BlackFin Tech Weekly — October 28th, 2024
Every Monday, we publish a short digest which sums up last week’s Fintech activity.
Hello FinTech Friends,
Welcome back! With October coming to a close, we’re back with your weekly dose of insights and updates from the fintech world. Let’s dive into the latest news and trends!
Last week, we saw 7 official fintech deals in Europe, raising a total of €117.1 million, with 4 deals in the UK, 2 deals in Germany and 1 deal in Luxembourg.
Congratulations to Moneybox, the UK’s leading savings and investing platform, on announcing an €84 million funding round led by Apis Partners and Amundi. Applause as well for Genie AI, the UK-based contract management platform, on its €16 million Series A round led by Google Ventures. And finally, kudos to Luxembourg’s digital asset marketplace, STOKR, for securing €7.4 million in funding from Fulgur Ventures.
Let’s dive in
Moneybox, the UK-based saving and investing platform, has secured €84 million in funding led by new backers Apis Partners and Amundi. This funding round, structured primarily as a secondary share sale, enables current investors to sell 10-15% of their shares while supporting Moneybox's growth strategy. With over one million users, the platform recently surpassed £10 billion in Assets Under Administration (AUA) and posted a 168% revenue increase. The funds will drive product innovation, strengthening Moneybox’s market position as it helps customers save, invest, buy homes, and plan for retirement.
London-based Genie AI, an AI-powered legal editor, has raised €16 million in Series A funding led by Google Ventures, with additional support from Khosla Ventures. The new capital will drive enhancements to Genie’s Agentic Legal AI, advancing its mission to streamline legal drafting, reviewing, editing, and negotiation. Genie AI’s platform combines three core products: Agentic Legal AI, which automates document drafting, reviewing, red-lining, and commenting; a Legal Editor capable of importing complex Microsoft Word documents for seamless AI-driven editing; and a Legal Library, a public resource of templates, toolkits, clauses, and guidance notes used by millions globally, fully compatible with the Legal Editor and Agentic Legal AI. To date, Genie AI has supported over 100,000 companies, including 11 FTSE100 companies, 20 Global200 law firms, major US banks, and two of the ‘big four’ UK supermarket chains, drafting contracts across 120+ jurisdictions worldwide.
The Luxembourg-based digital asset marketplace STOKR has raised €7.4 million in its latest funding round, with a major focus on building a corporate Bitcoin treasury, making it one of the first in the EU to adopt this strategy. Led by Fulgur Ventures, the round included 100 BTC (valued at approximately €6.2 million) alongside €1.2 million in cash. STOKR plans to significantly grow its Bitcoin treasury over the coming years. The company will also use the funds to launch new Bitcoin-based tokenized assets and upgrade its infrastructure for institutional tokenization, leveraging layer-2 technologies like the Liquid Network. STOKR has processed over €99.3 million in combined redemptions and investments in 2024 alone. Additionally, STOKR intends to transition from a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) to a regulated Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP) under the EU’s new MiCA framework, ensuring full compliance with evolving regulatory standards.
In addition to this week’s fundraising activity, here is the European M&A activity of the week:
Nuvei, a leading Canadian fintech company, has acquired Payaut, a Netherlands-based provider of specialized payment technology for marketplaces. This acquisition, with undisclosed financial terms, aligns with Nuvei's strategic mission to deepen its expertise and expand its reach in the fast-growing marketplace economy, where online platforms are rapidly gaining prominence. By integrating Payaut’s technology and expert team, Nuvei aims to enhance its Nuvei for Platforms offering, equipping marketplace businesses with innovative payment solutions that streamline operations and improve flexibility
And finally, these are the news that caught our eye last week:
GoCardless is reportedly becoming the latest UK fintech to conduct a secondary share sale, after Revolut and Monzo’s respective recent employee shares sales in recent months. Up to $200m worth of stock could be sold in this upcoming round.
Green Dot is launching Arc by Green Dot, an embedded finance platform, which includes a Banking-as-a-Service offering. According to the press release, the platform already supports thousands of businesses across various growth stages.
Malcolm Le May, the former CEO of Vanquis Banking Group, and Gene Lockhart, former CEO of Mastercard, are joining UK-based FinTech Pockit as non-executive directors. These news come shortly after Pockit’s acquisition of Monese.
Nordic challenger bank Lunar is launching a GenAI Native Voice Assistant; a European first. Beyond traditional voice support, the new assistant is said to be able to handle interruptions, repeat information and create a more natural dialogue. Currently in its beta phase, it is expected to be able to eventually handle three quarters of customer calls.
Have a great week!
Sources of the fundraising reports