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 汇丰 , 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 Fintech Limited 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.
?? 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 ??
???? 德意志银行 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.
?? 花旗 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 萬事達卡 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.
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Longer reads/listens ??
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