Viva.com powers payments with BLIK, the leading Polish mobile payments method

ARTICLE OF THE WEEK

• The CFO Series: The Role of FinTech in Automating Financial Workflows .

The role of Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) is evolving in the eCommerce sector. As mentioned in the previous article, CFOs are increasingly involved in strategic decision-making and technological integration.

So, now we're talking about workflow automation and it’s vital for businesses to grow and how FinTechs can help with their digital transformation.

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?? NEWS HIGHLIGHT

• Monzo Bank says it has plans for an Irish ???? office as part of a bid to enter the European Union market .

The online-only bank reported its first-ever annual profit on Monday. It launched in 2015.

Monzo also revealed that it is in the early stages of opening an office in Dublin, which it described as a “gateway” to expand across the EU.

It did not give a date for when the Dublin office will open. But it said it is set to launch in the “coming months”.

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?? ARTICLE

• Last week we saw 10 official FinTech deals in Europe for a total amount of €243m raised with 4 deals in the UK, 2 deals in Sweden, 1 deal in France, 1 deal in Switzerland, 1 deal in Denmark, and 1 deal in Spain .

NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S?NEWS

?? FINTECH HIGHLIGHTS

?? Viva.com powers payments with BLIK, the leading Polish mobile payments method .

?? Milan-based FinTech startup Sibill secures €6.2M to automate financial operations for Italian SMBs .

?? Klarna's Q1 2024 Results are in, announcing a profitable start to 2024 .

?? Mangopay debuts AI-driven fraud prevention package .

FINTECH

Klarna using GenAI to cut marketing costs by $10 mln annually. FinTech firm Klarna, one of the early adopters of generative AI (GenAI), said it is using AI for purposes such as running marketing campaigns and generating images, saving about $10 million in costs annually.

Klarna, the buy now pay later (BNPL) FinTech giant, has removed the right of large shareholders to block smaller investors ' share trades ahead of a prospective $20bn (￡15.7bn) US float.

Modulr unveils payment service built for online travel agents. The traditional payment infrastructure in the travel industry is often fragmented and outdated , relying on multiple vendors and creating cumbersome manual processes.

BlackRock-backed FinTech Trustly says IPO still at least one year out even as profits jump 51%. Trustly is holding out on an IPO even after reporting a strong set of financials . Results shared exclusively with CNBC show the firm reported revenues of $265 million in its 2023 full year.

Dock Financial files for insolvency. The BaaS platform Dock Financial acts as an infrastructure provider that allows companies to digitise financial processes and simplify their processing .

PAYMENTS

FinTech Thunes Explains Why Turkey Is Expected to Lead Digital Payments Adoption. Thunes says its extensive payments network in the country “facilitates collections and payouts to link bank accounts, digital wallets and merchants.

Nexi offers Tap to Pay on iPhone for merchants in Italy. Nexi, the European PayTech, now enables merchants in Italy to accept in-person contactless payments seamlessly and securely with Tap to Pay on iPhone, and will continue to expand the availability of Tap to Pay on iPhone to its customers in Europe where the service is available.

Currencycloud selects Form3 for Confirmation of Payee. The Form3 Confirmation of Payee Requester Service enables Currencycloud’s customers to verify account holder and payee details to provide fast and secure account verification.

MyPOS enables Tap to Pay on iPhone in Italy. With Tap to Pay on iPhone and the myPOS Glass app, merchants can seamlessly and securely accept in-person contactless payments , including contactless credit and debit cards.

PayPal has recently introduced a new payment solution tailored for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) engaged in online trading in Ireland. The initiative, named PayPal Complete Payments, extends support for various payment methods , including Apple Pay and Google Pay, across more than 20 European markets.

OPEN BANKING

Yapily, a provider of open banking solutions across UK and Europe, announces a partnership with mmob, an embedded finance enabler known for its universal API adaptor .

Western Union collaborates with Plaid for faster, more secure payments in Europe. The collaboration with Plaid makes Western Union’s remittance and payment processes even simpler , cheaper, and more secure for its customers in Europe.

CRYPTO

Binance France drops CZ and names two new shareholders to preserve European foothold. The move is designed to ensure that the world’s top crypto exchange doesn’t lose its right to operate in the European Union’s second biggest economy.

Mastercard just launched Crypto Credential, which allows you to send Bitcoin to any customer at an exchange with a simple username, instead of a wallet address.

DONEDEAL

Swiipr, a travel paytech company transforming the airline industry’s outdated and inefficient disruption payments systems, has secured ￡6m in Series A funding. Having launched in 2020, Swiipr is already used by 26 airlines across 70 countries.

Copenhagen-based ZTLment secures €2.4 million to replace outdated banking infrastructures. With the fresh capital, ZTLment aims to eliminate the need for outdated banking infrastructures once and for all and make it easy to make programmable and peer-to-peer payments.

British bill payment outfit PayPoint has made a ￡1 million investment in consumer and business credit reporting and open banking platform Aperidata. The two companies recently banded together on a system for Citizen’s Advice Stevenage, launching an open banking driven customer support.

Spain's Banktrack secures €2M Seed round. The capital raised in this funding round will be used to enhance the functionalities of the treasury monitoring software as well as to expand the customer service and sales teams.

FinTechOS Raises $60M in Series B+ Funding?. The round was led by Molten Ventures, with participation from Cipio Partners , and BlackRock, and fellow existing investors EarlyBird VC, OTB VC, and Gapminder VC.

Swedish climate FinTech Doconomy bags €34m in Series B funding. Doconomy states the newly obtained funds will be utilised to fuel the company’s expansion in North America , drive “broader engagement and adoption of its tools”, and support the further development of its product suite.

Light Frame, a Providence, RI-based private banking and wealth management technology company, raised $1.7M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by ATX Venture Partners and New Stack Ventures with participation from Rogue Venture Partners, Half Court Ventures, Underdog.

M&As

UK wealth management firm Intelligent Money has entered administration after agreeing a deal to sell off its business and assets to fellow provider Quai.

Turkey’s leading FinTech, Papara, which has reached 20 million users, has expanded into South Asia through the 100 percent purchase of SadaPay. This strategic move follows Papara’s recent European expansion through the acquisition of Spanish Rebellion in 2023.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Paymentology, a global issuer-processor announced the appointment of Tim Joslyn as its Chief Technology Officer (CTO), succeeding interim CTO James Letley. Tim has over 25 years of experience as a technologist working across Europe and has built and exited several B2B and B2C businesses.

Small business lender Funding Circle plans to cut around 120 jobs as part of efforts to reduce costs and boost its flagging share price. It also announced the departure of its finance chief.