News

European FinTech Deals: Klink Finance, YourCampus, All Gravy etc.

We are back after a break- or rather a few hectic weeks on the road and at events across Europe.  

Early stage FinTech deals this week include Klink Finance (gamified digital assets platform),  YourCampus (personal benefits platform), All Gravy (staff financial wellbeing) etc. 

If you are an early stage startup building the next big thing in European FinTech (or know somebody who is), we would love to feature you on our 7 Questionsinterview series: email contact@fintechforum.de or reach out to us (Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar) on LinkedIn.

Klink Finance Raises $500K in FundingKlink Finance, London, UK-based provider of a gamified digital asset platform, raised $500K in Pre-Seed funding.The round was led by Blockchain Founders Fund (BFF) with participation from UOB Venture Management, Signum Capital, TechMeetsTrader, and StartupGym.The company intends to use the funds to drive its product launch by the end of 2022.Founded by Chris James Murphy and Philip Jonitz, Klink Finance is a startup that operates at the intersection of consumer finance and blockchain technology. Its system implements social gamification to enable better and recurring financial habits for user populations through a safe and regulated platform. By offering a prize-linked savings solution, all funds on the platform will be aggregated and the yields earned are distributed to users as prizes through probability. This gives users steady returns as well as a chance to earn large returns every week.

With its beta launch set for later this year, the platform’s go-to-market prize-linked deposit account will allow users to win up to $1 million in USDC (stablecoin) every week for holding funds as little as $25 USD. This solution provides alternative mechanisms to reward distribution across user populations, and will expand further services with social features and digital asset ownership in a way that is safe, exciting and rewarding.

