33 days of outages - TWIF UK & Europe (10/03)
Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,
Join us in London on March 20th at an exciting new venue for the next edition of the London Fintech Breakfast! RSVP now to secure your spot! ☕🥐
Please find another week of fintech news, financings and exits below.
Programming Note: There will be no TWIF UK & Europe next week.
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Funding 💸
Highlights below of deals since the last post in the fintech space across the UK & Europe. Deal data powered by Dealroom.
🇪🇺 Digital asset market maker Flowdesk raised $102m.
🇪🇺 Digital banking platform myTU raised a €10m round.
🇪🇺 Bill splitting fintech Cino raised a €3.5m round led by Balderton Capital .
🇬🇧 B2B lender Lenkie raised £49m in a mix of debt and equity in a Series A
🇬🇧 AI regtech Quantexa raised a $175m Series F from HSBC , Warburg Pincus LLC , BNY , Evolution Capital and others.
🌍 Spend management solution Ramp launched a secondary share sale that valued the company at $13bn as it hits $700m in ARR.
🌍 AI FX hedging solution Grain raised a $33m Series A from Bain Capital , Aleph , Vesey Ventures and Hanaco Ventures .
🌍 Construction B2B lender Flex raised $25m from Florida Funders , Titanium Ventures , Campanyon Ventures and others.
Challenger Banking 🚀
🇬🇧 Digital wallet solution Curve has launched Curve ReFi, a tool to allow customers to move balances between any card or account linked to their Curve Wallet to avoid overdrafts and shift credit card balances.
🇬🇧 Neobank OakNorth reported £215m in pre-tax profits for 2024 and provided over £2bn in new lending, taking its total lending to over £12bn.
🌍 Wealthtech Betterment has acquired the automated investing business of Ellevest .
Digital Assets ₿
🌍 Crypto exchange Bybit secured initial approval top operate as virtual asset platform in UAE. The exchange is also listing Ethena's USDtb as collateral and will pay a daily reward to holders.
Recommended by LinkedIn
🌍 The US administration announced a strategic crypto reserve that will include Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana and Cardano amongst its assets.
🌍 The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has plans to drop its case against crypto exchange Kraken Digital Asset Exchange . Yuga Labs also said the SEC had closed its investigation into the company. The SEC also dropped its enforcement suit against Cumberland .
🌍 Crypto ECN Crossover Markets is integrating with digital asset custodian BitGo .
Traditional Banking 🏦
🇪🇺 Deutsche Bank was €23m by regulator BaFin.
🇪🇺 Santander received approval to acquire alternative financing platform Tresmares Capital .
🇬🇧 More UK banks suffered outages on payday in February with Lloyds Bank , TSB Bank , Halifax and Nationwide Building Society suffering. UK high street banks accumulated 803 hours of outages in the past two years and are facing heavy fines.
🌍 Citi mistakenly sent $81 trillion to a customer account instead of $280 as a result of poor UX.
Fintech Infrastructure 🚧
🌍 Payment infrastructure provider Treasury Prime signed KeyBank as a customer to its bank network.
🌍 Marqeta has signed a partnership with Green Dot Corporation to enable its customers to deposit cash into bank accounts.
🌍 Digital banking technology provider Alkami Technology is acquiring account opening fintech MANTL for $400m.
🌍 Financial services software provider Finastra and payment infrastructure provider i2c Inc. are partnering to offer debit card issuance and digital wallet solutions.
🌍 Spend management infrastructure provider Astrada has come out of stealth after being spun out of Fidel API .
Payments 💰
🇪🇺 Adyen signed loyalty program and card issuer Bilt Rewards as a customer.
🇬🇧 The Payment Systems Regulator is to take action against Visa and Mastercard after an increase in fees.
🌍 The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau dismissed its lawsuit against Capital One savings account interest rates. It also dropped its fraud suit against Zelle® operators.
🌍 Google Wallet in Australia has enabled least-cost routing for multi-network debit cards in its wallet with Australian Payments Plus .
🌍 The US Senate voted to remove a regulation issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that would regulate Big Tech providers of mobile and digital wallets and transfers.
💡Have a thought/question/comment about anything we covered? Start a discussion in the comments section below!
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