such as marketplaces. It will also invest in deep tech businesses such as semiconductors. The current deal activities are particularly strong in big data, cyber security, AI and industrial software applications.”

The new fund has already completed two investments in European growth companies: Nuki, the Austrian smart-home developer, and Navvis, the Munich-based global leader in end-to-end solutions for reality capture and ‘digital twins’.

Felix Haas and other scene heads launch funds with 160 million euros

By entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs. This is the motto of the Munich investor network 10x, which has now set up a fund worth 160 million euros. According to the company, the money comes from around 200 founders and 48 business angels who are part of this network. The money pot is aimed at startups that are still in the early stages.

The fund was founded by IDnow founder Felix Haas, Andreas Etten, founder of Ada Health, media entrepreneur Andrej Henkler, Claudius Jablonka, former investor in Plug and Play Ventures, angel investors Robert Wuttke and Jan Reichelt and ex-Friendscout24 CEO Jan Becker. The seven Munich-based companies have known each other for years and are all founding partners of 10x. “The network has grown organically over decades and now we are bundling our activities at 10x,” jablonka writes on Linkedin. In total, the founding partners had previously invested in over 300 startups, it says – including Palantir, Tier Mobility and Volocopter.

The seven Munich residents raised the fund in April 2021. From which founders the money comes and from which countries the people come, is not publicly known. With 10x, they have already financed more than two dozen companies, according to Chrunchbase, including the Indian fintech Savein or the e-commerce startup Zowie from the USA

Valia Ventures Closes Fund II, at $50M

Valia Ventures, a New York, San Francisco, and London, UK-based early stage venture capital firm, closed its second fund, at $50M.

Valia Ventures II brings together a strategic group of limited partners including experienced startup founders, technology executives, international family offices, and institutional investors such as Tiger Global Management.

The fund will be initially investing up to $1M at the pre-seed and seed stages, while reserving additional capital for follow-on rounds. The firm will maintain its generalist approach, investing across sectors including, but not limited to; fintech, healthcare, consumer, and enterprise software.

Led by Khaled Jalanbo, Managing Partner, Valia also runs an active co-investment program, investing $2M to $10M in growth stage rounds of its existing portfolio companies and in select new opportunities.

Portfolio companies include Humane, Lendtable, Relativity Space, Selfbook, and System.

Meet us at:

Money2020 Europe, Amsterdam: 7-9 June 2022 

South Summit 2022, Madrid: 8–10 June 2022

SuperVentures Berlin: 14–15 June 2022

Digital Insurance Agenda, Amsterdam: 29–30 June 2022

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de

IDA Ireland https://www.idaireland.com

Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum

FinTech Innovators https://fintech-i.com/?sumsrc=ftf

FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com

European FinTech deals this week include Pillar and Seon

We feature Q&As with Javier Correa of PostFinance AG and Hussam EL-Sheikh of 9fin

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to us: Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.

Scaling Enterprise FinTech with Javier Correa of PostFinance AG

1. A year since the first lockdowns- is this a good time to be building or scaling an Enterprise FinTech (/ InsurTech) firm in Europe?

Yes, generally it always is, as long as there is a strong value proposition behind and clearly articulated. There is incremental talent looking to jump into an exciting journey. Customers and prospects have been made strongly aware of additional needs and/or of the advantages from innovative business models/technologies/products and services. In addition, deep pools of capital looking for attractive opportunities to support these teams.

http://www.fintechforum.de/5-questions-with-javier-correa-of-postfinance-ag/

7 Questions with Hussam EL-Sheikh of 9fin

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

Hey I’m Huss, CTO & Co-founder of 9fin. I think I’d describe myself as an engineer in every sense of the word. So, via a degree in Aerospace Engineering, taking apart my siblings’ toys as a child, learning programming at school from age 12, I find myself now running a technology startup serving up news, data and analysis to the financial markets. I love Formula 1, and it’s been a very stressful (but exciting) 2021 championship this year. I’m trying to get better at badminton after taking it up for the first time a couple of years ago… At least my height lets me get away with not being any good yet!

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-hussam-el-sheikh-of-9fin/

UK-based Pillar picks up €15.6 million to tackle credit access problem for migrants

The reality is that new immigrants are excluded from the financial system, on a global level, and it’s a problem that creates financial disparity, social hardship and exclusion. On a mission to eradicate this discriminatory issue, Pillar has just picked up about €15.6 million in pre-seed funding to build a new credit platform. 

The funding was led by VC firms Global Founders Capital and Backed VC. A number of high profile angels have also contributed to the raise, including the founders of WageStream, Peter Briffet and Portman Wills as well as the powerhouse investor and former VP and investor of AirBnB Oliver Jung.

Founded in 2021 by well-known Revolut alumni Ashutosh Bhatt and experienced fintech CTO, Adam Lewis, Pillar’s technology will provide individuals moving to new countries with access to a variety of credit products in their new locations, that would have previously been unattainable.

With the current structure of the credit referencing market, a consumer cannot take their credit file from one country to another. As such, nearly all immigrants find themselves excluded from everyday products such as credit cards and loans. Those that do manage to access a product find themselves paying a disproportionately higher cost of borrowing.

At the heart of Pillar’s product is a proprietary Open Banking-led data and analytics engine that will power the global scalability of the platform. The launch is planned for Q3 in 2022. 

Ashutosh Bhatt, CEO of Pillar, commented: “Ever since I moved to the UK and found I couldn’t access any of the everyday products I had in India this has been a problem I have been passionate about solving. I arrived earning a good salary at Barclays and found I couldn’t even get an iPhone! Fourteen years later, and the world of credit still hasn’t changed, so we have set upon building a globally scalable platform that breaks down data silos and credit borders as well as solves this massive problem faced by financially secure people moving to a new country.”

Fintech Seon, which Specializes in Fraud Prevention, Acquires $94M in Funding

Seon, a startup that’s focused on assisting Fintechs like Revolut with addressing online fraud, has secured $94 million in capital, in order to implement various tools for preventing sanctions evasion by Russia.

The London-headquartered firm secured the funding via an investment round that was led by IVP, which is the Silicon Valley-based investment company that has supported Netflix and Twitter.

IVP Partner Michael Miao has now joined Seon’s board.

Existing investors Creandum, an early Spotify investor, as well as PortfoLion, have contributed to the raise as well. Angel investors such as Coinbase COO Emilie Choi and UiPath CEO Daniel Dines joined as well.

Seon, which counts Afterpay, Nubank, and Revolut, as clients, stated that its tech is specifically developed to make it easier for companies of all kinds to fight fraud.

Its software analyzes a client’s email address, phone numbers and various other data points in order to create a “digital footprint,” and then leverages machine learning to figure out if they’re legitimate or suspicious.

The company has been valued at $500 million following its latest round. This, according to sources cited by CNBC (which claimed to be familiar with the matter).

Tamas Kadar, CEO and Co-founder at Seon, noted that his firm has seen greater demand for tools that identify transfers from sanctioned persons and other entities (in addition to “politically exposed persons” during the Russian invasion of Ukraine).

Part of the proceeds will be channeled towards the potential use of Fintech apps for money laundering and sanctions evasion.

Kadar said that they are “working on an arm to support this need from our client base.”

Seon is also currently working on a function that should be able to verify companies online and determine if their shareholders have been placed on sanctions lists.

These types of tools may identify if someone is “just creating shell companies to launder money,” or “as a fake identity to hide their assets,” Kadar added.

Robinhood to Buy London-based Fintech Ziglu

Investing.com —  Robinhood Markets Inc (NASDAQ:HOOD) revealed in a post on its blog on Tuesday that it has signed a deal to acquire Ziglu, a UK-based “electronic money institution and cryptoasset firm.”

Shares of the popular trading app maker rose 3.4% on Tuesday.

Robinhood is waiting to launch in the UK after previously halting plans. However, the deal for Ziglu will help accelerate its expansion in the UK and Europe, the company said.

Ziglu customers are able to buy and sell 11 cryptocurrencies, earn yield through its “Boost” products, pay using a debit card and spend money abroad without fees, Robinhood said in its post.

“Ziglu’s impressive team of deeply experienced financial services and crypto experts will help us accelerate our global expansion efforts,” said Vlad Tenev, CEO and Co-Founder of Robinhood Markets. 

Adding: “Together with the Ziglu team, we’ll work to leverage the best of both companies, exploring new ways to innovate and break down barriers for customers across the UK and Europe.”

Following the news, JMP Securities analyst said the deal should accelerate Robinhood’s crypto expansion.

Mundi Ventures opens €250-million fund with €120 million to back insuretech firms

The Insurtech Fund II will invest in Series A and Series B with inflows of up to €5 to €10 million in Europe

Madrid-based venture capital firm Mundi Ventures has rolled out its second insuretech fund. The Insurtech Fund II will focus on the insurance sector and cover insuretech as well as fintech, deeptech, or healthtech startups that work with the insurance sector. It has already opened the fund with more than €120 million, out of €250 million it is seeking.

Founded by Moises Sanchez and Javier Santiso, the fund will invest in Series A and Series B with inflows of up to €5 to €10 million in Europe. With the new fund, it is doubling the size and expanding with several additions in the investment team, operations and senior advisors. It has already invested in France-based Convelio. Other investments are pending in the U.K.

The insurtech fund currently has 6 unicorns in its kitty, including Wefox (Berlin), Klarna (Stockholm), Job&Talent (Madrid) and Shift Technology (Paris).

Meet us at:

Money2020 Europe, Amsterdam: 7-9 June 2022 

South Summit 2022, Madrid: 8–10 June 2022

SuperVentures Berlin: 14–15 June 2022

Digital Insurance Agenda, Amsterdam: 29–30 June 2022

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de

IDA Ireland https://www.idaireland.com

Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum

FinTech Innovators https://fintech-i.com/?sumsrc=ftf

FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com

European FinTech deals this week include Leatherback, Zevoy, Stenn,Wagestream and Capital on Tap

We feature Q&As with Paul Christensen of Previse and  Spiros Margaris of Margaris Ventures

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to us: Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.

Scaling Enterprise FinTech: with Paul Christensen of Previse

1.​ Tell us a bit about yourself and your company

I have a bit of an unusual background, having been born on a piece of tin in the jungle of Papua New Guinea. Respect to my mother, who is an inspiration! I’m a fintech nut. I’ve been in fintech for 25 years, having been part of the founding team of Volbroker.com in the late nineties. I then spent time in several banks, including a decade at Goldman where I led their strategic investments and corporate venturing team. But I knew that I wanted to get back to building and creating. So I started on a quest, with my amazing co-founders (Andre, Giulio and Philipp) and our team, to fix B2B payments.

Our company is a data science firm, on a mission to instantly pay the world’s millions of small sellers, so that they don’t have to wait and chase for weeks and months to get paid. Our purpose is to unleash the power of data for business.

http://www.fintechforum.de/scaling-enterprise-fintech-with-paul-christensen-of-previse/

 7 Questions with Spiros Margaris, Margaris Ventures

1.  Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

My name is Spiros Margaris, and I am a venture capitalist (VC) and the founder of Margaris Ventures. I have been in the investment business for quite some time, with more than 25 years of international experience in investment management/research and startups. In my role as a VC, I also act as an advisor to my globally spread FinTech and InsurTech startup portfolio. I am the first international influencer to achieve ‘The Triple Crown’ of influencer rankings by being ranked the global No. 1 FinTech, artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain influencer by Onalytica in 2018. I am very fortunate to regularly appear in the top three positions of the established global industry influencer rankings due to the generous support of great FinTech industry friends and participants. In 2017, I had the opportunity to give a speech at the TEDxAcademy Talk. In addition, for the enterprise software vendor SAP, I wrote an AI white paper, ‘Machine learning in financial services: Changing the rules of the game’.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-spiros-margaris-margaris-ventures/

UK fintech startup Leatherback raises $10M for its cross-border payments led by ZedCrest

Immigrants, international students, and the migrant population in general all require international payments, or foreign exchange. Revolut and Wise are among those platforms to have taken advantage of this international audience. Now, fintech startup Leatherback, a U.K.-based cross-border payments platform, has raised what it describes as a $10 million pre-seed round led by ZedCrest Capital, a pan-African investment firm.

Leatherback offers a multiple currency solution for cross-border transactions.

Co-founder and CEO Ibrahim Toyeeb said in a statement that the funding would “be deployed to raise Leatherback’s profile in the Fintech arena as well as extend its capacity in the many countries it’s licensed in and where it is about to be approved. These include South Africa, Egypt, Uganda, India, and the UAE.”

Prior to this round, the company said it was bootstrapped by the founders.

“As principal investors, we love opportunities where we can bring our expertise to bear,” Zedcrest Capital’s group managing director, Adedayo Amzat, said. “It has been rewarding to provide operational and strategic support to Leatherback in its quest to build the perfect compliance, technology, and finance infrastructure that will allow it to be the operating system of choice for the global mobility of businesses and individuals.”

U.K.-based Leatherback offers multi-currency accounts with the option to exchange currency across multiple countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, India, Nigeria, Egypt, Uganda, Tanzania, Angola, South Africa, the UAE, Denmark, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire.

Finnish FinTech Zevoy Raises $16M to Roll Out Across Europe

Zevoy, the Finland-based FinTech, has closed on a 15 million euros ($16.3 million) Series A funding round, the startup announced Tuesday (April 12).

The cash will be used to launch in eight European markets during the next few months.

This round was led by Blossom Capital, the London-based venture capital company, alongside European investors Maki.vc and Brightly Ventures.

Founded in the summer of 2020, Zevoy offers an expense management solution, as well as credit and prepaid debit, to its clients.

Zevoy is expected to secure a credit institution license this year, which will allow the firm to accept deposits.

“Expense management is a big pain point for many companies and their employees,” said CEO Christoffer Rosqvist in a statement. “To solve this, Zevoy offers an all-in-one business card with which you can scan receipts, match purchases with receipts, manage and forward expenses digitally into accounting.”

Zevoy focuses on underserved markets and growing companies have proven to be a sweet spot, he added.

Last month, PYMNTS reported that the while Nordic region may be small, with a population fewer than 6 million in Norway, Denmark and Finland, they are global leaders in innovation.

London-based fintech Stenn raises $50M on a $900M valuation for its platform that helps SMEs access supply chain finance

Stenn, a global non-bank trade finance provider, has raised $50M (approximately €46M) at a valuation of $900M (approximately €832M). With globalisation at the centre of every major change in the economy, Stenn offers a platform that helps players in this globalisation drive gain access to financing.

The past few years have seen globalisation reach a fever pitch where every company now operates across borders and in order to keep up with this change, the manufacturing and logistics sector has also evolved. While it is easier for product companies to raise capital, Stenn has built a platform that helps players in the supply chain get access to capital.

A research from Accenture shows that SMEs currently face a global financing gap of $3.6T. This gap is expected to rise to $6.1T within the next three years. With SMEs responsible for more than a quarter of global trade, the research shows that these businesses have struggled to access financing despite their major role in global trade.

The lack of access to easy financing has restricted the growth potential of these small and medium enterprises. Stenn was founded in 2015 to solve this very problem and has provided over $6B of financing to SMEs in over 70 countries since its inception. It has helped SMEs from sectors such as retail and IT services to access financing, and its platform has financed over $1B of transactions to date in 2022.

“A lack of access to finance is stunting the growth of SMEs around the world that are engaged in international trade. At Stenn, our purpose has always been to level the playing field for global SMEs, helping to plug a multi-trillion-dollar financing gap by connecting these businesses with low-cost institutional capital,” founder and CEO Greg Karpovsky says.

Wagestream Raises $175M in Series C Funding

Wagestream, a London, UK-based provider of a financial wellbeing app, raised $175M in Series C funding.

The round was led by Smash Capital, with participation from Epic Games, Reddit, SonderMind, and DuckDuckGo, with participation from BlackRock, Balderton Capital, Northzone, Fair By Design, and Silicon Valley Bank.

The company intends to use the funds to scale up its presence in new markets such as the U.S.

Founded in 2018 by Peter Briffett (CEO), Portman Wills (CTO) and a group of leading financial charities, including Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Barrow Cadbury Trust, Social Tech Trust, Big Society Capital, and the Fair By Design fund, Wagestream is a financial wellbeing app designed for frontline workers and built around their pay. Offered through caring employers, it makes work more inclusive, fair and rewarding for people – by giving them access to fair financial services built around flexible pay.

Workers access Wagestream through participating employers, who subsidize the service. The app syncs with payroll systems and allows employees to access and manage their income – either directly through the app, or as an integration with workforce management technology partners. Additionally, the app provides users with a variety of financial services to help them build up their financial health over time. For example, people can choose how often they’re paid, track their shifts and pay each day, build savings and win prizes, access free financial coaching, and get fairer deals on products – like insurance and utilities – than they would have access to elsewhere.

More than one million workers in industries such as retail, hospitality and healthcare are currently able to use the app through employers including Burger King, Pizza Hut, Crate & Barrel, Bupa and the UK’s National Health Service. One million workers now can access Wagestream globally through over 300 employers in the U.S., UK, Spain and Australia.

Fintech turns on capital taps with $200m funding for US expansion

London-based fintech Capital on Tap has secured a $200m (£153.6m) investment from HSBC and Värde Partners to continue expanding its SME funding service in the US.

Founded in 2012, Capital on Tap provides business credit cards that come with spending controls, reporting and rewards.

The alternative lender initially focused on the UK market but launched a US business credit card in March 2021.

Across both markets, it has provided more than £3.5bn in funding to over 125,000 SMEs. It provides a credit facility of up to £150,000 and doesn’t charge for ATM use in the UK.

Capital on Tap’s market includes businesses with a turnover of at least £2,000 per month.

As part of its move into the US market, Capital on Tap established an office in Atlanta, adding to its presence in London and Cardiff.

The fintech company has 50 people at its Atlanta office and will use the fresh investment to increase hiring.

Alan Hart, CFO, Capital on Tap, said: “With the closing of this facility we are looking forward to expanding our ability to provide essential funding for small businesses across the United States. We are thrilled to be joined in this mission with Värde Partners as well as extending our already international relationship with HSBC.”

The latest investment follows a £450m funding facility closed in November last year, which also saw HSBC provide capital.

“We see this as a good example of an emerging substantial investable opportunity set for us, providing capital solutions to digitally-oriented non-bank lenders that are financing the needs of businesses investing in their products and customers,” said Aneek Mamik, partner and global co-head of financial services at Värde Partners.

Capital on Tap’s latest funding follows a bumper 2021 for UK fintech investment, with companies raising $11.6bn in capital.