https://www.finsmes.com/2022/10/klink-finance-raises-500k-in-funding.html

Amsterdam’s YourCampus lands €2.7 million to reform Europe’s labour market with personal benefits platformYourCampus, a startup aiming to shake up how employers approach perks and benefits, has just raised €2.7 million to grow. The Amsterdam-based startup is helping shape a new era of compensation packages and is set to expand across Europe.   Across Europe, we have seen a shake-up in terms of how employees and employers interact, what employees expect from their employers, and, in general, shifting approaches to work. It’s fueled by a combination of factors – the ongoing war for talent, the great resignation and sociocultural shifts in mindset. As a result, companies are under new pressure (and rightly so) to provide their employees with competitive and attractive benefits and perks. But, for HR and management teams, meeting this new demand isn’t so easy. Each employee is different and wants different things, and with the rise of remote and hybrid work, many teams aren’t even in the same location. YourCampus is aiming to reform how benefits and perks are approached – making it simpler for management and giving employees a better experience. The startup has now raised €2.7 million just over a year since its establishment. The €2.7 million investment was led by B2B software investor Newion. ROM InWest and angel investors Kalo Bagijn (Brand New Day), Fritz Korten and Joost Jolink (Fresca Group) are also joining.  In addition, existing investors Dutch Founders Fund and angel investors Marc van Agteren (Usabilla), Anouk de Wolff (Scale Force Talent) and Omri Amir (FindHotel) are increasing their stake in YourCampus. Earlier they invested €500,000 in the Dutch startup.
 With the investment, YourCampus will continue to expand, aiming to be a platform for all employee compensation. A better benefits platformFounded in 2021, YourCampus aims to structure better compensation for employees with attractive benefits packages. Florian Gendrault, founder and CEO of YourCampus: “The job market is under tremendous pressure. In the ‘war for talent’, employers are looking for ways to attract talent, specifically Gen Z. But there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to fringe benefits and perks. An older employee might benefit from a good pension plan, while a younger employee may prefer to receive their vacation pay monthly and have some budget left over for personal development. YourCampus offers flexibility in fringe benefits and perks, but with collective discounts.”On the YourCampus platform, employees can use a personal budget that is paid for by their employer to choose from a variety of fringe benefits and modern perks in categories such as well-being, personal development, financial well-being and mobility. Existing salary components can also be used flexibly, such as a pension plan, holiday pay and days off. YourCampus thus responds to the fact that every employee has different needs, due to being in different stages of life or working from different locations- Next to the existing benefits, the platform offers services and products from partners. YourCampus collaborates with a wide range of providers, including Brand New Day, Classpass, Swapfiets and GoodHabitz. Employers pay a monthly fee per employee, but in return, they do not have to source individual benefit services themselves. One-time rewards can also be offered, in the form of a bonus or as a birthday gift. Companies can keep all personnel costs on the YourCampus platform and can allocate a budget per employee and category, such as a mobility budget. In addition, YourCampus offers integration with HR & payroll vendors such as Visma Nmbrs, HiBob, Personio, Loket and AFAS.Already, the Amsterdam-born team has fueled benefits processes for over 100 companies. Work is currently underway to add flexible holiday pay and days off, and further expand the flexible pension plan options. In the future, the company hopes to add more HR services as well.Gendrault: “With the rise of hybrid working, employers face the challenge of keeping their employees engaged. The YourCampus app has a high engagement rate because employees are excited about their personal benefits. It provides opportunities to increase company culture through the platform. In addition, we are expanding to other European countries. For employees, we know no borders, as many of the services offered are internationally available. Employers abroad undoubtedly face the same challenges as they do here in the Netherlands. Our ambition is to have more than 1 million employees active on YourCampus by 2025.”https://www.eu-startups.com/2022/10/amsterdams-yourcampus-lands-e2-7-million-to-reform-europes-labour-market-with-personal-benefits-platform/
Danish fintech startup raises €3.2 million seed for helping an under-serviced group with their moneyCopenhagen-based startup All Gravy has secured €3.2 million in a seed round led by Moonfire Ventures, Founders, Upfin.vc and the Nordic Web Ventures and angel investors including Bradley Horowitz (Global VP Product, Google), Phil Chambers (CEO, Peakon), Terese Hougaard (Partner, Atomico), Dan Winn (CTO, Deliveroo), Caroline Hjelm (Head of Marketing, Voi) and Dorte Bregnhøj (Global VP & Head of Talent, Bain & Co).The Danish startup provides companies with the tools to improve their employees financial wellbeing. The funding will pave the for the startup’s expansion in the UK while empowering its growth in Denmark and Sweden. The startup will also continue to enhance the employee-focused app and be investing in a suite of tools on the employer side. To achieve all, All Gravy will enlarge its team.CEO Jonatan Rasmussen says, “The All Gravy people operating system works like a workforce optimisation tool. It provides a mix of qualitative and quantitative insights, allowing the HR or ops team to make strategic decisions rather than just putting out fires. We believe that hourly paid workers have more options than ever over where they work. Restaurants and shops urgently need to retain employees for longer and they need to understand their employees better. Our customers tell us that what’s in the best interest of employees is in the best interest of the employer – everyone can win.”Bradley Horowitz, VP Product at Google states, “I was impressed with All Gravy’s user-centric way of thinking, and this closeness to their users really shows up in the feel of the product. I’m happy to be investing in a company that is a force for good for a group of people that’s often overlooked in the tech world.”Mattias Ljungman, Founding Partner at Moonfire says, “All Gravy can revolutionise how millions of hourly paid workers operate. With the labour shortages we’re seeing in hospitality and retail, attracting, retaining and understanding data on your employees is business critical. We’re excited to be partnering with All Gravy.”https://arcticstartup.com/all-gravy-raises-e3-2m-seed/
UK wealth management startup Sidekick secures £3.3mSidekick, a UK-based wealth management startup, has raised £3.3m in pre-seed funding ahead of its launch next year.According to a report from Finextra, the funding round was led by Octopus Ventures.The round also saw participation from Seedcamp and Semantic, is being used to build out the app-based product, expand the in-house asset management team, and secure the required regulatory permissions and registrations.The company was co-founded by serial entrepreneur Matthew Ford (CEO) and Peter Townsend (CTO). Ford previously founded the mobile banking platform Pariti, where Townsend was CTO, which was sold to Tandem Bank in 2018. They’re joined at Sidekick by a wider founding team from traditional asset management, consumer credit and FinTech backgrounds.Sidekick is on a mission to close the generational wealth gap by offering products and services typically reserved for only high-net-worth individuals.This includes access to alternative investments, such as crypto, and the ability to borrow against these investment portfolios.Ford said, “Most retail investors have two options to build wealth: settle for passive portfolios or try to time the market and pick stocks and crypto themselves without access to the training, tools and information needed to do this effectively.
 
