BlackFin Tech Weekly — December 16th, 2024
BlackFin Tech Weekly — December 16th, 2024
Hello FinTech Friends,
Happy Monday! As we approach the holidays, let’s make the most of this final Monday with the latest fintech updates. Dive into the news and trends shaping the industry this season!
Last week, we saw 10 official fintech deals in Europe, raising a total of €170.6 million, with 3 deals in the UK, 2 in Germany, 2 in France, 1 in Switzerland, 1 in Estonia, and 1 in Sweden.
Big congratulations to Upvest, the German investment API, on securing an impressive €100 million in a Series C round led by Hedosophia. Cheers to Mynt, the SME-focused spend management platform, for raising €22 million in a Series B round led by Vor Capital. And a well-deserved round of applause to Dfns, the French crypto wallet infrastructure provider, for closing a €15 million Series A round led by Wintermute Ventures.
Let’s dive in
UK Berlin-based Upvest has raised €100M in a Series C round led by Hedosophia and joined by Sapphire Ventures. The company’s Investment API enables fintechs, banks, and wealth managers—including clients like Revolut and N26—to offer fractional ETFs, stocks, mutual funds, and more. With recent FCA authorisation, Upvest is scaling across Europe and the UK, expanding its product suite to include goal-based and tax-efficient investing. The funding will double its 170-person team, enhance its offerings, and deepen partnerships with financial institutions.
Swedish startup Mynt has raised €22 million in a funding round led by Vor Capital, with participation from CNI and Incore. This round brings Mynt’s total funding to €50 million, valuing the company at approximately €200 million. Mynt’s AI-powered platform provides SMEs with corporate cards, spend management tools, and seamless integrations with accounting apps. With features like virtual cards, automated receipt matching, and individual spend limits, Mynt simplifies expense management for businesses with 2–500 employees. The company has grown rapidly, serving 12,000 SMEs today, up from 3,000 a year ago. Originally focused on the Nordics, Mynt is now expanding into the UK and other European markets to address the vast, underserved SME sector
French startup DFNS has raised €15M in a Series A round led by Wintermute Ventures, joined by White Star Capital, SIG, and others. DFNS uses Multi-Party Computation (MPC) to secure digital wallets by splitting access keys into fragments across secure environments. Its Wallet-as-a-Service (WaaS) platform helps fintechs and institutions create and manage multi-chain wallets while ensuring regulatory compliance. Trusted by clients like Mt Pelerin and Polymath, DFNS will use the funds to expand globally and advance its digital asset security solutions.
In addition to this week’s fundraising activity, here is the European M&A activity of the week:
Upbound Group (NASDAQ: UPBD) has announced a $460 million cash-and-stock acquisition of financial technology company Brigit, a deal expected to close in Q1 2025. Brigit offers subscription-based financial services, including cash advances and credit-profile building, and serves nearly 2 million active monthly users. Upbound will pay $325 million at closing (75% in cash and 25% in stock), with additional contingent payments over two years tied to Brigit’s performance. The acquisition enables Upbound to leverage Brigit’s proprietary data modeling to better serve credit-poor consumers and expand its product portfolio, with significant cross-selling opportunities due to only 10% customer overlap.
BidCo, a newly formed private limited company owned by a consortium comprising JC Flowers Funds, TowerBrook Funds, and Railsr shareholders, is set to acquire UK-based fintech provider Equals Group in a £283 million deal. Equals shareholders will receive 140 pence per share, comprising 135 pence in cash and a 5 pence special dividend. Expected to close in Q2 2025, the deal aims to merge Equals with Railsr, creating one of Europe’s largest embedded finance platforms by combining Railsr’s embedded finance solutions with Equals’ cross-border transaction capabilities. The consortium highlights synergies in foreign exchange, payments, and banking services, envisioning accelerated growth and competitiveness in the financial services market.
And finally, we bring you four current stories from the Fintech universe:
Walmart is leading a funding round of over $300 million for its fintech startup One, which is now valued at $2.5 billion, alongside investment firm Ribbit Capital. The startup aims to expand Walmart's presence in financial services by offering products tailored to the retailer's extensive customer base and employees.
Sweden's Financial Supervisory Authority (FI) has fined Klarna $50 million for violating anti-money laundering regulations following an investigation into the company's compliance from April 2021 to March 2022. The investigation revealed deficiencies in Klarna's general risk assessment and due diligence procedures, but notably did not uncover any actual instances of money laundering.
UK fintech Stenn has been placed into administration following an application by HSBC, prompted by concerns over potentially fraudulent transactions. The scrutiny was triggered when Stenn was referenced in a US criminal indictment related to a Russian money laundering scheme, leading HSBC to investigate suspicious activities within the invoice financing provider.
Norway's Vipps has launched the world's first competitor to Apple Pay for iPhone, following Apple's agreement with the European Commission to open up its contactless payment technology. The service, developed in collaboration with BankAxept and Thales, is currently available to customers of SpareBank 1, DNB, and over 40 local banks, with plans to include more lenders in the future.
Have a great week before Christmas!
Sources of the fundraising reports