Meet us at:

Money2020 Europe, Amsterdam: 7-9 June 2022 

South Summit 2022, Madrid: 8–10 June 2022

SuperVentures Berlin: 14–15 June 2022

Digital Insurance Agenda, Amsterdam: 29–30 June 2022

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de

IDA Ireland https://www.idaireland.com

Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum

FinTech Innovators https://fintech-i.com/?sumsrc=ftf

FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com

European FinTech deals this week include Express Group, Carmoola, Fidel API and RITMO

We feature Q&As with Viktor Stensson of Bokio and Daniel Andemeskel of Universal-Investment

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to us: Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.

Scaling Enterprise FinTech: with Viktor Stensson, CEO of Bokio

1. Tell us a bit about yourself and your company.

In 2015 me, Mikael Eliasson, Emma Rozada and Joel Rozada founded Bokio. Since then, our AI-powered bookkeeping and accounting software has grown rapidly. We’ve expanded to the UK and our user base is growing at an incredible pace. We have 100 employees and serve over 60,,000 monthly active users in the UK and our native country Sweden.

http://www.fintechforum.de/scaling-enterprise-fintech-with-viktor-stensson-ceo-of-bokio/

7 Questions with Daniel Andemeskel of Universal-Investment

1.  Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

Hello, I am Daniel Andemeskel, Director and Head of Innovation Management at Universal-Investment. I am currently responsible for the Group’s innovation agenda while at the same time developing the next generation investment platform for digital assets, leveraging on Blockchain and AI. Prior to joining Universal-Investment, I gained over 20 years’ experience in investment management in several functions. My motto is to envision new innovations instead of building faster horses (just like the famous quote of Henry Ford) which is why I enjoy speaking at international conferences and panels on innovation and digital transformation. Besides, I am a member of several Blockchain consortiums and forums and like to initiate collaborations on Blockchain.

Work aside, in my personal life I like to travel and discover new cultures and countries. Alongside my passion for cooking and wine. To compensate my full calendar, I am trying to do as much sports as possible, frequent morning runs are my favorite. This is rounded up with the fact that I am an early bird (waking up every morning between 4:30am and 5:00am). I use these morning hours for the innovation visioning and creative part of my job.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-daniel-andemeskel-of-universal-investment/

ExpressGroup Raises €25M In Series A Funding

ExpressGroup, a Hamburg, Germany-based fintech company, raised €25m in Series A funding.

The round was led by Insight Partners and Project A Ventures.

The company intends to use the funds to grow the organization internationally and to launch aligned products in more fintech verticals.

Founded in 2019 by Maximilian Lambsdorff, Dennis Konrad, Konstantin Loebner, Mehdi Afridi and Andreas Santoro, ExpressGroup provides fintech products for the working class and middle class, starting with taxes. Its first product, “ExpressSteuer,” uses an AI-powered backend system that allows platform partners such as accounting firms, tax consultants, and lawyers to process tax cases in a few minutes. The system uses machine learning and automation features, which in combination with manual work makes processing income tax returns easier, quicker, and more accurate.

According to a written note, the product was well received by the target audience allowing the company to grow to over €45 million GMV run-rate in under 12 months.

Carmoola raises £27m to drive ‘fintech revolution’ in motor finance

Motoring fintech Carmoola has raised £27m in a seed round, including capital from Jaguar Land Rover’s investment fund.

London-based Carmoola will use the seed round investment to develop its product and launch the initial stages of the business, which provides an automated finance check for purchasing a car.

Its motoring finance app lets users find out how much they can borrow in under a minute and has no broker commissions.

It then creates a virtual card that can be used to purchase a vehicle online or at a dealership – including at UK-founded online car retailer Cazoo.

The Carmoola app also gives customers the option to increase, pause or make single payments without any penalties or charges.

The company is aiming to bring the digital disruption of the UK’s vibrant fintech sector to the world of car finance.

“There’s an incredible fintech revolution going on. And yet, car financing seems to have been forgotten about. It’s like a complete old banger,” said Aidan Rushby, CEO, Carmoola.

“The freedom to go shopping anywhere, knowing what you can spend, without sending off reams of forms and payslips, puts the consumer immediately in control of their car purchase.”

Fidel API Raises $65M in Series B Funding

Fidel API, a London, UK-based provider of a financial infrastructure platform, raised $65m in Series B funding.

The round, which brings Fidel API’s total funding to $88 million since inception, was led by Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from existing investors NYCA Partners, QED Investors and more.

The company intends to use the funds to continue to scale its workforce and product offerings. They plan to more than double its global headcount with a particular emphasis on Engineering, Sales and Product hires. The added capital will also accelerate investments into existing products, in addition to newer product capabilities across identity verification, consent management and payments.

Co-founded by Dev Subrata (CEO) and Andre Elias (CTO), Fidel API enables developers to create programmable experiences that enhance the value of using and accepting payment cards. Its platform provides identity, data, and payments products that allow developers to capture consent permissions and securely connect payment cards to a service or application. With this infrastructure, developers are able to create highly contextualized and event-driven user experiences at the point of purchase. Start-ups through global enterprises, including Google, Royal Bank of Canada and British Airways, are leveraging Fidel API’s tools to power a range of solutions including digital receipts, omni-channel attribution, loyalty and rewards, expense management and personal finance management.

Launched in 2018, the company also has offices in Lisbon, New York, and remote employees globally.

Madrid-based RITMO hits a jackpot with $200 million funding to help e-commerce firms raise capital

The Spanish startup aims to help e-commerce entrepreneurs scale up rapidly and overcome the current supply chain challenges by providing them with capital

Offering cash-strapped startups an alternative to venture capital, venture debt or bank loans, revenue-based financing startups are gaining traction. While Berlin-based fintech re:cap raised $111.5 million in a seed funding round last year and Capchase raised $80 Million in March, Madrid-based RITMO is adding sheen to the race.

After raising €13.8 million funding in a seed round in July last year, RITMO is back with a bang. The fintech has now closed a $200 million debt funding round led by i80 Group and Avellinia Capital. According to the company, it is one of the largest funding rounds of any e-commerce finance business in Europe and Latin America. This brings the platform’s total funding raised to $225 million in debt and equity funding in its first year of operations. 

The funding will be used to support the company’s rapid growth, ensuring capital is available to fuel the funding of over 2,000 e-commerce clients over the next 18 months in key European and LATAM countries. It will also drive RITMO’s global expansion strategy and plans to launch in new markets through agreements with key players in the payments and e-commerce sectors.

Advent buys MANGOPAY, doles out €75 million to fuel expansion beyond Europe

The French startup enables clients to accept consumer payments, onboard sellers, and route funds to them on a global scale

Paris-based provider of payment solutions to e-commerce sites, MANGOPAY has been acquired by US-based private equity investor Advent. The change of hands will see Advent injecting €75 million of primary capital. This investment is expected to accelerate the company’s growth. MANGOPAY will focus on international, vertical and product expansion.

The platform had earlier been acquired by French banking group Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, which will continue to hold a minority stake in MANGOPAY.

Founded in 2013, the French startup offers a payment solution dedicated to marketplaces and platforms. Its technology enables clients to accept consumer payments, onboard sellers, and route funds to them on a global scale. The e-wallet environment provides flexibility allowing for split payments, use of escrow accounts and closed-loop payments.

MANGOPAY has already developed a set of dedicated value-added services to address the needs of the rapidly growing B2B marketplace segment. Throwing light on how the acquisition will fuel the creation of a global category leader in the payment industry, Romain Mazeries, CEO, MANGOPAY said: “The new investment alongside their deep payment expertise and network will help us significantly accelerate our development. Tomorrow, global exchanges, innovative business models and new consumer habits will bring more complexity and intermediaries to the payments landscape. We are well-positioned to tackle these challenges.”

Delta Partners launches €70m fund to back 30 Irish tech start-ups

The VC plans to invest in 30 companies over the next few years, with Bank of Ireland and Enterprise Ireland as the fund’s cornerstone investors.

Dublin-based venture capital firm Delta Partners is launching a new fund with a target close of €70m to back early-stage technology businesses in Ireland.

The Delta team plans to invest in 30 of Ireland’s most innovative and exciting start-ups over the next three to four years, with a focus on seed-stage investment – where it will be the first institutional investor – and the Series A stage where companies require funds for scaling.

The fund has reached a first close with Bank of Ireland and Enterprise Ireland as cornerstone investors, supported by Fexco and several family offices. Delta plans to add new investors to the fund over the next year, to reach the target amount of €70m.

Commenting on the new fund, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Leo Varadkar, TD, said: “We are constantly looking at ways we can back Irish businesses, especially at an early stage when raising finance is often the most difficult.

“This fund will be a €70m pot of money, supported by the Government through Enterprise Ireland, for seed and early-stage technology businesses working on ideas that will create the jobs of the future.”

Delta is also expanding its team with two new partners. Amy Neale is joining from Mastercard, where she was a senior VP leading innovation teams focused on fintech across the globe. Also joining is Richard Barnwell, the founder of Digit Games, which was an investee of Delta Partners before being acquired by Scopely.

Andbank launches €60M fintech fund

Andbank has launched its Actyus Fintech I fund, a €60 million fintech-focused VC fund that will target startups in Latin America, Europe and the US. Andbank Group will provide €6 million in capital; the venture partners of Actyus will invest €2 million.

Meet us at:

Money2020 Europe, Amsterdam: 7-9 June 2022 

South Summit 2022, Madrid: 8–10 June 2022

SuperVentures Berlin: 14–15 June 2022

Digital Insurance Agenda, Amsterdam: 29–30 June 2022

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de

IDA Ireland https://www.idaireland.com

Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum

FinTech Innovators https://fintech-i.com/?sumsrc=ftfFN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com

European FinTech deals this week include Lemon Markets, Yonder, Budget Insight and Money Box

We feature Q&As with Virginia Bassano of Eight Roads and Maximilian Schausberger of Elevator Ventures

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to us: Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.

Scaling Enterprise FinTech: with Virginia Bassano of Eight Roads

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

I am Italian, I studied in a French Business School and I live in London since 2017. I was previously working in Investment Banking at Citi covering the FinTech sector. I co-founded an HR tech startup named DailyInternship, a talent recruiting platform with over 100k students subscribed. That experience led me very close to the Venture Capital world.. so close that I ended up in VC myself! At Eight Roads I focus on investments in Southern Europe, Nordics, and more broadly speaking in FinTech investments all across Europe. I am passionate about travels, motorbike, photography and all type of animals. A funny fact about me is that by the age of 22 I had already visited all the European capitals in motorbike.

http://www.fintechforum.de/virginia-bassano-of-eight-roads/

7 Questions with Maximilian Schausberger of Elevator Ventures on Youtube

Interviewed by FinTech Forum Co Founder Frank Schwab.

Elevator Ventures is the Corporate Venture Capital Entity of Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI). Its primary focus is on early stage and growth investments in fintechs and related enabling technologies in Central and Eastern Europe.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-maximilian-schausberger-of-elevator-ventures/

15 million euros for stock trading: Lakestar and others invest in this Saas startup

Many startup founders dream of a million-euro check in the seed financing round. For Max Linden and Marcel Katenhusen from Münsterland, this dream has come true. Well-known investors have invested 15 million euros in their fintech Lemon Markets. The round is led by Klaus Hommels’ VC company Lakestar and the US investor Lightspeed.

Existing investors such as the Swedish fintech investor Creandum or the Berlin early-stage investor System One went along with the round. Prominent business angels also invested, including Taxfix founders Lino Teuteberg and Mathis Büchi or Tekin Has, founders of the car startup Car on Sale and other scene heads.

The founding duo of Lemon Markets has built software designed to make stock trading more efficient and straightforward. The infrastructure of some financial service providers that trade in securities is outdated, linden says in an interview with Gründerszene. “Often there is a lot of manual work behind it.” Companies should save this work with the help of the software, says Linden.

Yonder Raises £20M in Seed Funding

Yonder, a London, UK-based new credit card startup founded by ClearScore alumni, raised £20M in seed funding.

The round was co-led by Northzone and LocalGlobe, with Seedcamp participating alongside a host of angels, including Sharmadean Reid, Marshmallow founders Oliver and Alex Kent-Braham, and Rio Ferdinand.

The company intends to use the funds to grow the team and build their selection of rewards and features.

Co-founded by Theso Jivajirajah, Harry Jell, and CEO Tim Chong, Yonder offers a credit card and rewards program that will provide members with access to exclusive drinking, dining and leisure experiences with partners including The Gladwin Brothers and Kricket restaurants, plus the ability to spend abroad with zero FX fees.

Yonder secured FCA authorisation in just nine months.

From today, Yonder will open its waitlist to customers in London, who can apply to join its Founding Members’ program for early access to the credit card.

Budget Insight Raises $35M in Funding

Budget Insight, a Paris, France-based aggregator of banking and financial data and a pioneer of Open Finance in Europe, raised $35m (€31m) in funding.

PSG Equity made the investment and will be a shareholder alongside the management team and Crédit Mutuel Arkéa.

The transaction is subject to the authorization of France’s Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR).

The company plans to use the funds to expand operations hiring 50 people this year, to grow its tech, product and sales teams.

Founded in 2012 by Romain Bignon, and led by CEO Bertrand Jeannet, Budget Insight is an Open Finance company that provides tech solutions for an ecosystem of more than 200 businesses and institutions, including some of the largest French banks, insurers, and asset managers, along with several other leading names in fintech.

The Budget Insight API enables clients (banks, fintech firms, lenders, asset managers and software companies) and their end users to aggregate financial data and documents, and initiate payments. Thanks to its technologies, Budget Insight provides clients solutions that cover a wide array of services ranging from asset management and credit to corporate cash management, loyalty and payments.

https://www.finsmes.com/2022/04/budget-insight-raises-35m-in-funding.html

Moneybox Raises £35M in Series D Funding

Moneybox, a London, UK-based digital wealth manager, raised £35M in Series D funding.

The round, which brings the total amount of funds raised to date, to £95.1m, was led by Fidelity International Strategic Ventures, with participation from Polar Capital.

The company intends to use the funds to growth its customer base, introduce financial planning services and launch an enhanced investing proposition focused on long-term wealth generation. 

Launched in 2016 by co-founders Ben Stanway and Charlie Mortimer, Moneybox provides a range of products and services across saving, investing, home-buying, and retirement, all within an app, supported by technology and customer support. The company supports a community of more than 800k customers with more than £2.9bn in assets under administration. It has a team of c.300 people including new entries as Laurel Powers-Freeling as Chair of the Board, Karen Kerrigan, formerly COO at Seedr, Cecilia Mourain, MD Moneybox Home-buying and Caroline Murphree, formerly Europe CEO at Wealthsimple, who will join next month.

Buk Acquires Payflow, a Salary on Demand Fintech from Spain

Buk, a Chilean human resources management platform, announced a few days ago the purchase of the Spanish fintech Payflow. It is not the first acquisition that Buk has carried out: in November 2021 it bought three other companies, including Boost and Ninja Excel.

However, Payflow is the first purchase that doesn’t match Buk’s human resources focus. As a company that offers an on-demand salary advance, Payflow brings Buk into the fintech world.

Buk is in an accelerated process of expansion. At the end of last year, it raised a US$50 million round, bringing it to a valuation of US$417 million. Buk is the fourth most valuable startup in Chile after Cornershop (prior to its acquisition by Uber), NotCo and Betterfly.

Buk is a cloud-based platform that allows companies to manage their human resources “end-to-end”; that is, from payroll to professional development, through performance evaluation tools, recruitment modules and attendance monitoring.

London Technology Club launches £30m fund for fintech and AI startups

London Technology Club (LTC) has launched a fund that aims to raise £30m to invest in promising fintech, AI and mobility startups.

This will be the third investment fund from the London Technology Club in the last three years and aims to inject its £30m into 20 to 25 investments over the next year.

The London-based investment company will be prioritising British, US, European and MENA-based startups.

Konstantin Sidorov, founder, chief executive and general partner at LTC, said: “The technology revolution of the 21st century has positively transformed the way we do business, shop, travel and receive healthcare, but for this rate of innovation to continue we must ensure that tech enterprises are backed with the growth capital they require.”

He added: “Our third fund will channel investment into the leading tech companies of tomorrow to enable them to reach their potential.

“The growth will generate long-term returns to investors, employment opportunities for the next generation, and the benefits of innovation to consumers, businesses and the community.”

Meet us at:

Money2020 Europe, Amsterdam: 7-9 June 2022 

South Summit 2022, Madrid: 8–10 June 2022

SuperVentures Berlin: 14–15 June 2022

Digital Insurance Agenda, Amsterdam: 29–30 June 2022

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de

IDA Ireland https://www.idaireland.com

Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum

FinTech Innovators https://fintech-i.com/?sumsrc=ftf

FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com

European FinTech deals this week include Moonfare and ArK Kapital

We feature Q&As with Miriam Wohlfarth of Banxware and Daragh Hanratty of IDA Ireland

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to us: Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.

7 Questions – Interview video with Miriam Wohlfarth of Banxware

Banxware’s Embedded Financial Service platform bridges the gap between traditional banks and digital platforms, marketplaces or payment providers. Interviewed by FinTech Forum Co Founder Frank Schwab.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-interview-video-with-miriam-wohlfarth-of-banxware/

7 Questions with Daragh Hanratty of IDA Ireland

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

I am VP for financial Services with IDA Ireland, the state agency responsible for FDI into Ireland. I am based in Frankfurt, have a keen interest in fitness and travel. During lockdown I took up running. I am currently working to improve my times for 5km and 10km park runs

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-daragh-hanratty-of-ida-ireland/

Meet Moonfare, the German fintech which raised $35 million to lower entry barrier for private investors

With the democratisation of private markets and stock market volatility, high net worth individuals, retail investors and their advisors are looking for alternative investments to benefit from high returns. However, retail access to private equity funds for individuals remain low. Addressing the gap, German fintech company Moonfare has raised a $35 million funding from London-based private equity firm Vitruvian Partners, which has earlier invested in Just Eat , Farfetch, Transferwise and Trustpilot.

The funding will come in handy as the startup is gearing up to fuel its global expansion. The company entered the U.S. market this January after it raised a massive $125 million funding in November last year.

Equipped with fast and easy-to-use digital platform, the startup offers retail investors access to select, top-tier private market funds and venture capital funds that were previously only available for institutions.

