BlackFin Tech weekly — June 13th, 2023
Every week, we publish a short digest which sums up last week's fintech activity.
Dear Fintech Folks, we hope you're all doing well. As always, thank you for reading our updates every week. Let’s dive into the latest:
Last week we saw 10 deals in Europe for a total of 145m€ raised with 3 deals in Germany, 2 in the UK, Sweden and The Netherlands and 1 in Spain.
Congratulations to Payrails, the payment orchestration platform, on its €13.5m Seed Round, followed by the BaaS provider Griffin, which secured a €12.5m Series A Round. Finally, Mitigram, the digital platform in global trade financing secured an additional $11m from its latest funding round.
Let’s dive in:
Payrails raised €13.5 million in a seed extension round led by EQT Ventures. General Catalyst, Andreessen Horowitz and HV Capital also participated to the round. Payrails has developed an end-to-end operating system that streamlines the entire payment processing value chain. Recognising a market gap for a complete solution for high-growth firms, Payrails caters to businesses that require an enterprise-grade operating system to manage payments. The system can facilitate multi-processor setup for payments, route payments across different regions, and perform complex internal money movement tasks. Learn more
Griffin raised a €12.5 million Series A led by MassMutual Ventures, with participation from existing investors Seedcamp, Notion Capital and EQT Ventures. Griffin is a full-stack BaaS platform engineered to empower FinTech firms by offering them an exhaustive suite of banking services. Being an API-first bank, it showcases the potency of Software as a Service (SaaS) in the banking sector, serving an array of customer-focused financial products. This funding round comes on the heels of Griffin's recent achievement in securing its UK banking licence with restrictions. Learn more
Mitigram secured an additional $11m from its latest funding round, bringing the total amount raised to $38m. Funded in 2014, Mitigram’s advanced and interoperable digital platform is designed for corporations and financial institutions to price check and execute risk cover and financing transactions in cross-border trade. Current clients include Bridgestone, Vale, Ericsson, ArcelorMittal, and over 150 banks. The investment will enable Mitigram to move into its next phase of growth, executing its product roadmap, maximising the SaaS opportunity and drive further competitive advantage through network scaling. Learn more
Congrats also to Insify, Life5(ex-Getlife), Tilta, Looping one, NAO and Econans for their fundraisings!
In addition to this week’s fundraising activity, we also observed the following M&A deals:
RIBBIT, an authority on alternative bank and payment data, has acquired ValidiFI, a leading provider of fraud, compliance, and risk mitigation solutions. This strategic merger creates the industry's leading banking and payment data solutions platform, enhancing their product range and establishing the largest alternative database in the marketplace.
Medius, a prominent provider of accounts payable automation solutions, has acquired Expensya, a business expense management software. This strategic acquisition enables Medius to expand in the competitive enterprise application market, leveraging their complementary geographic and product characteristics to drive rapid growth and market penetration.
Engel & Völkers Digital Invest, a listed real estate platform, has acquired robo-advisor Wevest to expand their financial product offerings. Wevest brings expertise in ETF-based investments and Bafin licenses, managing €64 million in customer funds. The purchase price, primarily in shares, is valued in the low single-digit millions, further strengthening Engel & Völkers Digital Invest's market position.
Hokodo, a B2B payment solutions provider, has acquired a Lithuanian payments business, becoming the first B2B Buy Now, Pay Later provider with a payments license. This acquisition enhances their payment solutions, empowering merchants to offer comprehensive pay now and pay later options. With the goal of helping one million businesses access better payment options, Hokodo is opening a new office in Lithuania and solidifying their position as a regulated EMI.
And finally, here are the news that caught our eye last week:
Kvika Bank taps Enfuce to modernise payment services in Iceland. It will include the launch of a Visa consumer credit card, integration with Apple Paya bd Google Pay and the relaunch of the bank’s Aur app.
Lunar opens up infrastructure to enable instant payments in the Nordics. As part of its first partnership, Lunar will offer it infrastructure to Trustly through a single API integration.
BlackRock acquires private debt manager Kreos Capital. The acquisition will see Kreos’s 45-person team be integrated into BlackRock’s European private debt platform. BlackRock’s recent global private markets survey found that more than half of respondents plan to increase their private credit holdings in 2023.
UK lawmakers call for a dedicated government role to oversee crypto regulation. 53 recommendations for regulation crypto have been made. The APPG also explored the potential of a central bank digital currency, which the government is consulting on before making its decision on whether to issue one.
Have a great week & see you next week!