Q&As with Eight Roads and Elevator Ventures; European FinTech deals this week include Lemon Markets, Yonder, Budget Insight and Money Box

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.

15 Millionen Euro für den Aktienhandel: Lakestar und andere investieren in dieses Saas-Startup

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.

Yonder Raises £20M in Seed Funding

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.

Moneybox Raises £35M in Series D Funding

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.

Buk Acquires Payflow, a Salary on Demand Fintech from Spain

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.”