“This funding will allow us to build a modern app-based investment service that gives customers the same professional expertise that only high-net-worth individuals are used to. We’ve already got a stellar team in place, and we’re now excited to be working towards regulatory approval to launch over the coming months.”
 
Alongside the funding, Siddekick has applied to the FCA for authorisation and expects to launch in 2023. London-based FinTech startup that helps firms in the private equity and financial services industries digitise complex accounting LemonEdge landed $2.5m in new capital last year.The oversubscribed round was led by Sidekick Partners and joined by founder of Parse and Scribd Tikhon Bernstam as well as founder of Investra Lauren Iaslovits.Link:https://member.fintech.global/2022/10/28/uk-wealth-management-startup-sidekick-secures-3-3m/
Evy wants to offer product protection insurance everywhereMeet Evy, a French startup that is working on extended warranties and product protection insurance. The company raised a $6.5 million seed round (€6.5 million) from Sequoia, La Famiglia VC, Global Founders Capital and several business angels.Evy wants to bring an AppleCare experience to other brands and retailers. Essentially, the startup wants to create a seamless experience when it comes to adding product protection at checkout and some good coverage out of the box.The startup acts as an insurance broker and partners with Wakam to cover the risk — but it could also partner with other insurance companies in the future. On the other side, it partners with retailers so that they embed Evy’s insurance products on their sites or try to sell an extended warranty in stores.For instance, Evy has signed a partnership with ManoMano, a home improvement and gardening e-commerce platform that I’ve covered over the years. When a customer is buying a product on ManoMano, they can add multiyear coverage against breakage, breakdown and/or theft.

What makes Evy stand out from legacy players is that it can create custom-made insurance products in very little time. For instance, ManoMano has 25 different product categories across four countries. Evy has created 25 tailor-made insurance programs in just a few months.Similarly, retailers can develop deep integrations with Evy as the insurtech startup focuses on API-based integrations.If there is something wrong with the product, Evy first tries to find a solution to fix the product. It plans to put together a repair network. If it doesn’t work, Evy makes a payment to the customer.

And the distribution method should work quite well as Evy shares some revenue with its retail partners. Some big retailers, such as Darty or Best Buy, already generate important revenue from insurance products. Evy wants to offer a solution for the long tail of e-commerce and brick-and-mortar stores.Evy isn’t just an insurance play. There’s a bigger vision around product lifecycles. “Eventually we want to offer all customer services that are associated with products. They are useful for both the merchant and the end user,” co-founder and CEO Simon Kemoun told me.“They are all switching to the circular economy. We know when a product is under warranty and we know when there has been no incident. We can issue a trade-in offer so that you can get the most recent product,” he added.There are some companies in the U.S. focusing on the same industry, such as Clyde and Extend. In France, Evy competes with Neat.https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/26/evy-wants-to-offer-product-protection-insurance-everywhere/
Qantev Raises €10M in Series A FundingQantev, a Paris, France-based Artificial Intelligence (AI) insurtech for health insurers, raised €10m in Series A funding round.

