BlackFin Tech weekly — February 5th, 2024
Every Monday, we publish a short digest which sums up last week’s Fintech activity
Hello FinTech Aficionados,
We hope you had a good weekend. As the curtain rises on a new week, we extend a warm welcome to our journey through the vibrant world of European fintech. Now, let's cut to the chase and explore the latest deals and updates shaping the financial technology landscape across Europe. No frills, just the facts—let's get started!
Last week we saw 7 official fintech deals in Europe for a total amount of 124m€ raised with two deals in France, one in the Netherlands, one in Switzerland, one in the UK, one in Germany, and one deal in Spain.
Congratulations to Amsterdam-based datasnipper, the intelligent automation platform for audit and finance, who has successfully raised €91,6m million in a Series B funding round led by Index Ventures. Well done also to Swiss CarbonPool, the carbon credit insurer, for having secured €11.3m led by Heartcore Capital and Vorwerk Ventures, including support from HCS Capital, and Revent Ventures. Finally, we want to congratulate General Index, the commodity markets pricing platform, for having completed a €11m million Series A round led by The Twenty Minute VC, with follow-on investment from Chalfen Ventures.
Let’s dive in
Amsterdam-based datasnipper, an intelligent automation platform for audit and finance, has raised $100M in a Series B round of funding. With this round, the company has earned the status of a unicorn. The investment was led by London-based venture capital firm Index Ventures, valuing the company at $1B. This development comes after datasnipper claims to have doubled its customer base and revenue in a year. The investment follows a previous funding round by Insight Partners in September 2022. datasnipper addresses the labor-intensive nature of auditing by providing an intelligent automation platform. By automating repetitive tasks, it aims to boost productivity for auditors, allowing them to focus on more complex and valuable aspects of their work. The company claims that its technology not only enhances efficiency but also reduces the risk of errors. With over 400,000 users across 125 countries, including firms like Deloitte and Ernst & Young, it initially focused on external audits. Now, with recent funding, datasnipper aims to expand into internal audit, tax advisory, forensic accounting, and other sectors. Clients include Hilton, Siemens, and Frontier Airlines, and the company says it is growing in the Asia-Pacific and Latin American markets. datasnipper has launched new product suites catering to finance professionals. The Cloud Collaboration Suite enables secure real-time coordination among distributed teams, while the AI Suite allows users to ask questions in natural language, automating analysis and insights extraction from unstructured data.
CarbonPool, a pioneering Carbon Credit Insurance Firm, positioning itself as the world’s first insurance company with a carbon credit balance sheet, has successfully concluded a $12 million funding round. The climate-focused startup is co-founded by former Allianz executives. The funding round is led by Heartcore Capital and Vorwerk Ventures, including support from HCS Capital, and Revent Ventures. The raise marks the largest European climate-focused seed funding round in over a year. Globally, it is the second-biggest seed funding in climate finance, highlighting significant interest in innovative approaches to carbon credit insurance. Founded by former Allianz executives, CarbonPool provides credit insurance with claims payments made in-kind, ensuring companies can guarantee the carbon credits that they buy materialize. The premiums collected from each client are invested, alongside CarbonPool’s capital, into high-quality carbon removal projects, to enable claims payments in-kind. The company’s insurance license application is underway in Switzerland, and CarbonPool is already offering assessments and pre-underwriting agreements to clients including corporations, institutional investors, and carbon removal developers. It is also in conversation with government bodies, including the United Nations and the State of California.