Stockholm-based ArK Kapital raises €165 million to help startups grow faster and smarter

With the aim to fuel startup growth in a way that is faster and smarter, Swedish fintech company ArK Kapital has today announced it has secured a massive €165 million in seed funding. The funding was led by Local Globe, with participation from Creandum and angel investors including Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen, iZettle founder Jacob de Geer, and EQT Ventures founding partner Hjalmar Winbladh.

Not only is this funding an impressive boost for the startup, which was only launched in November 2021, but also represents a big lift for the startup ecosystem as a whole, given the firm’s business proposition. 

Ark Kapital fuses banking and artificial intelligence, operating as a data-driven precision finance company that enables technology companies to grow faster and smarter through long-term loans – maintaining control for founders and reducing risk for investors.

CEO and co-founder Oliver Hildebrandt, explained: “Any founder will tell you how difficult fundraising can be: retelling your story and hoping to convince the other side really adds up and results in precious time spent away from a business. We believe that entrepreneurs should retain more ownership of their companies and more transparency is needed throughout the fundraising process. After all, no matter how small, any investor equates to a long-term relationship. This is where the power of an AI-driven approach becomes clear: companies can benefit from tailored financing options based on their potential, backed up by data. As an entrepreneur-first company, we want to offer the best network for founders”.

Eight Roads Launches US$350M China Focused Technology Fund

Eight Roads, a global venture capital firm backed by Fidelity, launched its latest dedicated technology fund for China.

Eight Roads China Technology Fund V, has US$350m of capital to deepen the firm’s focus on core technology areas accompanied by a deep thematic investment approach. 

Since its first investment in China in the 1990s, Eight Roads has evolved with the development of the technology industry in the country and remains committed to supporting local entrepreneurs to develop the next generation of global technology companies with its deep domain expertise and global network. 

Led by Jarlon Tsang, Managing Partner and Head of Eight Roads Ventures China, and Ted Chua, Senior Partner, Eight Roads Ventures China has backed over 130 companies in the country’s healthcare and technology sectors such as Alibaba, Adagene, Asia Info, BangEr, Eyebright, FenBeiTong, Innovent, Innovusion, Kyligence, Medbanks, MediTrust, PingPong, Pony.ai, WuXi Apptec, etc. 

Globally, the Eight Roads platform has backed more than 300 companies including AppsFlyer, Cazoo, Icertis, Made.com, Neo4j, Paidy, Shadowfax, and Spendesk, to name a few. The firm is managing over $8bn of assets across offices in China, India, Japan, Europe and the US.

Berlin-based AlphaQ Venture Capital launches $1 billion ‘fund of funds’

Berlin-based AlphaQ Venture Capital (AQVC) has launched a venture capital fund of funds to strengthen the VC ecosystem by backing top-performing venture capital funds worldwide. Dubbed the ‘VC for VCs’, AQVC will invest in top performing venture capital funds globally.

The initial target fund volume is €500 million, which will be mainly invested in Europe, with exposure to the startup nation Israel and the homeland of venture capital, the U.S.  The capital will be allocated to 50-60 funds which in turn would finance more than 1,200 early and growth-stage startups.

AQVC is screening over 2,000 VC funds per year for investment and has secured allocations or already invested in 50 top-tier VC funds like Northzone, Partech, Speedinvest, Headline, Nucleus Capital, White Star Capital and many others.

FTV Capital Raises Seventh Growth Equity Fund, at $2.3 Billion

FTV Capital, a growth equity investment firm, closed its seventh vehicle, FTV VII, at $2.3 billion.

The fund saw substantial renewed and increased commitments from existing investors, with nearly 100 percent of limited partners in its previous fund committing to FTV VII, as well as commitments from new limited partners. These investors are diversified by size, type and geography across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.

The firm will continue its 24-year track record of investing in innovative, high-growth companies across the enterprise technology, financial services and payments landscapes. This new fund provides FTV flexibility to make control and significant minority equity investments, often as the first institutional investor, generally ranging from $30 to $200 million that align with the objectives of company management teams to accelerate growth and expansion.

Meet us at:

Money2020 Europe, Amsterdam: 7-9 June 2022 

South Summit 2022, Madrid: 8–10 June 2022

SuperVentures Berlin: 14–15 June 2022

Digital Insurance Agenda, Amsterdam: 29–30 June 2022

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de

IDA Ireland https://www.idaireland.com

Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum

FinTech Innovators https://fintech-i.com/?sumsrc=ftf

FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com

European FinTech deals this week include in3, Insurely, Encompass, Xempus, Lunar, +Simple, ClearBank and Lendable

We feature Q&As with Harald Axelius of Billender and Cynthia Nadal of SeedX Liechtenstein

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to us: Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.

7 Questions with Harald Axelius of Billender 

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

Billender is the first buy now-pay later solution for paying bills. You simply snap a pic, you can pay any bill in seconds with a variety of flexible payment options. Billender simplifies payment of bills while giving the user a better overview of their personal finance. With services like Klarna, Affirm, Afterpay etc, consumers today are used to having access to all types of payment options, including flexible credits any time they want to purchase something. Billender applies the same model for paying bills. Before I started Billender, I was involved as an angel investor, chairman of the board and many other different roles at Savelend, Sweden’s largest peer-to-peer platform. I have a Master of Laws (LLM) but always worked in tech. I currently reside in Stockholm, Sweden and Marbella, Spain with my girlfriend Jenny. When I’m not working I enjoy taking 20 minute meditation naps with noise cancellation earphones or watching Youtube videos about the construction of different “mega projects” around the world.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-harald-axelius-of-billender/

7 Questions with Cynthia Nadal of SeedX Liechtenstein

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

My name is Cynthia, I am a Partner at Seed X Liechtenstein. I am an operator turned investor and I have previously worked with different accelerators including Techstars, King’s College and Founders Factory in London. Prior to being an investor I have worked for 11+ years at the fintech unicorn Markit (Now IHS markit, being bought by S&P). I learned there everything I know about great product development, corporate innovation and the hurdles of fast growth (IPO on the NASDAQ in 2014 at $5bn valuation, merger with IHS in 2016, now worth more than $40bn).

Work-wise I like connecting the dots and people, understanding the big problems needing solving and who we can learn from. Having the right network also helps to support founders in their growth.

Some of my spare time is also spent on tech boards that I sit on, and supporting female entrepreneurs across Europe.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-cynthia-nadal-of-seedx/

Dutch BNPL Fintech in3 Secures $11.1M, Enters Deal with Payments Firm Worldline

Dutch Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) Fintech in3 has secured $11.1 million in capital and entered a deal with payments company Worldline in order to bring its products and services to more merchants.

In3 was launched back in 2018 by a professional team that had reportedly been a part of the early BNPL trend in the 2010s. It enables clients to make payments for products over three manageable installments within 60 days with 0% interest and without requiring any credit registration.

The company’s management noted that revenue has surged 300% YoY since the firm launched operations, with partner merchants like Kwik Fit, EP, La Souris, Matt sleeps and Dekbed-Discounter all signed up.

Via the collaboration with Worldline, in3 will offer a tech stack that will enable online and offline merchants, who are part of the Worldline network, to provide BNPL services.

And the $11.1 capital injection from Finch Capital will reportedly be used to build out the tech stack and engage in key hiring across the business.

Swedish fintech Insurely claims €19M

Insurely, a Stockholm-based insurtech startup, has raised a €19 million Series A led by Insight Partners. Founded in 2018, the company offers a platform for accessing data on the insurance market.

Developer of an insurance tracking platform built to keep track of insurance policies. The company’s platform retrieves all existing insurances automatically and keeps track of the covers provided and payments made while also showing and comparing other available partner insurances, enabling insurance companies to get more customers and be more transparent with them.

Encompass Raises $33M in Funding

Encompass, a London, UK-based provider of intelligently automated Know Your Customer (KYC) solutions, raised $33M in funding.

The round was led by Perennial Partners, with participation from Serendipity Capital, Seven Seat Capital, Microequities Asset Management, Alan McIntyre, Tim Frost, and Ray Scott.

The company intends to use the funds to accelerate its growth globally, which has included office openings and extensive recruitment in New York and Amsterdam, and ongoing product innovation and development, undertaken from three main engineering centers in Sydney, Belgrade, and Glasgow.

Launched in 2012 by Roger Carson, Encompass transforms regulatory compliance and customer onboarding with Know Your Customer (KYC) automation. As a global leader in automated KYC due diligence worldwide, the company serves global banks and financial institutions to streamline their KYC process and comply with regulations and requirements. Encompass serves customers across the globe with offices in Amsterdam, Belgrade, Glasgow, London, New York, Singapore and Sydney.

Xempus digitizes your pension – and gets 63 million in return

The insurtech Xempus has completed its Series D. In the financing round, the Munich-based company received fresh capital in the amount of the equivalent of 63 million euros (70 million dollars). The majority of this comes from Goldman Sachs Asset Management – the US investment bank has often invested in German tech companies, including the fintech Elinvar, the IT startup Leanix or the savings portal Raisin.

In addition to the lead investor, the existing shareholders, led by HPE Growth and Cinco Capital, have participated “substantially” in the round, according to the company. The new funds are intended to promote internationalisation and the expansion of product categories.

Xempus builds digital products for company pensions. With the so-called “Xempus Manager”, the Munich-based Insurtech is aimed at employers who can digitally offer their employees the pension scheme for self-closure. This should save effort, time and costs, according to Xempus.

With “My Xempus”, employees can adjust their pension provision and get an overview of the current status of their retirement provision from retirement. In addition to the statutory pension, the dashboard shows, for example, the monthly supplementary pension from the pension plan.

Scandinavian Fintech Lunar collects 70 million euros

Neobank is building a complete range of financial services. In addition: Xpeng launches electric sedan in Europe and trade in NFTs increased by 21,000 percent in 2021.
Lunar, a Scandinavian digital banking platform, has announced a €70 million Series D funding round. According to “Techcrunch”, the cloud-based fintech based in Copenhagen thus achieves a valuation of two billion US dollars. Lunar is also launching a crypto trading platform and B2B payments for its small and medium-sized business customers. The latest investment is an expansion of the Series D, which had a first deal of 210 million euros in July last year. The round – led by Heartland with participation from Kinnevik, Tencent and IDC Ventures – will now close with €280 million.

In the last year, Lunar’s customer base has grown by more than 90 percent. With the fresh money, the company wants to expand further. Lunar is building a complete financial services offering: in April 2021, it acquired Swedish consumer credit and peer-to-peer savings platform Lendify to strengthen its position in Scandinavia.

French startup +Simple scores €90 million for its insurtech solution

Founded in 2015, +Simple, has scored €90 million and acquired three European companies to grow its insurtech offering. The funding round was led by global investment firm KKR and saw the participation of +Simple’s founders and existing investors, including Eurazeo, Speedinvest and Tikehau Capital. 

The French platform operates as an insurance Robo-Broker for freelancers, small and medium businesses. The tech behind the platform generates tailor-made and competitive insurance packages, based on a simple questionnaire. The firm was founded by Eric Mignot (Chairman), Anthony Jouannau (CEO) and Salah Hamida (Deputy CEO and CTO) with the aim to create a one-stop shop for professional insurance needs. 

Eric Mignot commented: “KKR’s expertise in the insurance sector globally and track record in growth investing makes them ideally placed to support our development. Our ability to raise debt from a player such as Tikehau reflects confidence in our strategy to generate strong growth and profitability.”

UK’s clearing bank now eyes European expansion, swipes off £175 million funding

Next-generation clearing and embedded banking platform in the UK, ClearBank has raised a £175 million equity investment. The round was led by funds advised by Apax Digital, the growth equity arm of private equity advisory firm Apax, and saw the participation of existing investors such as CFFI UK Ventures (Barbados) and PPF Financial Holdings.

The platform created some news in 2017 when it became the first new clearing bank in the UK in 250 years. Now, with the additional capital, it is setting sights on international expansion.

The investment will drive ClearBank’s ambition to power banking services for both financial institutions and non-financial brands, using its single API cloud-native embedded banking platform. It will also drive the company’s global expansion, initially in Europe before moving into North America and Asia Pacific.

Founded by Nick Ogden in 2016, who was also the founder of WorldPay, which was later on acquired by Fidelity, the clearing bank has a portfolio of 13 million accounts and £3 billion held in balances at the Bank of England. The UK banking rails provider serves over 200 financial institutions and fintech customers, including Tide, Coinbase, Chip and Oaknorth Bank.

Lendable Raises GBP 210M in Funding At Valuation in Excess of GBP 3.5 Billion

Lendable, a London, UK-based AI-powered consumer finance platform, raised GBP210M in funding at a valuation in excess of GBP 3.5 Billion.

The round was led by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers’), through its Teachers’ Innovation Platform (TIP).

The company intends to use the funds to accelerate international growth and expand operations and development efforts.

Founded in 2014 and led by CEO Martin Kissinger, Lendable is an AI-powered consumer finance platform that connects global institutional investors with borrowers across all major products (loans, credit cards, car finance). The company applies AI and automation to enhance underwriting, and offer customers better rates, transparency and service, while offering institutional investors ranging from global banks to family offices access to the asset class.

JPMorgan to buy Irish fintech firm Global Shares

March 15 (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) said on Tuesday it would buy Global Shares, an Irish fintech firm whose software helps businesses manage employee stock plans.
The deal, the terms of which were not disclosed, was expected to close in the second half of this year.
Founded in 2005, Global Shares manages nearly $200 billion in assets and its cloud-based platform is used by more than 600 clients.
The U.S. bank plans to integrate the company into its asset and wealth management business, according to a statement. Global Shares will remain headquartered in Cork, Ireland.

FT Partners’ Long-Term Client PPRO Acquires Alpha Fintech

PPRO, the provider of virtual payments infrastructure, announced the acquisition of Alpha Fintech, a next-gen payments tech firm. The deal will reportedly “expand PPRO’s offering, strengthen its presence and networks in Asia Pacific (APAC), and allow it to deliver products and services faster to its customers.”

Alpha Fintech’s Cloud-powered platform “allows for the seamless integration of digital payments products and services, from payment processing and merchant management to risk management, fraud prevention, and data analytics.”

The APAC-focused firm has served a key role in “accelerating the growth of banks, fintech enterprises, and payment service providers, including New Zealand’s BNZ and Southeast Asia’s super-app Grab.”

By adding Alpha’s platform to its infrastructure, PPRO is now poised “to offer a plug-and-play orchestration layer that will let its customers integrate products and services faster and at scale.” Clients may look forward to more global payment flows, “the ability to integrate third-party applications, stronger compliance and risk capabilities, and deeper data insights.”

Visa Closes Acquisition of Tink

Visa (NYSE: V) completed its acquisition of Tink, a Stockholm, Sweden-based open banking platform that enables financial institutions, fintechs and merchants to build financial products and services and move money.

The amount of the deal was 1.8 billion Euros, inclusive of cash and retention incentives.

The transaction was announced in June 2021.

Founded in 2012 in Stockholm and led by Daniel Kjellén, CEO, Tink provides an API that enables its customers to move money, access aggregated financial data, and use smart financial services such as risk insights and account verification. Tink is integrated with more than 3,400 banks and financial institutions, reaching millions of bank customers across Europe. Its 500 employees serve more than 300 banks and fintechs in 18 European markets, out of offices in 13 countries.

With the transaction complete, the combination of Visa and Tink is expected to enable clients to deliver benefits for consumers to control their financial experiences, including managing their money, financial data and financial goals. Businesses large and small will also have access to more customized range of tools to operate digitally and securely, whether initiating payments, reconciling bank statements and accounts or enabling alternative financing.

In the near-term, Tink will operate as a standalone subsidiary of Visa. Kjellén and the existing management team will continue to lead the organization.

Finleap co-founders raise over €100m for new “embedded” fintech VC fund

The fund, called embedded/capital, was founded this year by Ramin Niroumand and Michael Hock, who set up finleap, a Berlin-based fintech business that offers SaaS solutions to enterprises and builds stand-alone fintech companies.

A Berlin-based VC fund focused on the “next generation” of fintech founders has raised over €100m to invest in startups “embedding” financial services in their business models.

The  VC fund, called embedded/capital, was founded this year by Ramin Niroumand and Michael Hock, who set up Finleap, a Berlin-based fintech business that offers SaaS solutions to enterprises and helps build fintech companies.

Embedded/capital’s fund focuses on founders who are “embedding” financial services in their offerings, particularly at pre-seed and seed stages with initial investments of up to €4m.

The fund has raised money from institutional investors, entrepreneurs and founders.

Along with capital support, embedded/capital says it can help fintech founders by drawing on a “strong network” of European financial service providers.

Furthermore, it said it also works with key institutional players, unicorn founders, and global investors to support ventures.

Niroumand said: “We continue doing what we love most: Helping founders in the most critical stages to succeed. 

“The Berlin fintech ecosystem has made incredible progress over the last few years, and it’s exciting that the new generation of fintechs can build on the platforms created. 

CommerzVentures Closes €300M Third Fund

CommerzVentures, a Frankfurt, Germany-based specialist fintech investor, closed its third fund, at €300m.

The fund, which saw Commerzbank return as the sole LP, brings their combined total fund size to €550m.

Led by partners Heiko Schwender and Paul Morgenthaler, the vehicle will go towards supporting early and growth-stage companies in the fintech and insurtech sectors, as well as the emerging Climate FinTech space.

The third fund follows on from their first €100m fund, launched in 2014, and their second €150m fund in 2019, as well as investments in 28 companies to date. Continuing their strategy of targeting founder teams with the ambition to solve billion dollar problems, CommerzVentures continue to invest with a global outlook, focusing on Europe, Israel and the USA. 

The launch of Fund III will see the firm grow their headcount by 50%, enabling them to strengthen their position in fintech globally, and establish a foothold in new geographies, notably Africa. This follows CommerzVentures’ recent participation in MFS Africa’s $100m Series C and desire to support founders in the region’s vibrant fintech market.

The firm has already backed unicorns such as Bought By Many, Mambu, eToro and Marqeta and has a strong presence within Climate FinTech, with recent investments including ClimateView and Doconomy. Other notable investments within fintech and insurtech include Afilio, ByMiles, GetSafe and iwoca. Portfolio company Marqeta IPOed on Nasdaq, while Curv and Payworks were acquired by Paypal and Visa, respectively. 