The round was led by Omnes and RAISE Ventures, with participation from Elaia with the PSL (Paris Sciences & Lettres) Innovation Fund. The company intends to use the funds for continued global market expansion and growth of its AI & Engineering team to enhance its health claims platform for insurers.Co-founded by Tarik Dadi (CEO) and Hadrien De March (CTO) in 2019, Qantev has built a AI-based data analytics solution designed to improve health insurers’ operations, including health data management, automation triage and resolution of simple claims, as well as overall enablement of better and more informed decision making.Powered by machine learning and optimisation to predict patient journeys, Qantev provides in-depth insight and automation by leveraging insurers’ historical claims data. Whether it be for automating health claims pre-authorisation, identification of claims leakage patterns, optimisation of healthcare networks or improved tracking of member’s wellness status, the solution allows for fast and impactful transformation for health insurers. 

Today, the platform is used by worldwide health insurers, reinsurers and third party administrators to boost their claims operations.In the last 12 months, the company has deployed its solution across a number of markets in Europe, Asia and North America, enabling fast and impactful data transformation within insurers.https://www.finsmes.com/2022/10/qantev-raises-e10m-in-series-a-funding.html
Arf raises $13m from investors including Circle Ventures, Hard Yaka, and SDF

ZUG, Switzerland, Oct. 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The VQF-regulated global settlement banking platform using Web3 technologies has raised $13m in a seed round with the participation of industry leaders including Circle Ventures, Hard Yaka, United Overseas Bank Venture Management, Signum Capital, and Stellar Development Foundation.

Arf has raised $13 million in equity and debt financing in a seed round from notable investors across Web3 and institutional finance space, including the investors of Coinbase, Solana, FTX, and Kabbage.

Circle Ventures joined the round alongside the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), United Overseas Bank (UOB) Venture Management, Signum Capital, Hard Yaka, NGC Ventures, Blockchain Founders Fund, and 500 Emerging Europe.

The firm intends to use the cash injection to further develop its blockchain-based technology to provide global treasury management and working capital credit lines for financial institutions and licensed money service businesses alike operating in the cross-border payments industry.

“We are delighted to see prominent Web3 and institutional finance investors validate our vision and join forces with us,” said CEO Ali Erhat Nalbant.

“Arf’s technology sits right at the center of cross-border payments evolution. This funding round will help us scale Arf to free up trillion dollars worth of locked working capital in the industry,” he added. “We’ll keep leveraging digital assets and Web3 technologies to fuel the transformation in global finance in a fully compliant way.”

With the seed funding, the firm will develop and foster new paradigm-shifting technologies in cross-border payments by combining the best of what Web3 and traditional finance has to offer.

Arf recently received the approval of the Financial Services Standard Association (VQF). The firm opened a new office in Zug and started scaling its team.

Arf also announced the launch of Arf Credit Line in April, which provides money service businesses instant access to transactional working capital credit lines, and allows any corridor to be post-funded in real-time.

About Arf
Arf is a global settlement banking platform, eliminating the capital-intensive business model of the cross-border payments industry by offering digital asset-based working capital and settlement services with native on-ramp and off-ramp capabilities to licensed money service businesses and financial institutions.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/arf-raises-13m-from-investors-including-circle-ventures-hard-yaka-and-sdf-301658649.html
BMLL Secures USD 26 Million Series B Funding

BMLL, the leading, independent provider of harmonised, historical Level 3 data and analytics across global equity and futures markets, today announced it has secured a USD 26 million Series B investment in its latest funding round. The round was led by Nasdaq Ventures, FactSet and IQ Capital’s Growth Fund, supported by ACF Investors and other new and existing investors.

BMLL provides historical Level 3 data and analytics to the world’s most sophisticated capital market participants. BMLL clients, including banks, brokers, asset managers, hedge funds and global exchanges, can access BMLL’s order book data and analytics enabling them to derive predictive insights, backtest strategies to generate alpha and gain an understanding of how markets behave.

The investment will help BMLL deliver on its razor-sharp focus on customer needs for more data coverage across an increasing number of global markets. The funding will support investment in acquiring new data sets globally; growing the BMLL engineering capabilities to integrate these new data and analytics capabilities into existing products for an ever-expanding universe of customers; and building on the existing presence in North America with the opening of an office in New York.