General Index has completed a £9.5 million Series A funding round which it says will accelerate the energy transition to hydrogen and biofuels. Investment firm The Twenty Minute VC led the funding round, with follow-on investment from Chalfen Ventures, and from 20 other individual investors bringing expertise across technology, DeFi, blockchain, trading energy and disruptive information businesses. The round will allow it to continue building more accessible commodity prices to ensure better management of the world’s resources. Since the previous investment round in 2021, GX says it has grown substantially, aggregating trade data from over 150 data partners to produce 2,600 energy prices. Its 45+ strong team is now established across offices in London, Krakow, Singapore, and Houston. Notably in 2023, it was chosen to provide the settlement price for three new trading instruments on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) – for new grades of gasoline blended with biofuels. It was also selected to power and expand Bloomberg’s BOIL energy coverage, available on terminals and via data feeds. GX will use the funding to expand its line-up of energy transition prices, including biofuels, sustainable aviation fuel, hydrogen, carbon, green ammonia, and green methanol.
In addition to this week’s fundraising activity, here is the European M&A activity of the week:
Visma has recently completed the acquisition of Chaintrust, reinforcing its presence in the French market. Visma, a Norwegian leader in mission-critical cloud software, reported revenue of €2.06 billion in 2022, boasting a workforce of 15,000 employees. Its diverse offerings encompass cloud accounting, payroll, HRM, and workforce management solutions. Chaintrust, a specialized company in automated accounting, brings extensive expertise in automating and streamlining accounting processes. This strategic move aligns with Visma's overarching vision to establish a comprehensive and integrated ecosystem tailored to the specific needs of accounting firms in France and across Europe. Building on the foundation laid by the 2022 acquisition of Inqom, the addition of Chaintrust to Visma's portfolio further enriches its software offerings, with a particular focus on accounting. This expansion enhances Visma's ability to deliver significant value across its comprehensive suite of solutions.
And finally, here are the news that caught our eye last week:
Mastercard has unveiled its cutting-edge Decision Intelligence Pro, fortified with generative AI technology capable of swiftly analyzing a trillion data points, enhancing transaction risk assessment in just 50 milliseconds. Initial tests indicate potential fraud detection rate improvements of up to 300%, accompanied by a reduction in false positives. This innovation reaffirms Mastercard's dedication to bolstering security and trust in every transaction.
BNP Paribas experienced a significant setback with a nearly 10% drop in its shares following the announcement of a delay in its profitability target. The bank now aims to achieve a 12% return on tangible equity by 2026, pushing back from its initial goal of 2025. This delay was partially attributed to the European Central Bank's decision to cease interest payments on minimum reserves held by commercial banks, impacting the entire European banking landscape. The cautious economic outlook in Europe also affected other French lenders, including Société Générale and Crédit Agricole. Meanwhile, ING, the largest Dutch bank, reported a decrease in net interest income, resulting in an over 8% decline in its shares. BNP Paribas' fourth-quarter earnings fell by 50% to just over €1 billion, falling short of analyst expectations. This decline was influenced by provisions set aside for losses related to "risk on financial instruments," including disputes with customers regarding Swiss franc mortgages. Despite these challenges, BNP Paribas remains committed to its growth strategy in Europe and reaffirmed its plan to distribute 60% of earnings in dividends for 2023.
Dutch neobank Bunq is poised to make a comeback in the UK market, following a year of profitable operations in 2023. Having reported a net profit of €53.1 million and boasting over 11 million users in Europe, with deposits exceeding €7 billion, Bunq is now set on global expansion. While awaiting a banking permit in the US, the bank is actively pursuing a UK E-Money Institution license, seeking to re-engage with the British market and cater to approximately 2.8 million British digital nomads. Bunq's CEO, Ali Niknam, is enthusiastic about the company's return to the UK, aiming to simplify banking for digital nomads and facilitate seamless banking experiences across Europe.
Fintech October, which specialized in loans for SMEs, sold its main technological infrastructure, October Connect, to Sopra Banking Software, a subsidiary of the French software giant Sopra. This acquisition will allow Sopra to deploy these tools on a large scale to better finance SMEs. In addition to the sale of its technological infrastructure, October also announced a drastic reduction in its lending capacity. The company's leaders cited challenges related to the current economic environment and interest rates, making it difficult to maintain a sufficient origination volume to remain financially viable.
Have a great week & see you soon!