Meet us at:

Money2020 Europe, Amsterdam: 7-9 June 2022 

South Summit 2022, Madrid: 8–10 June 2022

SuperVentures Berlin: 14–15 June 2022

Digital Insurance Agenda, Amsterdam: 29–30 June 2022

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de

IDA Ireland https://www.idaireland.com

Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum

FinTech Innovators https://fintech-i.com/?sumsrc=ftf

FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com

European FinTech deals this week include HUBUC, Ageras group, Weavr, Atom, PayHawk and Scalapay

We feature Q&As with Stefan Klauser of Aisot and May Wang of Fin VC

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to us: Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.

7 Questions with Stefan Klauser of Aisot

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

Hi, I am Stefan, Co-Founder & CEO at Aisot Technologies. We are a leading provider of real-time insights for trading and asset management. I always had a passion for both entrepreneurial work and predictive tools. The Oracle of Delphi was by far the coolest thing in Latin class. And my first business I „founded” as a kid, when selling cherries from our garden on our village’s streets. In my free time, I like to be in nature or sing. I have played in rock bands since I was a teenager.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-stefan-klauser-of-asiot/

7 Questions with May Wang of Fin VC

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

I’m an investor at Fin VC, a B2B Fintech/Insurtech focused global venture capital, based out of San Francisco. Fin VC is a team of FinTech nerds with capital, based in SF/NYC and focus on FinTech SaaS in the US and EU/UK. We deploy out of 3 strategies: Regatta (pre-seed, checks of $100K-$1M), Flagship (Early Stage – Seed->B, checks of $1-10M) and Horizons (Growth – C+, checks of $25-50M+, primary/secondary) and have an operating value playbook focused on global BD, corp dev, capital formation, product/GTM, key talent sourcing, and board leadership.

Personally, I’m an avid traveler and a global citizen who has lived in 4 countries across 3 continents. When not at work, you’ll find me hiking/surfing in the summer and skiing in the winter. I’m also mentoring students from underrepresented communities, and an advisor at a Uganda-based NGO.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-may-wang-of-fin-vc/

Offering any and all brands managed embedded financial services, Y Combinator alum HUBUC raises $10 million

By managing contracts, knowledge, regulatory requirements, integrations, and risk in-house, Barcelona’s HUBUC offers customers the ability to implement embedded finance services and go to market on average in 7-8 weeks.

Barcelona-based embedded financial services startup HUBUC has raised $10 million in a seed round. The new funding will be used to bolster the company’s European footprint, strengthen the compliance team, continue product development and further streamline the customer implementation process.
Traditionally dogged by regulatory restraints that vary from country to country, the process of implementing embedded finance solutions can be complex, time-consuming, and ultimately, costly. And while there’s certainly no shortage of providers on the market today, where HUBUC aims to stand apart from the crowd is through its managed service, and thus, speed of implementation.

Bringing transparency to crypto capital markets fetches $10 million for London-based Haruko

London startup Haruko is building one-stop shop for institutional crypto investors with $10-million seed funding.

The crypto ecosystem shows enormous promise as the breeding ground for game-changing innovation. While institutional capital is increasingly convinced of the opportunity, unfamiliar and unreliable technology remains a major barrier to entry. Bridging this gap with a platform that provides both a sophisticated but easy-to-use API and a convenient dashboard enabling institutional investors to easily interact with crypto markets is London-based Haruko.

The startup bringing an institutional-grade technology layer to connect capital to the blockchains, has now closed a $10 million funding. The seed round was led by Portage Ventures and White Star Capital.

Founded by Adam Carlile, Omer Suleman and Shamyl Malik, the startup powers institutional access to digital assets globally. Its platform enables large institutions to interact with crypto markets both on centralised exchanges (CeFi) and decentralised protocols (DeFi).

Ageras Group Raises $34M in Funding

The Ageras Group, a Copehagen, Denmark-based small business-focused financial services software and accounting marketplace, closed a €30m ($34m) funding round.

Backers included new investors Centripetal Capital and Saeid Esmaeilzadeh, which joined existing investors Investcorp Technology Partners, Lugard Road Capital and Roosgruppen, which all are participating in the round.

The company intends to use the funds to accelerate the expansion of its marketplace and acquire other fintech software startups.

Founded in 2012 by CEO Rico Andersen and CMO Martin Hegelund, Ageras Group provides small businesses with financial services software and accounting marketplace.

The company began as the online marketplace Ageras.com (matching SMEs with accountants) and has expanded into a 250-person team offering a complete ecosystem of tools and services for SMEs. Today, Ageras Group offers cloud-based accounting software through the products Zervant, Billy and Tellow and payroll software through Salary. In late 2021, the group launched an embedded fintech service providing financing options to its customers directly through its software. Ageras Group’s solutions have been used by more than 1 million small businesses across Europe and the U.S.

Weavr Raises $40M in Series A Funding

Weavr, a London, UK-based fintech provider that enables businesses with Plug-and-Play financial solutions, raised $40M in Series A funding.

The round was led by Tiger Global with participation from QED Investors, Anthemis, Mubadala, Latitude, Headline, Seedcamp, Force Over Mass Capital and UFP Fintech.

The company intends to use the funds to support international expansion plans, beginning with an official U.S. market launch.

Led by CEO Alex Mifsud, Weavr is an open platform for embedded finance for the digital economy.

Atom Raises More Than £75M in Equity Funding

Atom bank, a Durham, UK-based app-based bank, raised more than £75m in new equity funding as it continues to grow its profitability and drive to IPO.

The round will be led by BBVA and by Toscafund with participation from co-investors Infinity Investment Partners. The round is now being opened to other existing shareholders. The digital lender has now raised more than £115m in the last 12 months.

Led by Mark Mullen, Chief Executive Officer, Atom launched operations in April 2016, offering Fixed Saver accounts and secured business lending for small and medium-sized enterprises (‘SMEs’), followed by its automated mobile mortgage proposition in December 2016. Atom launched an Instant Saver in September 2020.

With a team of over 400 people, the company delivered its first monthly operating profit during Q2 and has continued to grow its revenues throughout the year while maintaining a tight control on its costs.

Bulgaria now has its first unicorn in Payhawk as the company adds an additional $100 million

In adding another $100 million to an already impressive $115 million Series B round, payments and expense management startup Payhawk has provided Bulgaria with its first card-carrying member of the unicorn club

Payments and expense management firm Payhawk has added $100 million to its Series B round, now standing at $215 million, and in so much, provides the company with a $1 billion valuation and Bulgaria with its first unicorn.

As a testament to the company’s rapidly accelerating velocity, this Series B extension arrives only three months after the company’s initial announcement of $115 million, a round that was announced only 7 months since the closing of a $20 million Series A round.

Preceded only by now publicly listed UiPath, Payhawk’s Series B round is the second-largest ever of its kind for a B2B company in the CEE region, with the new funding fueling the addition of 60 senior software engineers in the Sofia office, alongside planned office openings in Amsterdam and Paris in March, and New York in September. The company reports that it’s well on track to triple the headcount from 100 to more than 300 staff members by the end of this year.

Scalapay Raises $497M in Series B Funding

Scalapay, a Milan, Italy-based payment solution that enables customers to buy now and pay later (BNPL) without interest, raised $497M in Series B funding.

The round, which brought total funding raised to date to over $700M, was led by Tencent and Willoughby Capital, with participation from Tiger Global, Gangwal, Moore Capital, Deimos, and Fasanara Capital.

Founded by Simone Mancini and Johnny Mitrevski in 2019, Scalapay is an innovative payment solution for e-commerce merchants across the globe that allows customers to buy now and pay later, without interest. Their BNPL offerings include three options for customers (Pay in 3, Pay in 4, and Pay Later) in which customers are not required to make any payments upfront, and can instead opt to pay in 3 installments, 4 installments, or entirely after 14 days.

CommerzVentures closes €300 million fund to boost European fintech and insurtech startups

Specialising in fintech companies, Frankfurt-based CommerzVentures has announced the close of their third fund at €300 million. The fund will go towards supporting early and growth-stage companies in the fintech and insurtech space. The freshly emerging climate fintech space will also benefit from the fresh funds – building towards being Europe’s foremost VC in this emerging sector. 

The latest fund, which saw Commerzbank return as the sole LP, brings their combined total fund size to €550 million. 

Launched in 2014, CommerzVentures has successfully invested in 28 companies. Continuing their strategy of targeting exceptional founder teams with the ambition to solve billion-dollar problems, CommerzVentures continues to invest with a global outlook, focusing on Europe, Israel and the USA. 

Catalyst Romania wraps up €50 million fund to invest in early-stage tech firms in South Eastern Europe

Targeting investments in technology companies, Catalyst Romania has announced the closing of its second venture capital fund. On the back of strong demand from institutional and private investors, the original target of €40 million was substantially exceeded and the fund reached its hard cap of €50 million.

The second-generation venture fund in Romania will continue focusing on early-stage technology companies and make investments of €1-3 million to high-potential technology SMEs from Romania and South Eastern Europe.

Since its first closing in November 2020, it has invested in two companies and three more are in the due diligence phase. The first investment was in Seedblink, which is a next generation crowd-investing platform. Its second investment was in Code of Talent, a leading micro-learning solution dedicated to employee training.

Meet us at:

Finovate Europe 2022, London: 22–23 March 2022

Money2020 Europe, Amsterdam: 7-9 June 2022 

South Summit 2022, Madrid: 8–10 June 2022

SuperVentures Berlin: 14–15 June 2022

Digital Insurance Agenda, Amsterdam: 29–30 June 2022

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de

IDA Ireland https://www.idaireland.com

Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum

FinTech Innovators https://fintech-i.com/?sumsrc=ftf

FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com

European FinTech deals this week include HUBUC, Ageras group, Weavr, Atom, PayHawk and Scalapay

We feature Q&As with Stefan Klauser of Aisot and May Wang of Fin VC

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to us: Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.

7 Questions with Stefan Klauser of Aisot

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

Hi, I am Stefan, Co-Founder & CEO at Aisot Technologies. We are a leading provider of real-time insights for trading and asset management. I always had a passion for both entrepreneurial work and predictive tools. The Oracle of Delphi was by far the coolest thing in Latin class. And my first business I „founded” as a kid, when selling cherries from our garden on our village’s streets. In my free time, I like to be in nature or sing. I have played in rock bands since I was a teenager.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-stefan-klauser-of-asiot/

7 Questions with May Wang of Fin VC

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

I’m an investor at Fin VC, a B2B Fintech/Insurtech focused global venture capital, based out of San Francisco. Fin VC is a team of FinTech nerds with capital, based in SF/NYC and focus on FinTech SaaS in the US and EU/UK. We deploy out of 3 strategies: Regatta (pre-seed, checks of $100K-$1M), Flagship (Early Stage – Seed->B, checks of $1-10M) and Horizons (Growth – C+, checks of $25-50M+, primary/secondary) and have an operating value playbook focused on global BD, corp dev, capital formation, product/GTM, key talent sourcing, and board leadership.

Personally, I’m an avid traveler and a global citizen who has lived in 4 countries across 3 continents. When not at work, you’ll find me hiking/surfing in the summer and skiing in the winter. I’m also mentoring students from underrepresented communities, and an advisor at a Uganda-based NGO.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-may-wang-of-fin-vc/

Offering any and all brands managed embedded financial services, Y Combinator alum HUBUC raises $10 million

By managing contracts, knowledge, regulatory requirements, integrations, and risk in-house, Barcelona’s HUBUC offers customers the ability to implement embedded finance services and go to market on average in 7-8 weeks.

Barcelona-based embedded financial services startup HUBUC has raised $10 million in a seed round. The new funding will be used to bolster the company’s European footprint, strengthen the compliance team, continue product development and further streamline the customer implementation process.
Traditionally dogged by regulatory restraints that vary from country to country, the process of implementing embedded finance solutions can be complex, time-consuming, and ultimately, costly. And while there’s certainly no shortage of providers on the market today, where HUBUC aims to stand apart from the crowd is through its managed service, and thus, speed of implementation.

Bringing transparency to crypto capital markets fetches $10 million for London-based Haruko

London startup Haruko is building one-stop shop for institutional crypto investors with $10-million seed funding.

The crypto ecosystem shows enormous promise as the breeding ground for game-changing innovation. While institutional capital is increasingly convinced of the opportunity, unfamiliar and unreliable technology remains a major barrier to entry. Bridging this gap with a platform that provides both a sophisticated but easy-to-use API and a convenient dashboard enabling institutional investors to easily interact with crypto markets is London-based Haruko.

The startup bringing an institutional-grade technology layer to connect capital to the blockchains, has now closed a $10 million funding. The seed round was led by Portage Ventures and White Star Capital.

Founded by Adam Carlile, Omer Suleman and Shamyl Malik, the startup powers institutional access to digital assets globally. Its platform enables large institutions to interact with crypto markets both on centralised exchanges (CeFi) and decentralised protocols (DeFi).

Ageras Group Raises $34M in Funding

The Ageras Group, a Copehagen, Denmark-based small business-focused financial services software and accounting marketplace, closed a €30m ($34m) funding round.

Backers included new investors Centripetal Capital and Saeid Esmaeilzadeh, which joined existing investors Investcorp Technology Partners, Lugard Road Capital and Roosgruppen, which all are participating in the round.

The company intends to use the funds to accelerate the expansion of its marketplace and acquire other fintech software startups.

Founded in 2012 by CEO Rico Andersen and CMO Martin Hegelund, Ageras Group provides small businesses with financial services software and accounting marketplace.

The company began as the online marketplace Ageras.com (matching SMEs with accountants) and has expanded into a 250-person team offering a complete ecosystem of tools and services for SMEs. Today, Ageras Group offers cloud-based accounting software through the products Zervant, Billy and Tellow and payroll software through Salary. In late 2021, the group launched an embedded fintech service providing financing options to its customers directly through its software. Ageras Group’s solutions have been used by more than 1 million small businesses across Europe and the U.S.

Weavr Raises $40M in Series A Funding

Weavr, a London, UK-based fintech provider that enables businesses with Plug-and-Play financial solutions, raised $40M in Series A funding.

The round was led by Tiger Global with participation from QED Investors, Anthemis, Mubadala, Latitude, Headline, Seedcamp, Force Over Mass Capital and UFP Fintech.

The company intends to use the funds to support international expansion plans, beginning with an official U.S. market launch.

Led by CEO Alex Mifsud, Weavr is an open platform for embedded finance for the digital economy.

Atom Raises More Than £75M in Equity Funding

Atom bank, a Durham, UK-based app-based bank, raised more than £75m in new equity funding as it continues to grow its profitability and drive to IPO.

The round will be led by BBVA and by Toscafund with participation from co-investors Infinity Investment Partners. The round is now being opened to other existing shareholders. The digital lender has now raised more than £115m in the last 12 months.

Led by Mark Mullen, Chief Executive Officer, Atom launched operations in April 2016, offering Fixed Saver accounts and secured business lending for small and medium-sized enterprises (‘SMEs’), followed by its automated mobile mortgage proposition in December 2016. Atom launched an Instant Saver in September 2020.

With a team of over 400 people, the company delivered its first monthly operating profit during Q2 and has continued to grow its revenues throughout the year while maintaining a tight control on its costs.

Bulgaria now has its first unicorn in Payhawk as the company adds an additional $100 million

In adding another $100 million to an already impressive $115 million Series B round, payments and expense management startup Payhawk has provided Bulgaria with its first card-carrying member of the unicorn club

Payments and expense management firm Payhawk has added $100 million to its Series B round, now standing at $215 million, and in so much, provides the company with a $1 billion valuation and Bulgaria with its first unicorn.

As a testament to the company’s rapidly accelerating velocity, this Series B extension arrives only three months after the company’s initial announcement of $115 million, a round that was announced only 7 months since the closing of a $20 million Series A round.

Preceded only by now publicly listed UiPath, Payhawk’s Series B round is the second-largest ever of its kind for a B2B company in the CEE region, with the new funding fueling the addition of 60 senior software engineers in the Sofia office, alongside planned office openings in Amsterdam and Paris in March, and New York in September. The company reports that it’s well on track to triple the headcount from 100 to more than 300 staff members by the end of this year.

Scalapay Raises $497M in Series B Funding

Scalapay, a Milan, Italy-based payment solution that enables customers to buy now and pay later (BNPL) without interest, raised $497M in Series B funding.

The round, which brought total funding raised to date to over $700M, was led by Tencent and Willoughby Capital, with participation from Tiger Global, Gangwal, Moore Capital, Deimos, and Fasanara Capital.

Founded by Simone Mancini and Johnny Mitrevski in 2019, Scalapay is an innovative payment solution for e-commerce merchants across the globe that allows customers to buy now and pay later, without interest. Their BNPL offerings include three options for customers (Pay in 3, Pay in 4, and Pay Later) in which customers are not required to make any payments upfront, and can instead opt to pay in 3 installments, 4 installments, or entirely after 14 days.

CommerzVentures closes €300 million fund to boost European fintech and insurtech startups

Specialising in fintech companies, Frankfurt-based CommerzVentures has announced the close of their third fund at €300 million. The fund will go towards supporting early and growth-stage companies in the fintech and insurtech space. The freshly emerging climate fintech space will also benefit from the fresh funds – building towards being Europe’s foremost VC in this emerging sector. 

The latest fund, which saw Commerzbank return as the sole LP, brings their combined total fund size to €550 million. 

Launched in 2014, CommerzVentures has successfully invested in 28 companies. Continuing their strategy of targeting exceptional founder teams with the ambition to solve billion-dollar problems, CommerzVentures continues to invest with a global outlook, focusing on Europe, Israel and the USA. 

Catalyst Romania wraps up €50 million fund to invest in early-stage tech firms in South Eastern Europe

Targeting investments in technology companies, Catalyst Romania has announced the closing of its second venture capital fund. On the back of strong demand from institutional and private investors, the original target of €40 million was substantially exceeded and the fund reached its hard cap of €50 million.

The second-generation venture fund in Romania will continue focusing on early-stage technology companies and make investments of €1-3 million to high-potential technology SMEs from Romania and South Eastern Europe.

Since its first closing in November 2020, it has invested in two companies and three more are in the due diligence phase. The first investment was in Seedblink, which is a next generation crowd-investing platform. Its second investment was in Code of Talent, a leading micro-learning solution dedicated to employee training.