The funding news comes at a time of rapid growth for the company. BMLL has significantly grown its revenues over the last 12 months; added Tier 1 clients, including Investment Banks, Exchanges, Buy-Side firms, Academics and Regulators; expanded into the futures market; and launched its flagship product BMLL Vantage for EU and US equities and ETFs.

Paul Humphrey, CEO, BMLL, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have secured USD 26 million in our Series B funding round. The investment is testament to the increasing need for more sophisticated tools to understand how markets truly behave and drive performance. Our granular Level 3 data and analytics capabilities help market participants unlock the full potential of the predictive power of historic pricing data and make more informed decisions.”

Gary Offner, Senior Vice President and Head of Nasdaq Ventures, said: “Nasdaq Ventures is committed to investing in financial technology companies that align with our vision to reimagine the markets of tomorrow. By democratising access to the most granular data and analytics, all market participants can benefit from BMLL’s solutions, and we are delighted to support their continued growth.”

Jonathan Reeve, Executive Vice President, Head of Content and Technology Solutions at FactSet, said: “Data-driven decisions are the lifeblood of our industry and the driving force behind our product development and the collaborations we build. FactSet is pleased to support the growth and success of BMLL, which shares our commitment to empowering the financial community to make more informed investment decisions through accessing high-quality data and analytics. We are excited to invest in BMLL and its order book data and analytics platform, which gives market participants a granular understanding of market moves.”

Kerry Baldwin, Co-Founder, Managing Partner of IQ Capital: “IQ Capital led BMLL’s seed round and has continued to support the company through their very earliest stages. We have supported and worked closely with BMLL’s exceptional leadership team to develop their breakthrough Deep Tech product, which democratises access to Level 3 data for the wider industry. Our latest investment from our Growth Fund, which supports outperforming companies in our portfolio, will drive the company’s continued growth and international expansion.”

Paul Humphrey, CEO of BMLL, concluded: “It has been our mission to democratise access to Level 3 data and analytics capabilities and the latest funding will support our aim to make these insights available to a wider audience. We are immensely proud of the outstanding industry recognition we have gained over time, and I’d like to thank my team for their unwavering dedication to customer services, our esteemed clients for their support, and our investors for backing our vision.”

Over the last 12 months alone, BMLL has been on an accelerated growth path securing a number of significant customers and collaborations. BMLL counts the Financial Conduct Authority  (FCA) as a customer, who is using the BMLL Data Lab and BMLL Data Feed to examine order behaviour. NYU’s Quant Team uses the BMLL Data Lab to carry out research on the futures market at the university’s Mathematics in Finance Program. Kepler Cheuvreux’s teams conduct order book analytics to optimise algo performance using BMLL’s Level 3 data. What’s more, BMLL helps Aquis Exchange provide its members with insights into market structure dynamics, while SIX Group uses BMLL data for customised order book analytics for the Swiss EBBO. And Jefferies carries out detailed order book analysis for passive / aggressive trading strategies using BMLL data.

Jefferies acted as exclusive financial advisor and Taylor Wessing LLP acted as legal advisor to BMLL in connection with the transaction.  Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP acted as legal advisor to Nasdaq Ventures and Mills & Reeve LLP acted as legal advisor to FactSet and IQ Capital.

https://ffnews.com/newsarticle/funding/bmll-secures-usd-26-million-series-b-funding/

