BlackFin Tech weekly — June 26th, 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. As always, thank you for reading our newsletter every week. Without further ado, let's dive into this week's freshest insights on the world of fintech.
Last week we saw 15 deals in Europe for a total of 96m€ raised with 4 deals in the UK, 3 in France, 2 in Romania, and 1 in Spain, Sweden, Italy, Ireland, Belgium and Switzerland.
Congratulations to the global infrastructure for real-time payments builder Volt, on its $60m Series B Round, followed by UK capital markets fintech, TreasurySpring, which secured an additional $29m from its latest funding round. Finally, Arrago, the company that offers a mortgage life loan for seniors while they retain full ownership of their property raised a €5m Seed round.
Let’s dive in:
Volt
Volt, raised a $60 million Series B led by Silicon Valley investor IVP .New investor, CommerzVentures, is also participating in this Series B round along with existing funds, including EQT Ventures, Augmentum Fintech PLC and Fuel Ventures.
Volt is building the infrastructure for global instant payments. Today, its open payments gateway allows merchants and PSPs to process transactions securely between accounts held at more than 5,000 banks in the UK, the EU and Brazil.
The company plans to use this Series B investment to expand into new international markets such as APAC and the Americas – and support product development in existing markets across Europe, the UK and Brazil.
TreasurySpring
TreasurySpring raised $29m in a Series B from investors including Balderton and Mubadala Capital. Existing investors ETFS Capital, Anthemis and MMC Ventures also participated in the round.
The company is targeting a complex problem in capital markets with what it calls a Fixed-Term Fund (FTF) platform. It’s targeting holders of large cash balances that want to do more with that cash than hold it in unsecured bank deposits. Its platform allows these companies to diversify their risk by making short-dated (from one week to one year) cash investments, like single secured bank loans or single investment-grade corporate loans.
Arrago
Arrago raised €5m in a Seed Round from LO Capital, Obotritia Capital and Business Angels such as Didier Valet, Roger Tjong. The company has secured 50 million euros in debt.
The main solution developed by Arrago is Prêt 60, which enables senior citizens to borrow using their property as collateral. In this way, they can top up their retirement without having to sell or leave their home. This type of financing, already common in countries such as England, Italy, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands, could concern more than 18 million homeowners aged over 60 in France.
Arrago, which employs around ten people, aims to increase its workforce to 20 by the end of the year, and to achieve around 100 million euros in loans within 12 months.
Congrats also to Yields.io, Hyperline, Omnevue, Colossus, FINQware, Komgo, Kryptoskatt, Splink, RomDefi and Crowmie for their fundraisings!
In addition to this week’s fundraising activity, we also observed the following M&A deals in Europe:
Bankable, a leading banking-as-a-service (BaaS) provider, has acquired Arex Markets, an embedded finance solutions to enable firms to provide credit products for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This acquisition creates a powerful embedded finance platform, combining Bankable's BaaS technology with Arex Markets' expertise. It expands the range of services available and strengthens their position in the embedded finance market.
Mediobanca, an Italian investment bank, has acquired Swiss BNPL startup HeidiPay to strengthen its consumer credit arm, Compass Banca. The acquisition enhances risk management tools, leverages customer data, and strengthens the digital BNPL solution. It also opens doors for international product offerings to multi-country merchants.
As there haven't been many M&A activities in Europe, it's worth mentioning one interesting deal that took place in the US.:
Robinhood, the trading platform, has acquired credit card startup X1 for $95 million. This strategic move allows Robinhood to broaden its services and cater to a wider range of customer financial needs. X1 Card's innovative features, such as income-based credit limits and convenient subscription management, will enhance Robinhood's offerings.
And finally, here are the news that caught our eye last week:
Okoora, the Israeli-Swiss startup is launching an AI platform: the ABCM. It aims to help firms manage their foreign funds and facilitate seamless global payments in more than 100 currencies. It has led to significant financial gains for Israeli businesses, totaling billions of shekels
KKR to buy €40bn of PayPal European BNPL loans. KKR will acquire substantially all the French, German, Italian, Spanish and UK BNPL portfolio. The deal is set to be close in the second quarter and will generate $1.8 billion of proceeds for PayPal. PayPal’s shares rose nearly three per cent in morning trading
Amazon partners with YouLend for a flexible financing programme. It relies on a revenue-based financing model that allows merchants to grow their businesses and expand their operations, secure new equipment or ramp up their marketing efforts. What makes this offering stand out is that sellers pay a single fixed fee with repayments tied to a percentage of their future sales on Amazon.
Binance to exit the Netherlands after failing to obtain regulatory approval. The details behind Binance’s failed efforts to register for a VASP license remain unclear. Customers will only be able to withdraw assets from the platform, while trading and deposits were stopped. Binance was handed a 3.3 million euro fine by the DNB in July 2022 for operating without clearance in the Netherlands