Meet us at:

Finovate Europe 2022, London: 22–23 March 2022

Money2020 Europe, Amsterdam: 7-9 June 2022 

South Summit 2022, Madrid: 8–10 June 2022

SuperVentures Berlin: 14–15 June 2022

Digital Insurance Agenda, Amsterdam: 29–30 June 2022

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de

IDA Ireland https://www.idaireland.com

Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum

FinTech Innovators https://fintech-i.com/?sumsrc=ftf

FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com

I am Italian, I studied in a French Business School and I live in London since 2017. I was previously working in Investment Banking at Citi covering the FinTech sector. I co-founded an HR tech startup named DailyInternship, a talent recruiting platform with over 100k students subscribed. That experience led me very close to the Venture Capital world.. so close that I ended up in VC myself! At Eight Roads I focus on investments in Southern Europe, Nordics, and more broadly speaking in FinTech investments all across Europe. I am passionate about travels, motorbike, photography and all type of animals. A funny fact about me is that by the age of 22 I had already visited all the European capitals in motorbike.

http://www.fintechforum.de/virginia-bassano-of-eight-roads/

7 Questions with Blidarus of FintechOS

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

I am Teo Blidarus, CEO and co-founder of FintechOS. We allow banks and insurers to create customer-centric digital financial products and services using our digital on top and lean core solutions. Many financial institutions who want to innovate quickly are underserved or ill-served by current vendors. Our low-code, modular approach augments legacy systems and allows institutions to build, test and scale new digital products and services in weeks, rather than months.

http://www.fintechforum.de/teo-blidarus-of-fintechos/

FloodFlash Raises $15M in Series A Funding

FloodFlash, a London, UK-based parametric insurance technology company that pays catastrophic flood claims within 48 hours, raised $15m in Series A funding.

The round was led by Buoyant Ventures with participation from Munich Re Ventures, Sony Financial Ventures/Global Brain, MS&AD Ventures and PropTech1, Pentech, Local Globe and Insurtech Gateway.

The company intends to use the funds to accelerate international expansion with target markets including the US, Germany, Australia, and Japan.

Led by CEO Adam Rimmer, FloodFlash is an insurance technology company that combines computer models, cloud software and internet-of-things sensors into flood cover. Customers choose a depth and payout amount for their policy. When flooding reaches the depth selected, the insurance pays out, typically within 48 hours.

FloodFlash is a registered coverholder at Lloyd’s of London and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Amsterdam-based Insify raises €15M to simplify insurance process for European entrepreneurs and SMEs

Insify, an Amsterdam-based digital insurance platform designed for Europe’s entrepreneurs and SMEs, announced on Thursday that it has raised €15M in a Series A round of funding led by global venture firm Accel. 

Other investors, including Visionaries Club, Frontline Ventures, Fly Ventures, and angel investors from European fintech companies, also participated. 

The funding will primarily be used to scale operations, workforce and expand into new markets in Europe, as well as enhance its underwriting and data analytics capabilities.

Koen Thijssen, CEO and founder of Insify, says, “As an entrepreneur myself, I know firsthand that running a small business can be difficult at the best of times. The last thing business owners need is to be overextending themselves with convoluted insurance policies and dealing with excessive premiums. Insurance should be something that supports entrepreneurs, not overwhelms them. We designed our digital insurance platform with the entrepreneur and SMEs at its core.”

Banked adds $20 million to the bank via Bank of America, calculates US expansion plans

Bypassing the exchange of personal details and using biometric authorisations, London fintech Banked has created a Pay by Bank infrastructure that virtually eliminates fraud. Now raising $20 million in a Series A round, the company aims to take on the US.

London’s Banked has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round. The fintech provides an account-to-account payment software platform that virtually eliminates fraud as there is no need to create an account, zero financial details are shared, payment authorisations are biometric. The investment from Bank of America is the telltale sign that the startup is now eying a trans-Atlantic expansion. To date, Banked has raised approximately $30 million.

Although the idea of Banked dates back to 2017, the startup was officially unveiled in November of 2018 and since this time steadily been building a fintech infrastructure that operates within tier 1 banks, payment providers, gateways, and tech platforms allowing them to offer a highly secure Pay by Bank option to their merchants.

Amsterdam-based startup wires $25 million to make insurance accessible for migrants

Tel Aviv and Amsterdam-based financial services platform Rewire is attempting to make the transactions of migrant workers easier and has raised $25 million funding for doing so

Migrant workers face unique hurdles when transferring money back to their home countries, often navigating financial bureaucracies in languages and cultures they do not understand and dealing with complicated financial obligations in multiple countries. These barriers extend to insurance, as well, where migrants face limited access to coverage, unclear policies and even discrimination.

Tel Aviv and Amsterdam-based financial services platform Rewire is attempting to change this and has raised $25 million funding. The round saw participation from Israeli insurance giant Migdal, Standard Bank of South Africa, BNP Paribas, Opera Tech Ventures, Viola Fintech, Moneta Capital Partners, Renegade Partners, OurCrowd, Yehuda Zisapel, former Yahoo Co-Founder and CEO Jerry Yang and additional angel investors.

UK Fintech Vitesse Acquires $26M via Series B to Drive Digitization of Insurance Sector

Vitesse PSP, the payment, liquidity and treasury management platform, recently announced that it has secured $26 million in Series B funding led by Prime Ventures.

The Series B investment round also includes contributions from Octopus Ventures, which led the 2020 Series A round and are one of Europe’s most active VC investors as well as Hannover Digital Investments, the corporate VC fund of HDI Group, one of Europe’s largest insurance firms. Additional participants include existing angel investors and industry giants like Ron Kalifa, OBE, former Worldpay CEO and author of the Kalifa Review and Shane Happach, CEO of Mollie, the Dutch payments unicorn.

Vitesse’s tech serves as the backbone to the financial infrastructure that “runs throughout the insurance value chain, as well as for many corporates who use Vitesse for faster, more cost-effective payments.” Its liquidity and treasury management platform is “built on top of a globally distributed payments network providing control and transparency as well as improved capital efficiency and additional investment returns for its customers.”

Seyna Raises €33M in Series A Funding

Seyna, a Paris, France-based insurtech company, raised €33m in Series A funding.

Pending approval by the French supervisor, this round was jointly led by Elaia Partners and White Star Capital. Existing investors (Global Founders Capital, Allianz and la Financière St James) all participated in the round. This capital brings Seyna’s total funding to €47m.

The company intends to use the funds to scale its service to all brokers and merchants in Europe.

Led by Stephen Leguillon, CEO, Seyna Seyna provides an insurance creation, management and distribution platform for brokers to protect their customers. Since obtaining its licence to operate as an insurance company in December 2019, rhe company now enables over 70 insurance brokerage and retailers, and protects over 200 000 customers.

In 2022, Seyna plans to increase the software feature set offered to brokers, expand into events and health insurance, and start hosting insurance products from other carriers.

Specialist VC launches €50 million fund to back startups based in the Baltics and beyond

Specialist VC (formerly known as United Angels VC) has just announced the first close of a new €50 million fund at €42 million. The main focus of the fund is on pre-seed and seed stage startups and is the first of its kind in the Baltic region to implement a dual strategy of integrating secondary transactions into a traditional venture capital fund. 

Founded in 2017 by Riivo Anton and Gerri Kodres, Specialist VC is an Estonian-based tech investor that focuses on B2B, SaaS, fintech and marketplace startups in the Baltic region. So far, the firm has invested in and built long-term relationships with over 45 tech companies. Specialist VC has unicorns such as Bolt and Veriff in its portfolio, alongside stand-out startups such as Starship, COMODULE, Monese, and NFTPort. 

Meet us at:

4YFN / Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, 1–2 March 2022

InsurTech Insights Europe, London: 15–16 March 2022

Finovate Europe 2022, London: 22–23 March 2022

Money2020 Europe, Amsterdam: 7-9 June 2022 

South Summit 2022, Madrid: 8–10 June 2022

SuperVentures Berlin: 14–15 June 2022

Digital Insurance Agenda, Amsterdam: 29–30 June 2022

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de

IDA Ireland https://www.idaireland.com

Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum

FinTech Innovators https://fintech-i.com/?sumsrc=ftf

FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com

European FinTech deals this week include Billhop, Vivid, Silvr and Selina Finance

We feature Q&As with Matti Rönkkö of Cooler Future and Semih Kacan of Swisscom Ventures

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to us: Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.

 7 Questions with Matti Rönkkö of Cooler Future

1.Tell us a bit about yourself, your background and leisure.

I’m a born and raised Finn but have done most of my career outside of Finland. I am not good at anything, so I have big hopes that soon generalists will be in demand. I am a nature lover; the thicker the forest and the more snow there is, the more I enjoy it.

My career I have built mainly on building and scaling companies. I love the excitement of building something from scratch. In the last few years I have thought a lot about my personal values and the topic of climate change and I decided back in the end of 2017 to make a switch to focus on ways to create a positive impact. That led us into founding Cooler Future back in 2019, to use the skills we have hopefully developed over the years for creating positive climate impact.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-matti-ronkko-of-cooler-future/

7 Questions with Semih Kacan of Swisscom Ventures

1.Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

My name is Semih Kacan, and I am Investment Manager at Swisscom Ventures. I’ve joined Swisscom Ventures at the beginning of 2021 to strengthen the Fintech and Blockchain allocation in the portfolio. Prior to Swisscom Ventures I spent over 10 years in Strategy Consulting, Corporate Strategy, Business Development and Asset Management at Credit Suisse, BearingPoint and Haspa before I co-founded and successfully exited my venture in Zurich. I hold a Master Degree in Corporate Finance from Henley Business School.

I enjoy the time with friends and family and a cup of coffee on sunny days at the beautiful Zurich Lake but also like reading books and watching videos to educate myself about upcoming trends/technologies.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-semih-kacan-of-swisscom-ventures/

Billhop Raises €10.5M in Funding

Billhop, a Stockholm, Sweden-based B2B payments platform, raised €10.5m in funding.

The round was led by EQT Ventures.

The company intends to use the funds for hiring, customer acquisition, and geographical expansion.

Co-founded by Sebastian Andreescu (CEO), Erik Malm (CTO) and Ingemar Sjögren (CFO), Billhop enables businesses to pay supplier invoices using existing cards, regardless of the suppliers’ payment stack, and allow the, to optimize working capital and gain process efficiencies.

The solution manages the complete payment process without having to onboard the end recipient, who is paid through a bank-to-bank transfer, removing barriers to card acceptance in B2B payments (e.g. setting up new card acceptance infrastructure, processing fees).

Billhop serves over 20 markets, catering to Fortune 500 enterprise customers across Europe; and sole traders and SMEs in the UK, Sweden, Netherlands, Italy, Ireland and Finland.

https://www.finsmes.com/2022/02/billhop-raises-e10-5m-in-funding.html

N26 challenger Vivid receives 100 million euros from investors

The Berlin-based start-up bank Vivid is on its way to a billion-dollar valuation. The competitor of the smartphone bank N26 wants to increase its pace of expansion.

The smartphone bank Vivid Money has successfully completed a financing round of 100 million euros. With the new round, the Berlin-based company doubles its valuation to 775 million euros, Vivid announced on Monday. The third round of investments was led by Greenoaks Capital with participation from Ribbit Capital and Softbank Vision Fund 2.

On the one hand, Vivid wants to use the investors’ money to win additional customers. So far, over 500,000 people have signed up for Vivid. However, the account is not actively used by all users. Artem Iamanov, co-founder of Vivid, said the money will also be used to hire additional employees. The financial platform should be expanded into a “super app”.

Vivid not only offers the classic functions of a current account. Customers can also invest their money in stocks, funds and other financial products in the app. In addition, you can also invest in crypto currencies via Vivid. Even after the downturn in the prices of Bitcoin, Ethereum and other coins in recent weeks, interest in crypto currencies remains unbroken. Industry insiders expect that the larger Vivid competitor N26 will also introduce similar investment functions in the foreseeable future.

https://www.wiwo.de/onlinebanken-n26-herausforderer-vivid-erhaelt-100-millionen-euro-von-investoren/28044312.html

French fintech startup Silvr secures €130 million in its mission to support companies to grow

Founded in 2020, French fintech Silvr is reinventing the way entrepreneurs get funded, and they’ve just secured €130 million to do so – one of the largest fundraising operations in the RBF sector in Continental Europe.

The funding was led by XAnge, Otium, Bpifrance, Eurazeo, ISAI and business angels, Alexandre Prot and Steve Anavi (co-founders of Qonto), Raphaël Vullierme (co-founder of Luko), Louis Chatriot (co-founder of Alma) and Pierre Dutaret (co-founder of Libeo).

Silvr works to empower entrepreneurs that are building the businesses of the future by making access to funding easier, more scalable and equity-free. The startup leverages digital businesses data to predict future revenues and offer funding in just 24 hours. Currently, the startup is focusing on two verticals – ecommerce and SaaS.

Headquartered by Paris and created by two serial entrepreneurs Nima Karimi and Grégory Tappero, this new finding comes after a €3 million seed raise in 2021. The startup now has about 20 employees and has already financed more than 100 companies – including Pixpay, Cuure, Poiscaille, Lovys and Partoo.

https://www.eu-startups.com/2022/02/french-fintech-startup-silvr-secures-e130-million-in-its-mission-to-support-companies-to-grow/

UK fintech Selina Finance raises $150m in Series B funding round

Consumer lending fintech Selina Finance has raised a total of $150 million in a Series B round made up of a combination of equity and debt financing.

The firm secured $35 million in equity funding led by Lightrock with additional participation from existing investors.

Additionally, $115 million in debt was secured from Goldman Sachs and GGC to fund further expansion as Selina builds towards going public.

Founded in 2019, Selina describes itself as “the UK’s first Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) fintech”. It enables homeowners to unlock the value in their homes by borrowing against their equity at low interest rates with a flexible line of credit, only paying for the funds they use.

The practice is already widespread in the US, where the market is valued at $150 billion annually.

Since it gained regulatory approval for consumer lending in 2020, Selina says it has made over $100 million (£74m) worth of loans via its HELOC product in the UK.

https://www.fintechfutures.com/2022/02/uk-fintech-selina-finance-raises-150m-in-series-b-funding-round/

BNPL Biller Acquires Banking Circle

AI-powered buy now, pay later (BNPL) service Biller, has acquired and “joined” Banking Circle.

Biller states that it will benefit from immediate access to the firm’s technology infrastructure, financial resources, payment rails, and licenses to accelerate its European expansion.

Banking Circle is a provider of financial infrastructure that is said to provide Biller with access to “fronting banking services” and “account infrastructure” while Banking Circle will support Biller’s growth plans.

Biller, based in Amsterdam, offers an AI-driven payment method that allows business buyers to order online and pay directly while performing real-time credit and fraud checks along with an automated debt management service.

Biller was founded by three former managers of Mollie and Klarna, and Dutch venture studio, Slimmer AI. The Biller founders state they were operational and live with their first customer in just three months.

Biller now expects to boost its European expansion plans covering the UK, Germany, Belgium, and Nordics in the first half of 2022. Full European coverage is expected to be achieved within 12-24 months.

https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2022/02/186390-bnpl-biller-acquires-banking-circle/

Amsterdam’s Connected Capital closes €154 million fund to boost European B2B SaaS startups

Connected Capital, a leading investor focused on rapidly growing B2B SaaS businesses, has just closed its oversubscribed Fund 11 at a total of €154 million, bringing the firms total committed capital to over €200 million. 

After a massive 2021 for European tech, we are seeing more and more of these big funds being announced by European VC’s – it’s a good sign of things to come for the year, fresh money boosting fresh innovation and ambition.

2021 was a record-breaking year for the European tech startup ecosystem, and European innovation is captivating attention across the world for its dynamic and progressive energy. Amsterdam-based Connected Capital is reaffirming its commitment to growth and buy-out investment in European B2B SaaS businesses with this fund, which is 3x the size of its previous fund.

https://www.eu-startups.com/2022/02/amsterdams-connected-capital-closes-e154-million-fund-to-boost-european-b2b-saas-startups/

Meet us at:

4YFN / Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, 1–2 March 2022

InsurTech Insights Europe, London: 15–16 March 2022

Finovate Europe 2022, London: 22–23 March 2022

South Summit 2022, Madrid: 8–10 June 2022

SuperVentures Berlin: 14–15 June 2022

Digital Insurance Agenda, Amsterdam: 29–30 June 2022

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de

IDA Ireland https://www.idaireland.com

Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum

FinTech Innovators https://fintech-i.com/?sumsrc=ftf

FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com

European FinTech deals this week include Laka, Circula, Tumm, PennyLane, Moss, Descartes Underwriting and Wayflyer

We feature Q&As with Philipp Buschmann of AAZZUR and Hala Zahran of Arab Bank

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to us: Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.

 7 Questions with Philipp Buschmann of AAZZUR

1.Tell us a bit about yourself, your background and leisure.

I am an entrepreneur, a husband and passionate about fintech. At my first job at Razorfish I helped build trading tech for State Street Bank; as a strategy consultant I helped design the portal for online banking at Sparkasse and as an entrepreneur have helped lenders and challenger banks get launched.

My personal passion is cooking and snowboarding. One is good for the head (almost like a meditation) and the other is good at enjoyment and hurting myself on the slopes. These I think are natural Austrian hobbies: eat, drink and ski!

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-philipp-buschmann-of-aazzur/

Questions with Hala Zahran of Arab Bank

1.Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

I am an early stage investor focusing on FinTech primarily B2C in MENA and B2B globally. I also spend a lot of time thinking and reading about the future of finance and ways technology can close the wealth gap across the globe and improve lives. I am a strong believer in the power of many, and the depth and breadth of the impact collaborative ecosystems and communities can have. I seek such opportunities

http://www.fintechforum.de/questions-with-hala-zahran-of-arab-bank/

UK’s mobility insurtech startup Laka secures €10.6M from Ponooc, ABN AMRO, others

London-based Laka, a peer-to-peer bicycle insurance platform that insures bicycles and cycling equipment against theft or damage, announced on Wednesday that it has raised $12M (approx €10.6M) in its Series A round of funding. Prior to this, the company had raised €4.29M in funding, in February 2020.

According to a statement, the e-mobility sector is set to grow further as consumers and commercial businesses turn to cleaner forms of transport. With 19 per cent of commuters now likely to cycle to work after the lockdowns due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the retail mobility market has a strong growth outlook. Laka aims to capitalise on this year-on-year sector growth.

https://siliconcanals.com/news/startups/travel-mobility/laka-secures-10-6m/

Berlin-based employee finance app, Circula, scores €12 million and plans international expansion

SaaS fintech startup Circula has today announced the close of a €12 million funding round for its employee finance app that is bringing more time and money to employees. The funding includes participation from ALSTIN Capital, Peak, and Storm Ventures.  Existing investors Capnamic, Main Incubator and WENVEST Capital are also participating again. 