Moneyhub Raises $39M, Plans International ExpansionU.K.-based payments platform Moneyhub has raised $39.5 million as it looks to expand its offerings amid the region’s continued embrace of open finance.According to a Monday (Oct. 24) news release, lead investors Legal & General and Lloyds Banking Group will take minority stakes in the business, the company said, and will “each look to enhance their commercial propositions with Moneyhub’s services, using its Open Data technology to support strategic goals.”Moneyhub says the funding will help speed the development of its products, particularly in the areas of pensions and wealth, payments, distribution, affordability and Data-as-a-Service. In addition, the funds will help the company bring its technology to new countries.Based in Bristol, Moneyhub works with more than 100 clients, including Aon, KPMG, Mercer, Nationwide Building Society, Samsung and Vodafone.In August, the U.K.’s Nationwide Building Society announced it was deploying Moneyhub to let its customers open savings accounts and fund them right away. Prior to this collaboration, Nationwide customers would need to wait days before transferring the funds they needed to meet account funding requirements.The building society stated that this led to around 8% of accounts being closed “as members would simply forget to credit the account.”https://www.pymnts.com/news/investment-tracker/2022/moneyhub-raises-39m-plans-international-expansion/
CloudPay Raises $50 Million and Reports Growth as Payroll Evolution ContinuesOctober 27, 2022 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight TimeRALEIGH, N.C.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Expert in global pay solutions, CloudPay, has raised a new $50 million round of capital while recording strong growth as demand for cloud-based integrated global payroll and payments services continues.The funds raised were led by Runway Growth Capital and The Olayan Group. The new capital will support CloudPay’s continued innovation of its end-to-end enterprise global pay offering, meeting the need for integrated payroll and payments services as well as employee solutions that fit the modern world of work.CloudPay continues to show high, double-digit growth year-over-year and is projecting revenue growth of approximately 40% for 2022, with the business now processing 2.5 million payslips annually worldwide. As a result, the organization has increased headcount, recently welcoming its 1,000th employee. “We believe that CloudPay is at an inflection point in their growth that makes it a great time to invest strategically,” said Nicholas Briody, Director of Direct Private Equity, Americas, The Olayan Group. “They are well-positioned to capitalize on the needs of the modern workplace for payroll and payments services. CloudPay’s growth has been strong year-on-year, and we have confidence in their vision and in the management capabilities of their leadership to continue to drive innovation.”“Payment processing is a critical function for every business. CloudPay has proven their capabilities by servicing an impressive list of global, blue-chip customers,” said Brian Sapp, Managing Director, Runway Growth Capital. “We are pleased to deepen our relationship and continue our support of CloudPay’s growth.” Earlier this year, a new partnership with Visa Direct was announced, enabling fast, secure salary payments to any debit or credit card, and taking days off the traditional payroll payments process. Demand for CloudPay’s Earned Wage Access (EWA) solution has also sky-rocketed and new partnerships have been launched with innovators such as HR platform, HiBob.“It’s an exciting time for the payroll world,” said CloudPay CEO Paul Bartlett. “As a profession that’s historically been quite set in its ways, we’re seeing a shift as demand grows for global and scalable solutions underpinned by powerful technology. Payroll has traditionally ended at the payslip, but over 90% of our new business now includes payments services in addition to payroll processing.”Companies are also seeing the advantage of being able to offer employees flexibility around when and how they get paid – particularly during the cost-of-living crisis. In this environment, innovation is needed, and that’s where CloudPay has been able to add real value to clients with solutions such as the pay on-demand app and new money movement methods.“Our focus on challenging the norm to offer comprehensive pay solutions across the globe has led to this new funding, and I am delighted to have the support of our investors to continue the expansion of CloudPay’s global payroll and payments business,” Bartlett adds. “We’re excited about our plans for 2023.”About CloudPayEmployee pay processes have broad business consequences, requiring modern solutions and trusted experts across the globe. CloudPay connects all employee pay processes – including payroll, payments, and on-demand pay – through a unified platform available across 130+ countries, and 168 currencies. CloudPay’s experts help global companies implement best practices, navigate change, optimize operations, and improve employee experiences, guiding them with vision and care toward the comprehensive pay experience employees deserve. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221027005628/en/CloudPay-Raises-50-Million-and-Reports-Growth-as-Payroll-Evolution-Continues

 



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