Danish B2B FinTech Pleo Becomes Unicorn ??; Wise's Largest Direct Listing in UK History; Google’s FinTech Move in Japan????

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Last week (5-9 July) was a massively hot and interesting week in FinTech.?Danish????FinTech?Pleo?became a unicorn in a recent funding round ??;?Wise?completed the largest direct listing in UK history?????;?Google?to make a FinTech move in?Japan????, and other super interesting news and developments.

Without further ado, let us dive into what has happened in the financial technology sector this week. Let’s connect the dots.

Danish B2B FinTech Pleo Hits Unicorn Status ??

Pleo, the Danish FinTech behind an expense management tool and linked smart company cards, has hit a $1.7B valuation thanks to a $150M Series C funding round co-led by Bain Capital Ventures and Thrive Capital.

Founded in 2015 by former staffers from Danish startup?Tradeshift,?Pleo?offers?spending cards for employees that automatically itemize purchases according to their company’s internal accounting systems.

Pleo can also?integrate?invoice payments management and accounting with third parties like?Xero?and?Quickbooks.

It has offices in Copenhagen, London, Stockholm, Berlin, and Madrid. Roughly?17,000?small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) use Pleo, with companies at the medium end numbering about?1,000?employees.

The new funds will be used to continue growing Pleo’s 17,000+ strong customer base as it aims to reach one million engaged users by the end of 2025.

THE TAKEAWAY

Expense management is an $80 billion market in Europe alone.?And it’s a hot topic lately -?66%?of SMBs reported shifting finance and operations solutions online in March 2021. Hence, having the traction and new funding in place, Pleo is well-positioned to penetrate this market more deeply with an aim to reach 1 million users by 2025. Finally, if one would take a look at the competition, the future looks bright for Pleo. For instance, fellow expense management startup?Expensify, which has more than?$100M?in annual revenues and?10M?users, recently?submitted?its IPO draft registration.

Wise Completes Largest Direct Listing in UK History

Wise, one of the UK’s & Europe’s leading FinTechs went public on the London Stock Exchange on 7 July in the biggest direct listing ever.

Wise shares opened at ￡8 a share Wednesday morning, giving the company a market value of ￡8 billion ($11 billion).

The firm opted to list in London via a direct listing, a rare method of going public pioneered by Spotify in 2018.

Wise?(ex-TransferWise) is an amazing European success story you just can’t ignore.

Started with a simple and compelling product, yet with global ambitions from day one. Always putting their customers first and sustaining a marathon-like focus.

They have been profitable since 2017, while in 2021 Wise doubled profits to $42.7 million with revenues climbing 39% to hit $580 million.

At an $11 billion valuation, Wise is now London’s biggest and most successful direct listing.

THE TAKEAWAY

Wise IPO is a very BIG Thing.?It’s a huge success for Estonia????, a big story for Europe???? , and a massive win for FinTech ??

Google’s FinTech Move in Japan????

Google?is reportedly in negotiations to acquire?pring, a Japan-based cashless payments startup, for between JPY20 billion ($187.3M) and JPY30 billion ($281M).

According to Nikkei,?Google?is in talks to acquire a Tokyo-based cashless payment provider?pring?in a deal that could enable Google to offer financial services of its own rather than?being reliant on partner banks and credit card companies.

Pring is currently owned by Mizuho Bank and a number of investors and Google is reportedly set to pay between $180m and $270m for all of the company's shares.?

The cashless payment market in Japan is in a relatively immature state compared to other countries where there has been wider adoption of alternative payment methods.?Japan's share of cashless payment in retail transactions was just under 30% in 2020, compared with 70-90% in South Korea and China.

While the smartphone-operated service Google Pay is present in Japan, it is reliant on partnering with a credit card and pre-paid card providers to offer financial services.?

Pring currently provides?payments, cash transfers, and withdrawals via smartphones and computers to its clients. It also has over 400 corporate customers who use the service to make small payments to other business owners or offer reimbursements to customers.?

THE TAKEAWAY

Google wants to tap into the Japanese cashless payments market ?? ?????First and foremost, there’s substantial room for growth - in 2020, cash accounted for?more than 50%?of all transactions in the country. Furthermore, with the help of pring, Google could further expand Google Pay acceptance and adoption. It’s clear that with the revamped Google Pay app, featuring solutions like cash management tools, banking services, and retail perks, Google has a pretty big appetite for financial services.

Extra Reads & Quick Bites for Curious Minds??

• Sweden’s financial watchdog has decided to investigate payments company?Klarna ?over a potential breach of banking secrecy laws in connection with an IT incident at the firm in May 2021, according to?whbl.com .
• Allied Payment Network (Allied) , a provider of online and mobile digital payment services to community financial institutions, has entered a partnership with?NYDIG . The partnership enables financial institutions to offer their customers the ability to buy, sell, and hold Bitcoin. Along with this partnership, Allied announced it will make an allocation to Bitcoin for its corporate treasury, facilitated by NYDIG.
• UK-based payments service provider?SumUp?has announced bringing its UK-based customers?Apple Pay.
• Malaysia-based budget carrier?AirAsia Group?has announced it will buy Indonesian ride-hailing and payments company?Gojek's Thailand business in a stock swap.
• UK-based bank?Barclays?has suspended debit and credit card payments to crypto-trading platform?Binance, citing a notice from the country's financial services regulator.

??Money Moves??

• Insurtech bolttech secures $180M series A.
• Codat , a startup that provides APIs to link small-business FinTech data to external services, announced that it has closed a $40M round.
• UK-based?Moneyhub , an Open Finance data, intelligence, and payments platform, has announced its investment of $18M to fuel its expansion into new markets.
• Singapore-based payments platform?Nium ?has signed an agreement to acquire?Wirecard Forex India ?for an undisclosed amount.
• Sweden-based payment solution platform?Juni ?has raised $21.5M.
• Netherlands-based challenger bank?Bunq?has raised $228M in a Series A round led by?Pollen Street Capital.

Quote of the Week/Food for Thought??

Wise?(ex-TransferWise) is an amazing European success story you just can’t ignore.

Graph of the Week ??

Despite all the technology and digital innovation, most of the world is still unbanked...

Week in Brief

Pleo, the Danish FinTech behind an expense management tool and linked smart company cards, has hit a $1.7B valuation thanks to a $150M Series C funding round co-led by Bain Capital Ventures and Thrive Capital.

Wise, one of the UK’s & Europe’s leading FinTechs went public on the London Stock Exchange on 7 July in the biggest direct listing ever.

Google?is reportedly in negotiations to acquire?pring, a Japan-based cashless payments startup, for between JPY20 billion ($187.3M) and JPY30 billion ($281M).

Continue reading by subscribing to?Linas's Newsletter.?You will receive fresh news about FinTech with hot takeaways every day.

P.S.?You might enjoy my earlier pieces as well:

???The Perfect Pitch Deck: How Coinbase Raised Seed Capital and Began Journey Towards $100B Worth Public Company

???Cutting Through the Noise: Bitcoin Fundamentals & Why it Was Created

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About: I am?a business developer, sales professional, FinTech strategist, as well as Cryptocurrency and Blockchain enthusiast. I'm highly passionate about Financial Technology and Digital Innovation, and strongly believe that it will change the world for the better. Apart from my daily job at a global payments startup where I'm leading the company's expansion into Europe, I'm an active member of the FinTech community and a TechFin evangelist.

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