BlackFin Tech weekly — July 3rd, 2023
Every Monday, we publish a short digest which sums up last week's fintech activity.
Dear Fintech Folks, we hope you're all doing well. It's hard to believe, but we have already reached the halfway point of the year. Time truly flies! Without any further delay, let's dive into the exciting news from the past week.
Last week we saw 17 deals in Europe for a total of 103m€ raised with 4 deals in the UK, 3 in Spain, 2 in Italy and 1 in Germany, Belgium, Austria, Italy, Czech Republic, Portugal, Denmark and Switzerland.
Congratulations to One Trading (ex-Bit Panda Pro), the crypto trading platform on its €27.5m Venture round led by Valar Ventures, followed by Flatpay, the mobile POS payment system raised a €15m Seed round. Finally,Resistant.ai, the AI fraud prevention software raised a €10.1m Series A extension round with Notion Capital.
Let’s dive in
Bitpanda is splitting into two companies as Bitpanda Pro — the company’s cryptocurrency exchange — is going to become its own independent company called One Trading. As part of this move, One Trading is also raising $33 million in funding. Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures is leading the funding round, with participation from MiddleGame Ventures, Speedinvest, Keyrock and Wintermute Ventures.
Bitpanda is a popular consumer trading app that has raised hundreds of millions of dollars and attracted millions of users in Europe. While the company started as a crypto broker and exchange, it then added the ability to buy and sell stocks, ETFs, precious metals like gold and commodities.
In addition to these trading products designed for retail investors, Bitpanda has been running its own crypto exchange called Bitpanda Pro. This service is designed for institutional investors who handle large orders or businesses that want to trade using bots and the company’s API.
By splitting the company, Bitpanda won’t face as many regulatory challenges as One Trading. Similarly, in the U.S., crypto companies like Coinbase and Binance are facing lawsuits for securities law violations. Isolating Bitpanda from the crypto exchange activities could guarantee Bitpanda’s long-term prospects. For instance, One Trading plans to offer derivatives, which are risky financial assets.
Flatpay, raised a $15 million Series A from “both previous and new investors” including Seed Capital.
Flatpay offers a flat-rate point-of-sale (POS) technology for businesses that aims to make payments transparent and affordable for merchants across Europe.
Funds will allow Flatpay to increase its presence in the Danish and Finnish markets as well as it newest market Germany and boost product development.
Resistant.ai, an artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning security company that protects financial services from financial crime, today announced it has expanded its Series A funding to $27.6m, having raised an additional $11 million investment from Notion Capital.
The company’s solutions are already protecting a number of banks and fintech companies across the customer life cycle. Customers include Dun and Bradstreet, Payoneer, Habito, Planet42 and ComplyAdvantage
This funding follows a very successful 2022 where the customer base more than doubled, ARR increased 6x, monthly usage increased 4x YoY.
Congrats also to Bdeo, Embat, Jet HR, Fennech Financial, Freetrade, Retail247, Curvo, FoodCoin, Super Sight, Piece, Versus and Centi for their fundraisings!
While M&A activities in Europe have been relatively quiet, it is worth highlighting an intriguing deal that recently occurred in the United States:
Visa acquires Pismo, a core banking platform, for $1 billion. Pismo offers advanced solutions for financial institutions to streamline operations and deliver innovative banking services. The acquisition integrates Pismo's platform with Visa's network, enhancing their banking services and driving innovation in the industry.
And finally, here are the news that caught our eye last week:
NatWest launches business banking switcher offer. The offer is expected to saver business customers on average nearly £2,000 over two years. New start-ups opening a bank account will also get 24 months of free business banking. This new offer builds on the recently announced market-leading 3.56 per cent interest rate on their 95 days’ notice Savings account.
CaixaBank launches FXWallets. It allows customers to open an account immediately with no opening or maintenance costs and enables international payments in more than 50 currency pairs. CaixaBank claims its currency operations via the digital service channel in Spain have experienced YoY growth of more than 150%. FXWallets is a significant step toward internalization.
Orange Bank is withdrawing from the retail banking market. The board of directors have given the go-ahead to work out a partnership with BNP Paribas for their two-million- strong customer portfolio in France. Throughout the process, there will be no change in services, existing loans, or day-to-day operations for customers.
UK passes bill to recognize crypto as “regulated financial activity”, boosts adoption in Europe. The UK passed the Financial Services and Markets Bill after receiving approval from King Charles. Akin to MiCA, the new act will bring cryptocurrencies and stablecoins into the scope of regulations. Crypto adoption in Europe has snowballed since MiCA’s approval, with the UK joining the league despite not being a part of the bloc.
Have a great week & see you next week!