BlackFin Tech weekly — July 31st 2023
Every Monday, we publish a short digest which sums up last week’s Fintech activity.
Hi Fintech Folks!
Summer is here, and we're feeling the holiday vibes! Before we dive into the sun and sand, here's a quick update: this is our last newsletter before our holiday break. We'll be back in action on August 21st with a fresh batch of awesome content! Let's jump right into the latest news from last week.
Last week we saw 12 deals in Europe for a total amount of 103m€ raised with 5 deals in the UK, 3 in France, 2 in Italy and 1 in Estonia and in the Netherlands.
Congratulations to the Dutch neobank, Bunq, on its €44.5m Venture round with Pollen Street Capital, followed by the Estonian-based Web3 super app Hi that raised $30m in a Seed round led by Hong-Kong based investor Animoca Capital.
And finally, Dattak, the Paris-based cyber-insurtech company raised an $8.5m Series A round existing investor Xange, Breega and Bpifrance.
Let’s dive in
Bunq raised a €44.5m “inside round” with existing investors Ali Niknam (founder & CEO), Pollen Street Capital and Raymond Kasiman. This round brings the total capital injected this year to nearly €100M, with a previously undisclosed €55.5 million earlier this year. The round is coming in a valuation of €1.65 billion, exactly the same valuation the neobank had in 2021 when it raised $228 million from the same investors.
That round was the first and last external investment and thus valuation assessment Bunq had ever taken. The startup was previously backed by Niknam himself, who is a third-time entrepreneur that owns about 90% of the company.
Bunq is a Dutch neobank that provides banking, savings, payments, card and other services to consumers with a focus on people who might need such services in more than one country across Europe.
The company currently has 9 million customers, compared to 5.4 million one year ago, and it has €4.5 billion in customer deposits (versus €1 billion two years ago). The majority of its customers are in Europe but Niknam said he sees as big of an opportunity in the U.S. as it has seen in its home territory. In April this year it started the process of getting a banking license sorted there.
Metaverse gaming and venture capital giant Animoca Brands has invested $30 million into Web3 payments application and protocol hi.
The move comes as hi plans to implement a Proof of Human Identity solution to complete KYC on its users and deter bots from conducting business on its layer 2 network.
hi, has already acquired digial assets licenses in Lithuania and Italy, and it says it is working to create an intuitive platform where users can save money, make investments, and make payments all in one place. The project also boasts that it has about 3.5 million users, with over a million of them having completed KYC processes.
Read more
Dattak raised an €8,5m Series A with existing investors XAnge, Breega and Bpifrance.
This announcement comes just one week after the news of Stoik securing €8.5m in Series A extension funding.
Like Stoik, Dattak is a French cyber insurance MGA (Managing General Agent).
Congrats also to eflow, Narval, Coverzen, Percayso Inform, Kenko, Bloom Money, SuperFi, Quickfisco, and Baseella for their fundraisings!
In addition to this week’s fundraising activity, we also observed the following M&A deal in Europe:
IMC, a global market maker in algorithmic trading, acquires Altas Technologies, a tech-driven firm with innovative financial solutions. With 100+ venues worldwide, IMC is a major player in the industry, recording €1.6bn revenues and €649m EBITDA in 2022. The acquisition aims to enhance IMC's capabilities by integrating Altas Technologies' cutting-edge systems, improving their predictive capabilities in financial markets.
And finally, here are the news that caught our eye last week
ChatGPT boss's crypto project that scans people's eyeballs. The creator of the hugely popular AI bot ChatGPT has launched a controversial project that offers users a free share of cryptocurrency in exchange for their biometric data. Nearly four years after founding Worldcoin, OpenAI boss Sam Altman announced on Monday that the crypto wallet and app is now available in countries where it is not banned for regulatory or legal reasons. More than 1.5 million people signed up to the venture prior to its official launch, each receiving a share of Worldcoin tokens in exchange for scanning their iris using a silver orb developed by the startup. The biometric data was allegedly used to verify everyone’s “unique personhood” and ensure that no one signed up more than once.
FedNow instant payments launches after 4 years of development. Fed Chair Jerome Powell highlighted the potential benefits, including enabling immediate access to pay checks and real-time fund availability for businesses when invoices are paid. As of now, 35 early adopters, including major banks like JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, have signed up, with additional institutions providing services for banks and credit unions. Overall, the FedNow service is expected to revolutionize payment processes by offering instant access to funds, promoting financial efficiency, and streamlining transactions for both individuals and businesses.
Spanish banks Banco Santander, BBVA and CaixaBank have announced a new alliance in an attempt to mitigate and prevent the impact of fraud. The trio have created FrauDfense, a new joint venture that will enable the exchange of all relevant and useful sources between the three banks to form one joint response to the issue. The alliance will initially work to develop a new tool that will allow the banks to more effectively share information on fraudulent practices in a private and secure setting. Their efforts will target financial fraud in all its many forms, including but not limited to new account fraud being powered by stolen identities, online fraud and card payment fraud.
Wirecard fugitive Jan Marsalek resurfaces with a message for the courts. Former Wirecard chief operating officer Jan Marsalek has re-emerged after three years in hiding, delivering a statement to the Munich Regional Court via his defence lawyer Frank Eckstein last week as Germany’s largest fraud trial continues. Austrian-born Marsalek, 43, has not been seen or heard from since he vanished shortly before the German payment processor imploded in 2020 with a $2 billion hole in its accounts and a debt of almost $4 billion to investors. German police have issued a warrant for his arrest amid an international search.
Have a great holiday break and see you in two weeks!