BlackFin Tech weekly — December 11th 2023
Every Monday, we publish a short digest which sums up last week’s Fintech activity
Good afternoon, fintech friends! The festive season is almost here so we hope you are in good spirits.
Let's dive straight into the latest insights and updates that the fintech landscape has to offer:
In the past week, we saw 6 deals in Europe for a total amount of €88.9m raised officially with two deals in Germany, two in the UK, one in Spain, and one in Estonia.
Congratulations to Scalable Capital, the Munich-based payments platform, for successfully raising €60m million from Balderton Capital and HV Capital. Well done as well to QANplatform, the Estonian Blockchain development platform, on its €14.3m round led by MBK Holding. Finally, we want to congratulate Triple, the London-based fintech specializing in transaction data enrichment for financial services, who has successfully raised €7.1 million in a Seed funding round. Investors include TX Ventures, Form Ventures, Portfolio Ventures, Neosfer, and Core Angels Barcelona.
Let’s dive in
Scalable Capital has raised €60 million ($65 million), led by Balderton Capital with participation from HV Capital's new growth fund and existing investors.
The funding will be used to expand its operations in the six countries it is already active in (Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Spain, and Netherlands) and potentially enter new markets.
Despite significant growth, Scalable Capital has maintained a flat valuation of $1.4 billion, the same valuation as its previous funding round in 2021.
The company now operates as a full-service brokerage, managing over 1.2 million savings plans for more than 600,000 customers and handling close to €17 billion in assets under management. It offers a range of investment products, including ETFs, stocks, funds, bonds, cryptocurrencies, and derivatives.
Scalable Capital has access to over 8,000 stocks, 2,500 ETFs, and 3,500 funds, with ETFs being the most popular product.
This funding brings Scalable Capital's total raised capital to more than $345 million.
Scalable Capital remains focused on product development and market expansion and is not currently pursuing a banking license.
Read more
QANplatform, a B2B blockchain developer based in Tallinn, Estonia, has secured $15 million in funding.
The funding round was led by MBK Holding.
QANplatform plans to use the funds to support its global market access and expansion efforts.
QANplatform offers a quantum-resistant Layer 1 hybrid blockchain platform that allows developers and enterprises to create various blockchain-based solutions, including smart contracts, DApps, DeFi, DAO, tokens, NFTs, Metaverse, CBDCs, tokenized assets, and Web3 applications in any programming language on top of its system.
Alpine Esports, a Group Renault brand, and a participant in the Formula 1® Esports Series, selected QANplatform as its Official Blockchain Partner in February 2023.
QANplatform was also chosen for the EY Global Startup Academy 2023 Program.
The company's hybrid blockchain includes both private and public blockchains, with the introduction of the QAN Private Blockchain in September 2023.
MBK Holding, the leading investor in this round, is an investment holding company founded by H.E. Sheikh Mansoor Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, with offices in Qatar and the UK. It focuses on investing in technology startups from various countries, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.
Besides providing funding, MBK Holding will also offer growth services to help QANplatform expand its global market presence.
QANplatform aims to enhance its quantum-resistant security measures with the investment to ensure the safety and user-friendliness of its blockchain platform.
Read more
Fintech startup Triple has successfully raised $7.5 million in a Seed round of funding.
Based in London, Triple specializes in AI-powered data enrichment services for the financial industry, especially transaction data.
The investment will be used to further develop Triple's fintech infrastructure services.
Triple originally conceived the idea as an automated rewards marketplace to be built on top of transaction data but realized the need for a solution to make sense of transaction descriptions.
The company's CEO, Mario Navarro, recognized the broader problem within the financial industry and shifted the focus to solving it by providing banks with better data, prioritizing accuracy and security.
Triple's API for transaction enrichment has processed billions of transactions and is currently collaborating with over 20 banks and fintech companies globally, including Pleo, Trade Republic, and Ben.
The Seed round was led by TX Ventures and included participation from Form Ventures, Portfolio Ventures, Neosfer, Core Angels Barcelona, as well as successful entrepreneurs like Paul Forster from Indeed and Pedro Tortosa from Devo.
Jens Schleuniger, Managing Partner at TX Ventures, noted the importance and complexity of accurate transaction data enrichment in the financial industry and praised Triple's API-first solution for its quality and accuracy.
Read more
Congrats also to Chip, Leverest and La Bolsa Social for their fundraisings!
And finally, here are the news that caught our eye last week:
Trade Republic, a Berlin-based neobroker valued at $5.3 billion, has obtained a full banking license from the European Central Bank, allowing it to independently hold customer deposits and expand into lending. As the EU plans to ban payment for order flow (PFOF), a significant revenue source for trading platforms like Trade Republic, the fintech seeks to diversify its income streams, emphasizing the importance of regulatory approval in its growth strategy.
Bunq, a major European challenger bank with over nine million customers and €4.5 billion in deposits, is preparing to reenter the UK market after pausing operations in 2020 due to Brexit-related issues. CEO Ali Niknam highlights the UK's appeal for digital nomads and the removal of bonus cap regulations as factors driving Bunq's return to the British financial scene.
ZestMoney, a buy now, pay later startup backed by investors like Goldman Sachs, is closing down due to unsuccessful attempts to secure a buyer or a sustainable path forward. Despite once being valued at $445 million and raising over $130 million in funding, the company couldn't overcome challenges in India's fintech landscape and will cease operations by the end of the month.
Revolut, a popular mobile banking app, is now being used by some individuals as a covert means to communicate with their lovers without their partners' knowledge. Therapist Matthew Bartolo highlights the challenge of concealing infidelity in the digital age, where technology has created a "digital record" of activities and communication, potentially impacting the dynamics of relationships.
Have a great week & see you soon!