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