The Berlin-based startup offers companies a comprehensive employee finance app that can be used by employees to digitally process expenses (e.g allowance and travel costs), and use employee benefits in a tax-compliant manner.  It also provides employees with corporate credit cards with real credit lines, cashback and real-time statements, seamlessly integrated with Circula workflows.

Founded in 2017, Circula offers mid-sized and large companies alike a consolidated platform for managing expenses, credit card payments and corporate benefits in the areas that are important to every employee: meals, mobility and home office. The product reflects the current changes in the working world: simplicity, automation and appreciation are not only reflected in the expectations for modern products but also for employee experiences.

https://www.eu-startups.com/2022/01/berlin-based-employee-finance-app-circula-scores-e12-million-and-plans-international-expansion/

Tuum Raises €15M in Series A Funding

Tuum, a Tallinn, Estonia-based core banking platform, raised €15m in Series A funding.

The round was led by Portage Ventures joined by existing investors Blackfin Capital Partners and Karma Ventures.

The company intends to use the funds to continue investing in product innovation and support global growth, focusing initially on strengthening its EU and UK presence, and to make investment in its team, projecting to double the team to 140 employees by the end of 2022. 

The new funding announcement follows a robust year of growth, with Tuum’s contracted annual recurring revenue increasing more than 3 times in 2021 compared to the previous year. 

Founded in 2019 and led by CEO Vilve Vene, Tuum is a next-generation core banking technology provider. Its API-first, cloud-agnostic and highly configurable banking platform covers all retail and business banking processes, allowing banks, fintech startups or even non-financial companies to easily roll out customer-centric financial solutions. The modularity aspect enables each company to pick and choose the exact capabilities they wish to start with and always add additional ones in the future.

https://www.finsmes.com/2022/01/tuum-raises-e15m-in-series-a-funding.html

French fintech Pennylane raises €50 million to accelerate expansion of its financial OS for European SMBs and accounting firms

Launched in 2020, Pennylane is continuing its journey of fast-paced growth with a fresh funding boost of €50 million just secured. The company wants to become the leading financial OS on the European market, enabling thousands of small businesses to centralize their financial management in a single tool. 

This latest round of funding for the Parisian fintech comes from existing investors Sequoia Capital, Global Founders Capital and Partech and will make Pennyland one of the only platforms combining a complete software solution for accountants and a financial management tool for VSEs/SMEs.

Since raising €15 million last year, the French startup has seen incredible progress in its mission to help companies regain control of their finances. We also reckoned they were one to watch last year.  Over the past few months, it has built and delivered a unique solution to the market: a platform that combines a complete software solution for accountants and management and a decision-making tool for company managers. Pennylane also provides small and medium-sized businesses with the ability to manage their cash flow, pay their clients, use numerous integrations, and exchange information with their accountants in real-time.

The company now has 180 employees representing 20 nationalities, with a plan to grow to 500 employees by the end of the year, creating one of the largest tech teams seen in the European account-tech industry. To drive this recruitment effort they have a 15 person talent team and crucially they operate as remote-first throughout Europe for their technical team. With almost half of the developers recruited in 2021  located in Spain, Germany or Romania, Pennylane has developed a highly successful remote-first working culture.  

https://www.eu-startups.com/2022/01/french-fintech-pennylane-raises-e50-million-to-accelerate-expansion-of-its-financial-os-for-european-smbs-and-accounting-firms/

German fintech start-up Moss secures $86m Series B funding at $573m valuation

Berlin-based spend management start-up Moss has raised €75 million ($86 million) in Series B financing.

Moss has raised around $149m in total funding

The round was led by US VC firm Tiger Global with participation from A-Star and comes just six months after a $29 million Series A extension round led by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures.

The firm says it has doubled the size of its team and quadrupled its number of customers in the months since its last round.

Moss has now raised around €130 million ($149 million) in total funding, and this latest cash injection takes the company’s valuation to over €500 million ($573 million).

The start-up offers corporate credit cards and spend management software for start-ups and small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Moss claims to have dished out more than 20,000 physical and virtual credit cards since its launch in 2020, processing more than 250,000 transactions.

Initially only available in Germany, the fintech expanded its services to the Netherlands last year, and now has its eyes set on further growth into the UK market.

The firm says it plans to launch in the UK in the “next few months”, with other markets set to follow “later this year”.

Moss adds the new funds will also be used for further product development, with a focus on “spend controlling, liquidity planning and accounting automation”, as well as expanding its team “significantly” in the areas of product, technology, marketing and sales.

https://www.fintechfutures.com/2022/01/german-fintech-start-up-moss-secures-86m-series-b-funding-at-573m-valuation/

Index-based insurance provider Descartes Underwriting triggers $120 million in new funding

Parisian insurtech Descartes Underwriting has raised $120 million in a Series B funding round. The company is specifically helping corporate customers mitigate their exposure to climate-related and emerging risks through a number of parametric insurance products. The new funding will be used to further develop its technology platform, expand new business verticals, and continue global expansion plans. Since 2019, Descartes Underwriting has raised a total of $122.8 million.

According to a 2019 report from the UN’s International Labour Organization, “80 million jobs would be at risk if rising temperature predictions materialize, with productivity impacted by unlivable working environments.” Couple that with a Nature report that noted, “the U.S. alone could lose $520 billion across 22 sectors due to global temperature rise,” and connecting the dots begins to become a much easier exercise.

Taking on one of the insurance industry’s traditional methods, catastrophe (CAT) risk modeling, Descartes Underwriting is leveraging new data sources and fusing them with a host of AI algorithms to provide what they refer to as a “product offering which covers the full spectrum of natural catastrophes and emerging risk exposures.”

Working in tandem with corporate brokers Descartes Underwriting and its team of 50 engineers and data scientists, offer over 200 corporate clients, many in the Fortune 500, fully tailored insurance solutions to provide adequate insurances in a rapidly changing environment, both physically and on the markets.

https://tech.eu/brief/index-based-insurance-provider-descartes-underwriting-triggers-120-million-in-new-funding/

Revenue-based financing platform Wayflyer brings in $150 million, now at $1.6 billion valuation

Dublin-based revenue-based financing platform Wayflyer has raised $150 million in an all-equity Series B funding round, and in doing so, joins the unicorn club at a $1.6 billion valuation. A portion of the funding is slated to be used to double the startups’ headcount to a robust 500+ staff within the next six to nine months, as well as increase the amount of capital it is able to provide to qualified clients. Since October of 2020 Wayflyer has raised approximately $336 million.

Wayflyer is now the sixth home-grown unicorn for the Emerald Isle, and the fastest to achieve unicorn status, having garnered the title in just 2.5 years.

Much like their competitors, Wayflyer provides non-dilutive, revenue-based debt funding to fledgling companies, and in the case of e-commerce, paves the way for the advanced purchasing of inventory. I.e. working capital.

Having only gone live in April of 2020, Wayflyer has distributed over $500 million to qualified businesses, with 2021’s year-over-year number rising a staggering 900 percent, and typically issues a ticket size ranging between $10,000 and $20 million. The company counts a healthy 800 customers across 11 countries and has a staff of approximately 250 working from Dublin, London, New York, Atlanta, and Sydney.

https://tech.eu/brief/revenue-based-financing-platform-wayflyer-brings-in-150-million-now-at-1-6-billion-valuation/

BitMEX’s Acquisition of Bankhaus von der Heydt is Another Step in the Rehabilitation of the Crypto Trading Platform

Last week, BitMEX announced its intent to acquire Bankhaus von der Heydt. The deal is actually structured so that BXM Operations AG, founded by BitMEX CEO  Alexander Höptner and CFO Stephan Lutz, will acquire the bank located in Munich, Germany. While the purchase is subject to the standard approvals of BaFin, the acquisition should propel BitMEX forward in its quest to offer a regulatory compliant crypto exchange operating in Europe. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 1745, Bankhaus von der Heydt has been open to Fintech innovation. Last fall, the privately-owned bank announced a partnership with Fireblocks to expand into digital assets and provide crypto custody.

For BitMEX, it aims to offer a single location for regulated crypto in Europe, and around the world,  starting with DACH countries.

https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2022/01/186062-bitmexs-acquisition-of-bankhaus-von-der-heydt-is-another-step-in-the-rehabilitation-of-the-crypto-trading-platform/

Focusing on European marketplace startups, DutchFounders close second fund at €62 million

Amsterdam-based DutchFounders has announced the close of their second fund at €62 million, a figure nearly quadruple the first fund which clocked in at €16.7 million. The boutique firm places a specialist emphasis on supporting European marketplace platforms, with 70% of its pre-seed and seed-stage funding reserved specifically for this geography.

While DutchFounders is reaffirming its commitment to marketplace platforms, with this iteration, supply chain services, including technologies that enable frictionless transactions, such as fintech solutions or web3 applications, are at the top of the list.

DutchFounders, or Dutch Founders Fund, was established in the late summer of 2018 and consists of a cooperative that includes ​​successful Dutch entrepreneurs Laurens Groenendijk (Just Eat, Treatwell, Miinto, Hiber), Patrick Kerssemakers (fonQ), Bas Beerens (WeTransfer), Hidde Hoogcarspel (Spacebuzz) and Remco van Zanten (Booking.com, Zalando, Vinted and BCG).

“Besides efficiency gains, a marketplace allows for a more equitable distribution of resources. Not so long ago, the rules were set by the dominant player. Now, people can track their orders, compare reviews, and bargain for a better price, which has created a level playing field for both supply and demand,” elaborated Groenendijk.

https://tech.eu/brief/focusing-on-european-marketplace-startups-dutchfounders-close-second-fund-at-e62-million/

Meet us at:

4YFN / Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, 1–2 March 2022

InsurTech Insights Europe, London: 15–16 March 2022

Finovate Europe 2022, London: 22–23 March 2022

South Summit 2022, Madrid: 8–10 June 2022

SuperVentures Berlin: 14–15 June 2022

Digital Insurance Agenda, Amsterdam: 29–30 June 2022

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de

IDA Ireland https://www.idaireland.com

Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum

FinTech Innovators https://fintech-i.com/?sumsrc=ftf

FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com

European FinTech deals this week include Banxware and Global Processing Service

We feature Q&As with Hussam EL-Sheikh of 9fin and Karim Rabbani of RGAX

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to us: Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.

 7 Questions with Hussam EL-Sheikh, 9fin

1.Tell us a bit about yourself, your background and leisure.

Hey I’m Huss, CTO & Co-founder of 9fin. I think I’d describe myself as an engineer in every sense of the word. So, via a degree in Aerospace Engineering, taking apart my siblings’ toys as a child, learning programming at school from age 12, I find myself now running a technology startup serving up news, data and analysis to the financial markets. I love Formula 1, and it’s been a very stressful (but exciting) 2021 championship this year. I’m trying to get better at badminton after taking it up for the first time a couple of years ago… At least my height lets me get away with not being any good yet!

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-hussam-el-sheikh-of-9fin/

7 Questions with Karim Rabbani of RGAX

1.Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

I’m a Senior Analyst in the Ventures & Acquisitions team of RGAX, based out of Amsterdam. RGAX is the transformation engine of RGA, promoting and accelerating innovation within the Life and Health insurance sectors by means of organic and inorganic initiatives. RGA is one of the largest global life and health reinsurance companies.

I joined the organization in 2018 to support the EMEA region on deal sourcing activities, executing partnerships and managing our portfolio of 30+ startups globally.

Prior to joining RGAX I worked in Corporate Banking at ABN AMRO and in Port Logistics at the Port of Rotterdam. I hold a Master Degree in Business Management from Cass Business School in London and a Corporate Communication’s Master from the University of Amsterdam.

Personally, I enjoy travelling and experiencing new cultures. I’m also a sports fan and play soccer and squash. In addition, I volunteer for a foundation that promotes dialogue and understanding between the Arab World and Europe through education.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-karim-rabbani-of-rgax/

Embedded finance fintech Banxware raises EUR 10 million in seed expansion round

Germany-based embedded finance fintech Banxware has announced raising EUR 10 million in a seed expansion round led by Element Ventures. 

Co-investors included D4 Ventures, FinVC, and Varengold Bank AG and Banxware’s existing investors Force over Mass, VR Ventures and HTGF significantly increased their investments in this round. In February 2021, the company already collected EUR 4 million and the leading investors at the time were UK-based venture capitalist Force over Mass and VR Ventures.

Banxware sees itself as a lending-as-a-service provider and its solution enables digital platforms as well as marketplaces and payment service providers to offer their business customers embedded financing products in real-time. The United Volksbank Raiffeisenbank is the first bank partner to provide a total of EUR 100 million in credit for SMEs. According to a Banxware representative, the capital injection will be used to further develop the offer, enlarge the team and expand product development, sales and marketing to digital platforms across Europe.

https://thepaypers.com/online-mobile-banking/embedded-finance-fintech-banxware-raises-eur-10-million-in-seed-expansion-round–1253859

Founded in 2019, Element Ventures has backed some of the best founders and companies in the industry over the last decade and had the privilege of investing with the world’s leading financial services and venture firms.

Global Processing Services adds $100 million to the pile, closes round at $400 million

London-based Global Processing Services has announced an additional $100 million raise, adding on to an already impressive $300 million round. The funding is slated to be used in further R&D projects as the company aims to remain at the forefront of powering some of the world’s leading fintechs that include Revolut, Curve, Starling Bank, Zilch, WeLab Bank, and Paidy. Since 2018 GPS has raised a total of $458 million.

Providing a host of underpinning services including virtual cards, mobile wallet solutions, real-time transaction data, chargeback facilitation, and the list goes on and on, GPS might not be a household name, but chances are you’ve indirectly used one of their products within the past few years.

In so much, through its customers and partners, the company is active in 48 countries and has issued over 190 million physical and virtual cards, and last year processed more than 1.3 billion transactions.

Adding on to an impressive track record, GPS has also scored a win in the recent appointment of Gene Lockhart as chair of the GPS board. Lockhart, chair and general partner at investor MissionOG will be able to provide valuable insight to the company as he formerly served as CEO and president at Mastercard International and president of the global retail bank at Bank of America.

Global Processing Services’ additional $100 million in funding was provided by Temasek and MissionOG who follow the lead investment from Advent International and Viking Global.

https://tech.eu/brief/global-processing-services-adds-100-million-to-the-pile-closes-round-at-400-million/

Incorporated in 1974, Temasek is an investment company headquartered in Singapore. Supported by 13 offices internationally, Temasek owns a net portfolio value of S$381 billion (US$283 billion) as at 31 March 2021. Their portfolio covers a broad spectrum of sectors, including: financial services; telecommunications, media & technology; transportation & industrials; consumer & real estate; life sciences & agribusiness; as well as energy & resources. 

Headquartered in Pennsylvania, MissionOG partners with high-growth businesses that have proven models in segments where we have had success as operators and investors, including financial services and payments, data platforms, and software. 

Levenue acquires Amsterdam-based fintech company Requr to consolidate its position in RBF market

Levenue, a revenue-based finance marketplace, announced that it has acquired Amsterdam-based fintech company Requr for an undisclosed fee. With this move, Levenue aims to capitalise on the growing popularity of Revenue-Based-Financing (RBF). 

For the uninitiated, RBF is a way to raise funds based on the company’s revenues. Companies that opt for RBF will have to pledge a part of their annual revenue in exchange for capital. In this case, founders do not have to give up equity or collateral.

Levenue says the acquisition of Requr has consolidated its position as the “one-stop go-to funding solution” for all European subscription-based businesses. 

Requr’s founders have emphasised that they believe their data flow, underwriting, and data analysis model will work well with Levenue’s technological capabilities, international team, marketing strategy, and experience.

The acquisition follows Levenue’s expansion into the Nordics after successful launches in the Benelux and the UK.

https://siliconcanals.com/news/startups/levenue-acquires-requr/

Tandem Bank Acquires Manchester based Oplo, a Consumer Lending Platform

Tandem Bank has reportedly acquired consumer lending platform Oplo.

The strategic acquisition has formed a combined business with £1.2 billion of total assets, £1 billion of funding and 171,000 clients being serviced by a UK-headquartered team of 500 professionals.

Tandem was established back in 2014 as one of the United Kingdom’s first digital banking challengers. Over the years, the firm has undergone several key changes in order to establish a profitable business model. The firm acquired Harrods Bank back in 2018, closing down its credit card business in 2020 and repositioning itself as a “green” lender with the acquisition of Allium Lending Group a few years back.

https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2022/01/185504-tandem-bank-acquires-manchester-based-oplo-a-consumer-lending-platform/

Meet us at:

InsurTech Insights Europe, London: 15-16 March 2022 https://www.insurtechinsights.com/europe/

Finovate Europe 2022, London: 22-23 March 2022 https://informaconnect.com/finovateeurope/

South Summit 2022, Madrid: 8-10 June 2022 https://www.southsummit.co/

SuperVentures Berlin: 14-15 June 2022 https://informaconnect.com/superventure/

Digital Insurance Agenda, Amsterdam: 29-30 June 2022 https://next.digitalinsuranceagenda.com/dia-amsterdam-2022/

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de

IDA Ireland https://www.idaireland.com

Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum

FinTech Innovators https://fintech-i.com/?sumsrc=ftf

FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com

European FinTech deals this week include Sygnum and PrimaryBid

We feature Q&As with Daniel Andemeskel of Universal-Investment and Kristoffer Borg Petersen of Hufsy

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to us: Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.

 7 Questions with Daniel Andemeskel of Universal-Investment

1.Tell us a bit about yourself, your background and leisure.

Hello, I am Daniel Andemeskel, Director and Head of Innovation Management at Universal-Investment. I am currently responsible for the Group’s innovation agenda while at the same time developing the next generation investment platform for digital assets, leveraging on Blockchain and AI. Prior to joining Universal-Investment, I gained over 20 years’ experience in investment management in several functions. My motto is to envision new innovations instead of building faster horses (just like the famous quote of Henry Ford) which is why I enjoy speaking at international conferences and panels on innovation and digital transformation. Besides, I am a member of several Blockchain consortiums and forums and like to initiate collaborations on Blockchain.

Work aside, in my personal life I like to travel and discover new cultures and countries. Alongside my passion for cooking and wine. To compensate my full calendar, I am trying to do as much sports as possible, frequent morning runs are my favorite. This is rounded up with the fact that I am an early bird (waking up every morning between 4:30am and 5:00am). I use these morning hours for the innovation visioning and creative part of my job.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-daniel-andemeskel-of-universal-investment/

7 Questions with Kristoffer Borg Petersen, Hufsy

1.Please tell us a bit about yourself and Hufsy.

