BlackFin Tech Weekly — October 7th, 2024
Every Monday, we publish a short digest which sums up last week’s Fintech activity.
Hello FinTech Friends,
Welcome back to our newsletter! October has arrived, marking the close of Q3. Let’s jump into the first Monday of Q4 with a look at the latest news and trends in the world of fintech.
Last week, we saw 8 official fintech deals in Europe, raising a total of €106.8 million, with 2 deals in the UK, 2 deals in Germany, 1 deal in France 1 deal in Belgium, 1 deal in the Netherlands and 1 deal in Lithuania.
A big congratulations to Truelayer, the leading UK-based open banking platform, for raising €45.2 million in an extension to their Series E round, led by Northzone. We also celebrate BMLL’s achievement in securing €19.2 million in their Series B round, led by Optiver. Lastly, a round of applause to the Belgian online financial advisor Easyvest, for its €13 million investment from Belfius and SFPIM.
Let’s dive in
The UK-based leading open banking platform TrueLayer, has raised €45.2 million in an extension of its €118.5 million Series E funding round, led by Northzone, with contributions from Tencent, Tiger Global, Temasek, and Stripe. This investment underscores TrueLayer's mission to revolutionize digital payments by pioneering pay-by-bank solutions. In 2023, TrueLayer saw its revenue grow by 200%, processing over $50 billion in payments and 150 million transactions annually. It has also reached a major milestone, surpassing 1 million variable recurring payments per month. Trusted by industry giants like Revolut, Zopa, Coinbase, and lastminute.com, TrueLayer is reshaping how merchants, banks, and consumers connect.
Read more
BMLL, a UK provider of historical Level 1, 2, and 3 data and analytics for global equities, ETFs, and futures markets, has raised €19.2 million in a new funding round led by Optiver, with participation from FactSet, Nasdaq Ventures, IQ Capital, and CTC Venture Capital. This investment supports BMLL's ongoing global growth and product expansion. BMLL’s data covers over 100 global trading venues, helping banks, brokers, asset managers, and hedge funds analyze market behavior. Over the past 18 months, BMLL has expanded its data offerings, including nanosecond OPRA options data, and opened a U.S. office.
Brussels-based fintech Easyvest, an online financial advisor, has raised €13 million in funding from Belgium's second-largest bank insurer, Belfius, and federal holding company SFPIM. Founded in 2016, Easyvest manages over €185 million for 3,000 clients and is approved by the FSMA as a portfolio manager. The investment aims to enhance Easyvest’s pension solutions, particularly for SMEs, by offering a digital tool for supplementary pension plans using ETFs to maximize long-term returns for Belgian employees.
In addition to this week’s fundraising activity, here is the European M&A activity of the week:
Nationwide has completed its £2.9 billion acquisition of Virgin Money, marking the UK's largest banking merger since the financial crisis. This deal, unprecedented for a mutual lender like Nationwide, creates the country's second-largest provider of mortgages and savings, and the largest branch network after Lloyds. Virgin Money, founded by Richard Branson in 1995, will operate as a separate entity within Nationwide's group for now, with rebranding set to occur in two years. The acquisition helps Nationwide diversify into business banking, signalling its strategy to scale amid rising interest rates and industry consolidation.
Mastercard has agreed to acquire Minna Technologies, a Swedish startup that provides subscription management software, helping consumers manage and cancel their subscriptions within banking apps and websites. This acquisition supports Mastercard's strategy to expand beyond its core credit and debit card services into technology solutions, including subscription management. Minna Technologies already partners with Mastercard and Visa, offering tools to simplify subscription tracking, reduce payment disruption, and improve the consumer experience. With the global number of subscriptions expected to rise from 6.8 billion to 9.3 billion by 2028, this acquisition aims to enhance Mastercard's ability to provide consumers with centralized control over their subscriptions, mitigating challenges related to managing multiple services like Netflix and Amazon Prime.
And finally, here are the news that caught our eye last week:
WealthKernel, an API-first investment infrastructure provider from the UK, is expanding into the European market. They have received an authorization as a Securities Broker from the Spanish National Securities Market Commission, permitting it to receive and transmit orders (RTO) and offer custody solutions in Europe. They are now one of the only API-based infrastructure providers able to offer their services both in the UK and the EU.
The European Payments Initiative (EPI) has launched its digital wallet and instant account to account payment solution “Wero” in France, with first adopters being Groupe BPCE, Crédit Agricole and Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale, soon to be followed by BNP Paribas, Crédit Mutuel Arkéa and Société Générale. The EPI is backed by the European Commission and 16 European financial institutions, including next to the ones named above Deutsche Bank, ABN Amro and La Banque Postale. Wero will enable customers to complete transactions using just a telephone number or email address. The service first debuted in Germany in July 2024.
HSBC and Tradeshift launch their joint venture SemFi. This venture allows e-commerce and marketplace venues (incl. from Tradeshift’s network) to embed payment, trade and financing solutions from HSBC. SemFi was announced in August last year, with HSBC holding a 75% stake, and San Francisco-based Tradeshift holding 25%. Tradeshift itself operates as a cloud-based business network and platform that facilitates automation in purchase-to-pay processes, supply chain payments, marketplaces, virtual cards, and supply chain financing.
After testing the settlement of exchange transactions with blockchain-based securities against central bank money, Boerse Stuttgart found that settlement times were reduced from days to minutes when using blockchain-technology. Deutsche Bundesbank, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, DZ Bank, LBBW, Bankhaus Metzler and V-Bank were involved in the experiment, which tested a large number of transactions with five tokenised securities - including bonds, funds, and a share.
Have a great week!
Sources of the fundraising reports