I’m Kristoffer and I’m the CEO of Hufsy. I’m overall responsible for running the business both in our HQ in Copenhagen as well as our office in Berlin. Prior to working with Hufsy I spent many years in the digital media business. I have worked for Microsoft and Bonnier Publications amongst others. My focus has always been commercial whether it has been sales management or business development and I bring my experience from the more corporate world to the start-up world of Hufsy.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-kristoffer-borg-petersen-hufsy/

Swiss digital asset bank Sygnum secures €79.5M funding, eyes global expansion

Sygnum, a Zurich-based digital asset bank, and trading platform, announced on Thursday that it has raised $90M (approx €79.5M) funding in an oversubscribed Series B funding round. 

Sun Hung Kai & Co. Limited, a Hong Kong-listed alternative investment financial services institution, led the round.

Other new and existing investors such as Meta Investments, Animoca Brands, Wemade, SBI Holdings, and Siam Commercial Bank’s digital investment arm, SCB 10X, also participated in the round. 

The round also saw the participation of a large group of employees as personal investors, claims the company in a press release. The Series B round gives Sygnum a post-money valuation of $800M (approx €707M). 

https://siliconcanals.com/news/startups/sygnum-secures-79-5m/

Sun Hung Kai & Co. Limited (SEHK: 86) is a leader in alternative investing headquartered in Hong Kong. Since its establishment in 1969, the Group has owned and operated market-leading platforms in Financial Services. The Group invests across public markets, alternatives and real assets and has an established track record of generating long-term risk adjusted returns for its shareholders. 

British fintech PrimaryBid close to finalising $150 mln funding from SoftBank – Sky News

Jan 8 (Reuters) – British fintech company PrimaryBid is close to finalising the details of a $150 million funding round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund II, Sky News reported on Saturday.

The Series C fund-raising was likely to value the company at more than $500 million on a pre-money basis, Sky News said, citing sources.

PrimaryBid’s latest capital-raising will take the total sum it has raised since it was founded in 2016 to more than $200 million, the report said.

The funding from Softbank’s Vision Fund II will provide PrimaryBid with “greater financial firepower” to continue its expansion beyond the UK, Sky News said.

SoftBank and PrimaryBid were not immediately available for comment outside business hours.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/british-fintech-primarybid-close-finalising-150-mln-funding-softbank-sky-news-2022-01-08/

Through the SoftBank Vision Funds, SoftBank Investment Advisers, headquartered in London, are investing in more than $100 billion in the businesses and technologies. They offer the operational expertise, global network and patient capital required to help exceptional founders build market-leading companies.

Meet us at:

InsurTech Insights Europe, London: 15-16 March 2022 https://www.insurtechinsights.com/europe/

Finovate Europe 2022, London: 22-23 March 2022 https://informaconnect.com/finovateeurope/

South Summit 2022, Madrid: 8-10 June 2022 https://www.southsummit.co/

SuperVentures Berlin: 14-15 June 2022 https://informaconnect.com/superventure/

Digital Insurance Agenda, Amsterdam: 29-30 June 2022 https://next.digitalinsuranceagenda.com/dia-amsterdam-2022/

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de

IDA Ireland https://www.idaireland.com

Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum

FinTech Innovators https://fintech-i.com/?sumsrc=ftf

FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com

European FinTech deals this week include Ibancar

We feature Q&As with Spiros Margaris of Margaris Ventures and Dirk Soehnholz of Soehnholz ESG GmbH

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to us: Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar

 7 Questions with Spiros Margaris, Margaris Ventures 

1.Tell us a bit about yourself, your background and leisure.

My name is Spiros Margaris, and I am a venture capitalist (VC) and the founder of Margaris Ventures. I have been in the investment business for quite some time, with more than 25 years of international experience in investment management/research and startups. In my role as a VC, I also act as an advisor to my globally spread FinTech and InsurTech startup portfolio. I am the first international influencer to achieve ‘The Triple Crown’ of influencer rankings by being ranked the global No. 1 FinTech, artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain influencer by Onalytica in 2018. I am very fortunate to regularly appear in the top three positions of the established global industry influencer rankings due to the generous support of great FinTech industry friends and participants. In 2017, I had the opportunity to give a speech at the TEDxAcademy Talk. In addition, for the enterprise software vendor SAP, I wrote an AI white paper, ‘Machine learning in financial services: Changing the rules of the game’.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-spiros-margaris-margaris-ventures/

7 Questions with Prof. Dr. Dirk Soehnholz, Soehnholz ESG GmbH

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

After my business studies in Germany and the US, I started my career as a management consultant. In 1999, together with a German multi-family office, I started an alternative investment fund of funds advisor. From 2012 to 2015, I was executive board member of a mutual fund company focusing on portfolios of index funds and we started three responsible Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) funds. In 2016, I started my own company Diversifkator. The focus is on pure and customized ESG portfolios.

My hobbies are table tennis, reading and writing.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-prof-dr-dirk-soehnholz-diversifikator/

Ibancar Raises €10M in Funding

Ibancar, a Madrid, Spain-based provider of a credit platform for consumers, received a debt facility up to an amount of €10m.

The round was led by Knuru Capital.

The facility has been led by global venture capital and private credit investor Knuru Capital and will allow the platform to fund its growing loan book and continue its explosive growth trajectory. The facility will complement Ibancars existing and ongoing debt funding from crowdlending marketplaces. The company intends to use the funds to scale fast in Spain, expand its activity to Mexico as well as launch other auto related credit products.

Led by Alex Melis, founder and CEO, Ibancar provides an asset based consumer credit platform that makes affordable online loans available to the full social and credit spectrum of borrowers with a focus on ethical and inclusive lending practices. Its use of cars as collateral also allows it to bring underbanked, unbanked and credit invisible borrowers into the online consumer finance market.

https://www.finsmes.com/2021/12/ibancar-raises-e10m-in-funding.html

Headquartered in Dubai, Knuru is a venture capital investor deploying transformative capital into growth stage technology businesses globally with a particular interest in the financial services industry and emerging markets.

Tink Completes Acquisition of FinTecSystems

Tink, a Swedish open banking platform, completed the acquisition of FinTecSystems, a Germany based open banking infrastructure fintech companyy, following regulatory approval.

The amount of the deal was not disclosed.

Following the acquisition, the combination of Tink’s pan-European open banking platform and FinTecSystems’ product suite and expertise in the DACH market, will offer both local and international customers in the region a xomprehensive solution when partnering for open banking technology.

The completed acquisition also brings fintech and banking customers to Tink, including N26, DKB, Santander, Solarisbank and Check24. FinTecSystems’ 78 employees become part of the Tink organization, with the new DACH management team including René Sauer, Hannes Rogall and Caroline Jenke alongside Tink’s Cyrosch Kalateh.

Through this completed acquisition, Tink now increases its total number of employees to almost 600. FinTecSystems will continue to function as an independent, regulated company in Germany.

Founded in 2012 in Stockholm, Tink is an open banking platform that enables banks, fintechs and startups to develop data-driven financial services. Through one API, the system allows customers to access aggregated financial data, initiate payments, enrich transactions, verify account ownership and build personal finance management tools. Tink connects to more than 3,400 banks that reach over 250 million bank customers across Europe. The company serves more than 300 banks and fintechs in 18 European markets, out of offices in 13 countries.

https://www.finsmes.com/2021/12/tink-completes-acquisition-of-fintecsystems.html

ACE & Company Closes Fourth Buyout Co-Investment Fund, at $244M

ACE & Company, a Geneva, Switzerland-based global investment firm, closed its fourth private equity co-investment fund, at $244m.

Led by Rob Callahan, Head of ACE Buyout Strategy, ABO IV will continue the strategy of its predecessor funds, supporting high caliber sponsors in their core areas of expertise. While the fund has a North American focus, it will include 20 to 25 companies diversified by sector, size, deal archetype and general partner. The fund will identify and pursue the best opportunities across the private equity universe.

The firm’s buyout program has completed over 70 co-investments since 2011.

Led by Adam Said, Founder and CEO, ACE & Company is a global investment group specialized in private investments with total assets of over $1.6 bn across three investment strategies and investment solutions. Headquartered in Geneva with offices in London, New York, Hong Kong, and Cairo, ACE’s global presence brings the company in direct contact with sourcing partners, investment firms, as well as entrepreneurs and provides investors unparalleled access to a network of opportunities.

https://www.finsmes.com/2021/12/ace-company-closes-fourth-buyout-co-investment-fund-at-244m.html

Meet us at:

InsurTech Insights Europe, London: 15-16 March 2022 https://www.insurtechinsights.com/europe/

Finovate Europe 2022, London: 22-23 March 2022 https://informaconnect.com/finovateeurope/

South Summit 2022, Madrid: 8-10 June 2022 https://www.southsummit.co/

SuperVentures Berlin: 14-15 June 2022 https://informaconnect.com/superventure/

Digital Insurance Agenda, Amsterdam: 29-30 June 2022 https://next.digitalinsuranceagenda.com/dia-amsterdam-2022/

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de

IDA Ireland https://www.idaireland.com

Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum

FinTech Innovators https://fintech-i.com/?sumsrc=ftf

FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com

European FinTech deals this week include Numeral, Silverflow, Pliant, Re:cap and Modifi

We feature Q&As with Enrique Lizaso Olmos of Multiverse Computing and Paula Blazquez Solano of InnoCells (Banco Sabadell)

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar

FinTech Rising Stars 2021 – nicht verpassen

Der jährliche Online-Report der Szene. Junge FinTech- & InsurTech-Startups aus Deutschland und Österreich, die aktuell den Markt erobern. Rising Stars kommt 2021 das erste Mal heraus. Und ab sofort jährlich im Herbst. Jedes Jahr die neuesten FinTechs/InsurTechs zu entdecken, die im aktuellen Jahr auf den Markt kamen. Und die Trends und Entwicklungen der anderen jungen FinTechs/InsurTechs (die schon in den Jahren davor gelauncht sind — im Report bei jedem Startup steht zB: welche Meilensteine sie in den letzten 12 Monaten erreicht haben, was sie im nächsten Jahr planen, welche Kontakte sie aktuell suchen, etc.)

https://fintech-i.com/report21mb

7 Questions with Enrique Lizaso Olmos of Multiverse Computing

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

Multiverse Computing. Largest European Quantum Software Company. Backed by the European Investment Council and large VC. Third largest in the world after two American not-so-much-larger competitors. Delivering solutions to financial problems in optimization, machine-learning and pricing that are not correctly answered (or even not answered) with classical computers. Problems that range from $200-300 to $3B in impact in net income. Working for large customers (Top 10 Banks in the world), appeared in the Boston Consulting Group reports, The Economist, Forbes… Single European Company in McKinsey’s Quantum global Technology Council. 24 new patents/year, 34 people now, we are nearly 3 yr old!
Me: Mathematician, 20+ yr in finance (also Computer Engineer, PhD in biostatistics, MBA from IESE Business School -and also MD, yep). I can just speak when my Physics cofounders let me do

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-enrique-lizaso-olmos-of-multiverse-computing/

7 Questions with Paula Blazquez Solano of InnoCells (Banco Sabadell)

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

My name is Paula Blazquez, I lead the Corporate Investment Vehicle of Banco Sabadell, the 4th largest private bank in Spain. At InnoCells, we invest in Fintech related startups across the globe, from seed to series A (tickets between $500k up to $3M). I have worked in venture capital most of my career, having worked for a listed Venture Debt fund based out of Palo Alto, California and later on in a venture fund based in Madrid with a focus on Latam, Spain and India prior to joining InnoCells. I am a proud advisor, investor and Board Member in several Fintech startups.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-paula-blazquez-solano-of-innocells-banco-sabadell/

Addressing the bank payments bottleneck, Numeral raises €13 million

After only six months since its inception, Paris-based Numeral has raised €13 million. The company provides a payment operations automation service specifically targeted at tech companies operating in a variety of industries. The funding will be used to grow the team size from 10 to 40 over the coming months, continue product development, and augment its bank coverage.
Co-founded by Édouard Mandon (previously at Ibanfirst and Jumia) and Hichem Mâalmi (previously at Qonto and Boursorama Banque), Numeral is the newest startup arising from Logic Founders, a joint venture between Camille Tyan and eFounders.
The startup is working on an API and web app solution that allows tech companies to automate payments from creation to reconciliation through a direct bank link. The API side of the offer gives developers the tools to integrate payment options within their own productions, while the web app can be used by the finance and operations teams to keep tabs on the books and make sure payments and accounts are all up to date.

https://tech.eu/brief/addressing-the-bank-payments-bottleneck-numeral-raises-e13-million/

Balderton Capital is a venture capital firm based in London, UK, that invests in early-stage, technology and internet startup companies in Europe. It is considered to be among the four-biggest venture capital firms in the English capital.

Amsterdam-based fintech startup Silverflow raises €15M; plans to grow its team in next 2 years

Amsterdam-based fintech startup Silverflow announced that it has raised $17M (approx €15M) in its Series A round of funding led by Coatue Management.
The round also saw participation from existing investors Crane Venture Partners and INKEF Capital, along with Global Paytech Ventures. In addition, angel investors Jason Gardner, founder and CEO of Marqeta, and Gokul Rajaram, a former Square product lead and current Coinbase board member, also invested in this round.
Michael Gilroy, General Partner at Coatue, says, “The Founder-market fit is the first thing we noted when looking at the Silverflow team. The depth of experience within payments gives this team a unique perspective from which to solve a problem plaguing the industry – outdated infrastructure. The platform is built for the payments industry of today, and has the scalability, flexibility, and usability its partners need.”

https://siliconcanals.com/crowdfunding/silverflow-raises-15m/

New York based Coatue Management LLC is a global investment manager focused on public and private companies in the technology, media and telecommunications industries. Coatue invests in public and private markets with a focus on technology, media, telecommunications. the consumer and healthcare sectors

Berlin-based pliant scores €18 million for its corporate credit card solution

Just 4 months after announcing its first seed round, Berlin-based pliant has closed €18 million for its corporate credit card. The funding was led by Alstin Capital, Main Incubator and Saber, with participation from Ramin Niroumand.
Pliant offers a flexible corporate credit card solution that focuses on seamless integrations into existing processes, alongside providing fully digital card management and cashback. The fintech startup was founded in 2020 by Malte Rau and Fabian Terner.
The young company aims to offer customers an optimal solution through adopting a technology-first approach. The credit card solution can be combined with other SaaS offerings – namely in the areas of accounting, travel expense, and, invoice management. In doing so, pliant is pioneering a flexible credit card solution for companies.
The flexibility of pliant means that its product can individually adapt to the needs, processes and structures of both scaling and established companies. Seamless integration removes the headache that normally arises for companies bringing in new technology to their processes.

https://www.eu-startups.com/2021/12/berlin-based-pliant-scores-e18-million-for-its-corporate-credit-card-solution/

ALSTIN Capital is an independent venture capital fund based in Munich. Their sector focus is technology companies in the field of Fintech / Insurtech / Regtech & Cyber ​​Security / Mobility

German revenue-based financing platform Re:cap raises $111.5M Seed round

Re:cap, a non-dilutive funding platform in a similar vein to Pipe.com and Capchase but based in Europe, has closed a Seed financing round of $111.5 million, in a mix of growth capital and liquidity for the revenue-based financing platform. re:cap’s first product is now officially going live, following a pre-seed funding in May of this year.
The growth capital has come from pan-European VCs Felix Capital and Project A Ventures, with participation from existing investor Entrée Capital. The new capital will be invested into further expansion of the team as well as product and entering new European markets from its launch base of Germany. Initially focused on SaaS businesses, it has plans to move into other verticals.
The company was founded by Paul Becker (CEO) and Jonas Tebbe (CPO), who previously built the LIQID fintech startup.
re:cap allows recurring revenue businesses to fund their growth, but without needing to dilute ownership via VC or taking on debt, with the ability to convert up to 50% of their ARR into instant, non-dilutive upfront cash. At the same time, institutional investors can invest directly in the recurring revenues of software companies.

https://techcrunch.com/2021/12/16/german-revenue-based-financing-platform-recap-raises-111-5m-seed-round/

London based Felix Capital offers flexible capital, investing $500,000 to $10 million early, typically in first or second rounds, and up to $15 million at growth stage or even later in breakout companies in our target segments

Modifi Raises 145MUSD in Debt Financing

Modifi, a Berlin, Germany-based global fintech company, raised 145M USD in debt financing.
Backers included Silicon Valley Bank and Solarisbank.
The company intends to use the funds to expand its reach among small and medium-sized enterprises who want to trade internationally on its digital platform.
Led by CEO and Co-Founder Nelson Holzner, Modifi is a global fintech company that allows small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) to finance and manage their international trades. Serving over 1,000 buyers and sellers across more than 40 countries, the company offers digital solutions that enable SMEs to trade like large corporates.
Modifi currently operates out of 9 offices in Berlin, Amsterdam, New York, Delhi, Mumbai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Dubai and Dhaka. Having raised its Series B round in September, the company is now working on major upgrades to its digital platform, which will expand the product offering beyond trade finance and allow customers to take care of all trade-related activities in one place.

https://www.finsmes.com/2021/12/modifi-raises-145musd-in-debt-financing.html

Silicon Valley Bank, a subsidiary of SVB Financial Group, is a U.S.-based high-tech commercial bank. The bank has helped fund more than 30,000 start-ups.

Founded in 2016, Solarisbank is a Berlin-based fintech company that offers Banking-as-a-Service Platform with its German banking license

US subsidiary sold for $16.3 billion

The major French bank BNP Paribas is withdrawing from the American retail banking business. It sells its subsidiary, the Bank of West, to a Canadian competitor.
The major French bank BNP Paribas is selling its Californian subsidiary Bank of the West to the Bank of Montreal (BMO) from Canada. The purchase price is 16.3 billion US dollars, BNP said. With this, the French end their involvement in the American retail market, which has never really been crowned with success because the competition from the domestic banks is great.

Management expects the deal to be completed within the coming year. Shareholders should benefit from this: BNP then wants to buy back its own shares from the market. In addition, it intends to use proceeds from the sale for the expansion of its own business and for possible takeovers. The authorities have yet to approve the sale.

https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/bnp-paribas-verkauft-us-tochter-fuer-16-3-milliarden-dollar-a-cb74eaec-5ee3-4943-9d09-b1d331124a48#ref=rss

Deutsche Börse Finalizes Acquisition of Majority Stake in Crypto Finance

Meet us at:

InsurTech Insights Europe, London: 15-16 March 2022 https://www.insurtechinsights.com/europe/

Finovate Europe 2022, London: 22-23 March 2022 https://informaconnect.com/finovateeurope/

South Summit 2022, Madrid: 8-10 June 2022  https://www.southsummit.co/

SuperVentures Berlin: 14-15 June 2022 https://informaconnect.com/superventure/

Digital Insurance Agenda, Amsterdam: 29-30 June 2022 https://next.digitalinsuranceagenda.com/dia-amsterdam-2022/

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de
IDA Ireland https://www.idaireland.com
Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum
Money2020 Europe https://europe.money2020.com
InsurTech Insights https://insurtechinsights.com
Finovate Europe https://informaconnect.com/finovateeurope/
FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com

European FinTech deals this week include SPG

We feature Q&As with Matti Rönkkö of Cooler Future and Cynthia Nadal of SeedX Liechtenstein

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to us: Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.

 7 Questions with Matti Rönkkö of Cooler Future

1.Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

I’m a born and raised Finn but have done most of my career outside of Finland. I am not good at anything, so I have big hopes that soon generalists will be in demand. I am a nature lover; the thicker the forest and the more snow there is, the more I enjoy it.

My career I have built mainly on building and scaling companies. I love the excitement of building something from scratch. In the last few years I have thought a lot about my personal values and the topic of climate change and I decided back in the end of 2017 to make a switch to focus on ways to create a positive impact. That led us into founding Cooler Future back in 2019, to use the skills we have hopefully developed over the years for creating positive climate impact.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-matti-ronkko-of-cooler-future/

7 Questions with Cynthia Nadal of SeedX Liechtenstein

1.Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

My name is Cynthia, I am a Partner at Seed X Liechtenstein. I am an operator turned investor and I have previously worked with different accelerators including Techstars, King’s College and Founders Factory in London. Prior to being an investor I have worked for 11+ years at the fintech unicorn Markit (Now IHS markit, being bought by S&P). I learned there everything I know about great product development, corporate innovation and the hurdles of fast growth (IPO on the NASDAQ in 2014 at $5bn valuation, merger with IHS in 2016, now worth more than $40bn).

Work-wise I like connecting the dots and people, understanding the big problems needing solving and who we can learn from. Having the right network also helps to support founders in their growth.

Some of my spare time is also spent on tech boards that I sit on, and supporting female entrepreneurs across Europe.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-cynthia-nadal-of-seedx/

Fintech group SPG raises £25m to grow payments businesses

UK fintech group SPG, which owns Shieldpay and Paycast, has raised $34m (£25m) in a Series A funding round. The investment was led by Marqeta and Mastercard along with participation from CreditEase, Elliott Management, and Techstars.

With the fresh capital, SPG aims to scale up Shieldpay and capitalise on growing demand in the professional services market. Funds will also be used to fuel Paycast in its early stage of growth and bring the payments platform to a consumer audience.

London-headquartered SPG was founded in 2016 and aims to help unknown people transact securely.

The company says it processed more than payments totalling $3bn for its clients and has witnessed a surge in business during the pandemic. Its revenue grew by more than 360% in 2020, according to its own figures.

SPG’s first business, Shieldpay, is a digital platform used in the professional and financial services sectors. It aims to simplify payments and uses automation to replace paper-based transactions.

https://www.uktech.news/fintech/fintech-group-spg-funding-20211207

Founded in 2009, Marqeta Instantly issues & processes card payments with their world class open API platform.

Mastercard is a leading global payments & technology company that connects consumers, businesses, merchants, issuers & governments around the world.

British-based FNZ is acquiring Appway, a Swiss fintech which has worked with a major Swiss bank.

Appway, which provides digital solutions for banks to onboard and advise clients, is selling to FNZ, a British-based firm, the two companies said in a statement on Tuesday. They didn’t disclose financial details of the deal.

Part of the deal is for Appway founder-CEO Hanspeter Wolf (pictured below) to become technology chief of FNZ as well as part of top management.

For FNZ, founded in Wellington, NZ and now based in London, the deal will speed up personalized propositions at scale with its financial services clients. The company said Appway, which developed Credit Suisse’s digital onboarding process, will enable up to 90 percent faster client onboarding.

https://www.finews.com/news/english-news/49108-appway-fintech-fnz

Meet us at:

InsurTech Insights Europe, London: 15-16 March 2022 https://www.insurtechinsights.com/europe/

Finovate Europe 2022, London: 22-23 March 2022 https://informaconnect.com/finovateeurope/

South Summit 2022, Madrid: 8-10 June 2022 https://www.southsummit.co/

SuperVentures Berlin: 14-15 June 2022 https://informaconnect.com/superventure/

Digital Insurance Agenda, Amsterdam: 29-30 June 2022 https://next.digitalinsuranceagenda.com/dia-amsterdam-2022/

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de

IDA Ireland https://www.idaireland.com

Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum

FinTech Innovators https://fintech-i.com/?sumsrc=ftf

FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com

European FinTech deals this week include Enfuce

We feature Q&As with Gabriel Levie of Wequity and Gerrit Sindermann of F10 Global.

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to us: Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.

 7 Questions with Gabriel Levie of Wequity

1.Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

I was born and raised in Belgium and was lucky to have a Dutch-speaking mother and French-speaking father, which means I speak both languages fluently. Before starting Wequity I completed my undergraduate studies in Economics and Philosophy in the UK. Since 2019 I have been back in Belgium.

With my cofounder Franck we launched Wequity in February 2021, and we have been working full time with a team of 5 people. On the side I run, climb, and play the piano.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-gabriel-levie-of-wequity/

7 Questions with Gerrit Sindermann of F10 Global

1.Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

I am leading the Swiss business for F10 Global, a Fintech and Insurtech-focused open accelerator, headquartered in Zurich with further hubs in Singapore and Spain. I am also in the board of our investment company, which invests in F10 startups. Besides that, I am representing F10 in the Swiss Green Fintech Network, launched 2020 to support and leverage the Swiss government’s ambition to develop the country into a leading hub for sustainable finance. With the Green Fintech Network I co-drafted the Swiss Green Fintech Action Plan, and with F10’s partner New Energy Nexus I work on our new global Climate Fintech Accelerator programming.

Prior to F10, I worked 10 years in banking (mostly at ABN AMRO Bank) and 10 years in tech (mostly fintech), founded one and worked with several startups at different stages and on topics ranging from mobile and micropayments to data and analytics.

Off work, I love any kind of outdoor sports (Switzerland being a perfect spot for that…), love(d) traveling and learning about different cultures. Due to the latter and an adventurous mind/heart, I left Germany in 2006 and lived since in The Netherlands, Colombia, Morocco and Ireland. Climate change and environment are major topics of concern and interest for me, thus I am excited that Sustainable Finance is picking up broadly now!

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-gerrit-sindermann-of-f10-global/

Female-founded fintech Enfuce raises €45m

The Finnish fintech Enfuce has today announced its €45m Series C, the largest funding round for a female-founded fintech in the Nordics this year.

The round was led by UK-based VC firm Vitruvian Partners, known for having invested in startups like Marqeta and Wise — both now publicly listed at unicorn valuations. Enfuce is one of only a few female-founded fintechs in Europe, along with the likes of MoneyHub and Juno. The two founders, Monika Liikamaa and Denise Johansson, are both in their 40s and both come from a banking background.

Founded in 2016, the company describes itself as a CaaS (card-as-a-service) platform for card issuing. It has  plenty of customers in the non-banking community including Danish expense management startup Pleo, Swedish financial services companies Gee Finance and Qred as well as loyalty programmes like ST1.

https://sifted.eu/articles/fintech-enfuce-raise-45m/

Founded in 2006, UK based Vitruvian Partners is an international investment firm that supports the most ambitious and talented entrepreneurs and companies to achieve their goals. They target growth capital and management buyout deals, investing between €25m-€350m in companies typically valued between €75m-€1bn+.

Moody’s Corporation Acquires PassFort

Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) acquired PassFort Limited, a UK-based provider of onboarding and Know Your Customer (KYC) technology solutions.

The amount of the deal – funded with cash – was not disclosed.

The acquisition complement Moody’s technology, data, and analytical capabilities, and enhance its customer solutions for KYC, anti-money laundering, compliance, and counterparty risk. Moody’s will integrate the service into its KYC business within Moody’s Analytics, where they will augment the Orbis company database and the GRID database of risk profiles, adverse news, politically exposed persons, and sanctions.

Founded in the UK by Donald Gillies, PassFort is a U.K. SaaS-based workflow platform for identity verification, customer onboarding, and risk analysis. Its software delivers data from over 25 third-party providers and automates the collection, verification, and secure storage of customer and supplier due diligence documentation. The integration of PassFort’s platform into Moody’s suite of KYC and compliance offerings will create a more holistic workflow solution, allowing customers to incorporate Moody’s data, including credit, cyber, ESG, and climate analytics, directly into their proprietary processes.

The company raised $16m in September 2021.

https://www.finsmes.com/2021/12/moodys-corporation-acquires-passfort.html

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European FinTech deals this week include Timeless, Pomelo and Thought Machine.

We feature Q&As with Korbinian Spann of Insaas.ai and Semih Kacan of Swisscom Ventures.

If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar

7 Questions with Korbinian Spann of Insaas.ai

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

My name is Korbinian, I’m the founder and managing director of Insaas.ai. Our company and I are based in Munich, Germany. I have one son, live in the countryside and love sports like cycling, sailing, running and hiking. As Insaas.ai is a remote-first team, I´m used to working with my team every day via Zoom, Slack and Google. I love being an entrepreneur and work in a team on difficult problems. The understanding and processing of languages is my favorite topic since my studies (Arabic, Hebrew). I enjoy digital marketing and communication, as an expert and as a lecturer at Steinbeis SMI. I’m open minded, curious, and full of positive energy.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-korbinian-spann-of-insaas-ai/

7 Questions with Semih Kacan of Swisscom Ventures

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.

My name is Semih Kacan, and I am Investment Manager at Swisscom Ventures. I’ve joined Swisscom Ventures at the beginning of 2021 to strengthen the Fintech and Blockchain allocation in the portfolio. Prior to Swisscom Ventures I spent over 10 years in Strategy Consulting, Corporate Strategy, Business Development and Asset Management at Credit Suisse, BearingPoint and Haspa before I co-founded and successfully exited my venture in Zurich. I hold a Master Degree in Corporate Finance from Henley Business School.

I enjoy the time with friends and family and a cup of coffee on sunny days at the beautiful Zurich Lake but also like reading books and watching videos to educate myself about upcoming trends/technologies.

http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-semih-kacan-of-swisscom-ventures/

 
German NFT pioneer Timeless receives twelve million euros

In Europe, a winner has already been determined: Within a short time, the football card startup Sorare has grown into a billion-dollar company. There was a real competition between the prominent financiers to be allowed to invest in the NFT company. German footballers such as André Schürrle or Oliver Bierhoff joined in, the main investor in an early round of financing was Headline (formerly Eventures) and the community has also arrived in Germany, which trades with the football cards on the blockchain. The hyped company is only based in Paris.
While fintechs around the hype topic of non-fungible tokens – NFT for short – are booming, especially in the USA, it was surprisingly quiet in Germany in particular. Despite Berlin’s bustling crypto scene, the big breakthrough has so far failed to material materially.
Now there is a first market signal that a larger player could emerge: Timeless from Berlin secures twelve million euros. The Swedish financier EQT has invested nine million euros, with a further three million coming from existing investors such as Porsche Ventures or EOS VC as well as La Roca Capital.

https://financefwd.com/de/timeless-nft-runde/

EQT Ventures, headquartered in Sweden is the venture capital arm of the Swedish company EQT Partners. EQT Ventures deploys a multi-stage, sector-agnostic strategy, making equity investments from €1 to €75 million in start-ups and scale-ups across Europe and the US.

Pomelo Pay Raises US$10M in Series A Funding

Pomelo Pay, a London, UK-based digital payments company, raised US$10m in Series A funding.
The round was led by Inference Partners.
The company intends to use the funds to expand its presence across global markets including Europe and Asia, starting with plans to double their workforce in London, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines.
Launched in 2018 in the UK and Singapore and led by Vincent Choi, CEO, Pomelo is an innovative digital payments service provider that allows businesses to take payments from anyone, in any location (physical or digital), at a low cost and without the need for hardware. The company provides an integration with over 30 payment networks globally. Its payments platform is also used by banks and non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) for an improved acquiring experience, enabling them to offer a broad suite of payment acceptance solutions to their end customers.

https://www.finsmes.com/2021/11/pomelo-pay-raises-us10m-in-series-a-funding.html

Inference Partners is an independent technology investment firm exclusively focused on early-stage infrastructure software investments.

Thought Machine Raises $200M in Series C Funding

Thought Machine, a London, UK-based cloud native core banking technology company, closed $200m Series C funding round.
This round, which saw the company achieve unicorn status, was led by Nyca Partners, with participation from ING Ventures, JPMorgan Chase, and Standard Chartered Ventures, Lloyds Banking Group, British Patient Capital, Eurazeo, SEB, Molten Ventures (formerly Draper Esprit), Backed, and IQ Capital.
The company intends to use the funds to continue developing and expanding Vault and its Universal Product Engine, expand its international reach, strengthening its five global offices and targeting new key markets to accelerate the adoption of cloud native core banking globally.

https://www.finsmes.com/2021/11/thought-machine-raises-200m-in-series-c-funding.html

Nyca is a New York based fintech venture capital firm focused on connecting innovative companies to the global financial system. With over $500 million under management and investments in more than 80 portfolio companies, Nyca is one of the premier fintech venture capital firms in the world.

Luxembourg-based Banking Circle acquires London-based B4B Payments to streamline payment infrastructure

Luxembourg-based Banking Circle, a financial infrastructure provider built for payments businesses and banks, has announced the acquisition of London-based B4B Payments, a company that specialises in smart corporate payments and card solutions for businesses.

The deal is currently going through the regulatory approval process. After closing the acquisition, B4B Payments will operate as an independent sister company of Banking Circle.

Founded in 2006 by Paul Swinton and Rob Anderson, B4B Payments (formerly Payment Card Solutions) is a fintech company that offers payment processing solutions for businesses to manage expenses, simplify payroll, reimbursements, and offer employee rewards and incentives.

https://siliconcanals.com/promoted-content/banking-circle-acquires-b4b-payments/

Introducing Partech Growth II, the $750M Fund Dedicated to European Scale-Ups

Back in 2016, we were thrilled to announce the final closing of our first $440M Growth fund, a true pioneer in its asset class. We made our initial investments in leading companies such as Amboss, M-Files, NA-KD, Sendinblue, and Ecovadis. We helped the likes of MADE.com navigate the journey to IPO; and supported Brandwatch, through a $450M acquisition, finding a larger platform in Cision to help achieve its mission.
It’s been a rewarding journey to say the least, and today we get to celebrate another milestone as we mark the closing of Partech Growth II. The debut of the sequel!

https://partechpartners.com/news/introducing-partech-growth-ii-750m-fund-dedicated-european-scale-ups/

German VC Greenfield One Raises $160M Crypto Fund With Backing From Swisscom, Others

Berlin-based venture capital (VC) firm Greenfield One has raised a $160 million (142 million euros) fund from telecom giant Swisscom, Galaxy Digital and others, to invest in crypto projects, according to a press release shared with CoinDesk.
Greenfield One’s third fund is likely one of the largest crypto funds in Europe to date. Fabric Ventures’ $130 million fund, which was announced earlier this year, was previously thought to be one of the largest European crypto funds.
German media giant Bertelsmann also invested in the $160 million fund. Bertelsmann had invested in Greenfield One’s second fund, which had a target volume of $56 million (50 million euros).
Other investors include Hamburg-based family office Lennertz & Co., Frankfurt-based VC CommerzVentures, and Barcelona-based fund of funds Aldea Ventures. All investors in the fund come from the private sector.

https://www.coindesk.com/business/2021/11/24/german-vc-greenfield-one-raises-160m-crypto-fund-with-backing-from-swisscom-others/

Estonia’s Karma Ventures brings in €100 million to continue backing European deeptech

Tallinn-based Karma Ventures has closed its second fund with a hard cap at €100 million. The firm will use the capital to continue backing the most promising early-stage European deeptech startups in Seed and Series A rounds, with a ticket size ranging up to €5 million.
Led by Tommi Uhari, Margus Uudam, and Kristjan Laanemaa, the trio has over a decade of experience both working with, and investing in deeptech startups with a number of successful exits to SAP, Dynatrace, and Splunk, to name a few.
The firm’s second fund is backed by Baltic Innovation Fund 2 (BIF 2), an initiative created by cooperation between the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania and European Investment Fund, the founding engineers of Skype, Jaan Tallinn and Ahti Heinla (currently at Starship Technologies), Till Quack (Qualcomm, Apple, Mapillary), Jani Huoponen (Google) and Sergei Anikin (CTO at Pipedrive). They join longstanding investors Isomer, Skype founder’s investment company ASI and the pension funds of Swedbank and LHV.

https://tech.eu/brief/estonias-karma-ventures-brings-in-e100-million-to-continue-backing-european-deeptech/

Apply to South Summit, Madrid’s Startup Competition

South Summit (Madrid, June 8th-10th, 2022) is a three-day event that supports entrepreneurship and innovation. It is where startups, investors and corporations come together to share ideas, form alliances, and shape the future. This year’s edition of the Startup Competition welcomes projects from any industry, development stage and country. Apply before February 28th to become one of our 100 finalists and get free tickets, a 3min pitch on stage, networking with our partners and investors, media coverage, mentoring, demo stand and more!

Read more (www.southsummit.co/startup-competition) –Apply now (https://cms.southsummit.co/register/2e2x)

Meet us at:

InsurTech Insights Europe, London: 15-16 March 2022 https://www.insurtechinsights.com/europe/

Finovate Europe 2022, London: 22-23 March 2022 https://informaconnect.com/finovateeurope/

South Summit 2022, Madrid: 8-10 June 2022  https://www.southsummit.co/

SuperVentures Berlin: 14-15 June 2022 https://informaconnect.com/superventure/

Digital Insurance Agenda, Amsterdam: 29-30 June 2022 https://next.digitalinsuranceagenda.com/dia-amsterdam-2022/

Meet Our Partners: 

Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de
IDA Ireland https://www.idaireland.com
Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum
Money2020 Europe https://europe.money2020.com
InsurTech Insights https://insurtechinsights.com
Finovate Europe https://informaconnect.com/finovateeurope/
FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com