Early stage European FinTech deals this week include Index Ventures (Taktile), Requr, Benson Capital Partners (Prepaid2Cash). We feature Q&As with Stefan Klauser of Aisot and May Wang of Fin VC (who is among the investors on stage at the FinTech Forum 2021 on 18th Nov. in Frankfurt) and Oliver Werneyer of Imburse Payments (who is among the scale-up founders featured in our upcoming publication: Scaling Enterprise FinTech | The Handbook – Sep. 2021)
If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.
7 Questions with May Wang of Fin VC
1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.
I’m an investor at Fin VC, a B2B Fintech/Insurtech focused global venture capital, based out of San Francisco. Fin VC is a team of FinTech nerds with capital, based in SF/NYC and focus on FinTech SaaS in the US and EU/UK. We deploy out of 3 strategies: Regatta (pre-seed, checks of $100K-$1M), Flagship (Early Stage – Seed->B, checks of $1-10M) and Horizons (Growth – C+, checks of $25-50M+, primary/secondary) and have an operating value playbook focused on global BD, corp dev, capital formation, product/GTM, key talent sourcing, and board leadership.
Personally, I’m an avid traveler and a global citizen who has lived in 4 countries across 3 continents. When not at work, you’ll find me hiking/surfing in the summer and skiing in the winter. I’m also mentoring students from underrepresented communities, and an advisor at a Uganda-based NGO.
7-questions-with-may-wang-of-fin-vc
May is among the investors who will be sharing her insights on “what’s next in European FinTech” at the FinTech Forum 2021 – 18th Nov. 2021 at the Airport Club, Frankfurt Airport /hybrid. Check out the agenda and register here: http://ftf2021.eventbrite.com
7 Questions with Stefan Klauser of Aisot
1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.
Hi, I am Stefan, Co-Founder & CEO at Aisot Technologies. We are a leading provider of real-time insights for trading and asset management. I always had a passion for both entrepreneurial work and predictive tools. The Oracle of Delphi was by far the coolest thing in Latin class. And my first business I „founded” as a kid, when selling cherries from our garden on our village’s streets. In my free time, I like to be in nature or sing. I have played in rock bands since I was a teenager.
7-questions-with-stefan-klauser-of-asiot
Aisot is among the startups selected to present at the FinTech Forum 2021 – 18th Nov. 2021 at the Airport Club, Frankfurt Airport/ hybrid. Check out the agenda and apply / register here: http://ftf2021.eventbrite.com
Scaling Enterprise FinTech: with Oliver Werneyer of Imburse Payments
1. Tell us a bit about yourself and your company.
I was born and grew up in South Africa to a German household. I started my first company when I was 16, selling computer hardware, and went on to study Actuarial Science in South Africa. I began my career in the insurance industry and spent over 13 years in various roles across South Africa, UK and Switzerland before founding Imburse. Headquartered in Zurich, with offices London and Lisbon, Imburse is a modular middleware that enables insurers and other enterprises to connect more easily to the global payment ecosystem. By connecting to us, our clients can quickly deploy any payment provider or solution, in any market, for collection or payout with no IT project or resources required. We are a technology partner that allows companies to transform, digitalise and modernise more efficiently and more quickly.
http://www.fintechforum.de/scaling-enterprise-fintech-with-oliver-werneyer-of-imburse-payments/
Oliver is among the founders featured in the upcoming publication Scaling Enterprise FinTech | The Handbook, launching in Sep. 2021 in partnership with SixThirty Ventures and Money2020 Europe.
Index Ventures steigt bei diesem Berliner Saas–Startup Taktile ein
Daten sind die neue Währung, auch in der Finanzbrache.
Die Software des Fintechs Taktile soll Banken und Versicherer helfen, ihre Kunden besser einschätzen zu können.
Das Fintech Taktile sammelt in einer Seed-Finanzierungsrunde 4,7 Millionen US Dollar, also umgerechnet knapp vier Millionen Euro, ein.
Lead-Investor ist der Londoner Wagniskapitalgeber Index Ventures, dessen Geld bereits in Startups wie Personio und Revolut geflossen ist.
Ebenfalls beteiligt an der Runde ist der Y Combinator, das renommierte Accelerator-Programm aus dem Silicon Valley, der Londoner VC Firstminute Capital sowie diverse Business Angels wie etwa die Gründer der Plattformen Github und Uipath.
Index Ventures ist eine Risikokapitalgesellschaft, die Unternehmern dabei hilft, kühne Ideen in globale Unternehmen zu verwandeln. Zu den jüngsten Investitionen gehören Monad und Moises.
https://www.businessinsider.de/gruenderszene/news/index-taktile-seed/
Amsterdam-based Requr raises €5M to help European SaaS companies with non-dilutive growth financing
Requr, an Amsterdam-based growth funding platform, has raised €5M in growth capital from a group of experienced investors. The company didn’t disclose the name of the investors.
Focusing on SaaS companies, the Dutch startup aims to eliminate cash flow problems and provides upfront capital without dilution.
According to Tom van Wees, co-founder and CEO of Requr, investment costs outweighing benefits is the big challenge for fast-growing technology companies.
“As an entrepreneur, you have to invest a lot — in key talents, in the sales and marketing engine, and also in your product — before full turnover is realised. To have cash available sooner, some SaaS companies offer up to a 30 per cent discount to customers who pay their subscription fees in advance. Requr’s financing model largely solves this cash flow problem, which is a critical growth barrier for SaaS companies,” he says.
https://siliconcanals.com/news/startups/amsterdam-requr-raises-5m/
Benson Capital Partners invest in Prepaid2Cash
That stack of random gift cards in your wallet could be turned directly into cash in your bank account, thanks to a Birmingham-based startup.
That positive tailwind recently led to a $5.1 million Series A funding round. Benson Capital Partners, a venture capital firm backed by NFL New Orleans Saints and NBA Pelicans owner Gayle Benson, led the round and was joined by Nashville-based Relevance Ventures and Alabama Futures Fund.
The Series A brings Prepaid2Cash’s investment total to date to $7.2 million.
Benson Capital is Toronto’s first choice for mortgage investments and real estate financing whose recent investments includes Tado.
https://hypepotamus.com/news/prepaid2cash-series-a-birmingham/
Paradigm among other Investors invest $8 million in London based Euler
Led by co-founder Michael Bentley, and co-founders, Jack Prior and Doug Hoyte, Euler provides a capital-efficient permissionless lending protocol that helps users to earn interest on their crypto assets or hedge against volatile markets without the need for a trusted third-party.
The round was led by Paradigm with participation from Lemniscap, Anthony Sassano, Ryan Sean Adams, Kain Warwick and Hasu.
Paradigm primarily invests in crypto-assets and businesses from the earliest stages of idea formation through to maturity whose recent investments include Royal and Fractional.
https://www.finsmes.com/2021/08/euler-raises-8m-in-series-a-funding.html
African-focused payments firm pawaPay has raised a $9m Seed funding led by UK-based investment fund 88mph
Founded in 2020, pawaPay is focused on the mobile money infrastructure provided by telecommunications companies (telco) in Africa. Each telco in each country provides its own unique mobile money product, which makes the mobile money infrastructure as a whole – across borders and telcos – highly fragmented and opaque.
African-focused payments firm pawaPay has raised a $9m Seed funding led by UK-based investment fund 88mph. Vunani Capital, Kepple Ventures, MSA and Zagadat Capital also participated in the round.
88mph invests in early-stage web and mobile companies in the African market whose recent investments include Ahoy and DavtonLearn.
https://techtrendske.co.ke/african-focused-payments-firm-pawapay-raises-9m-seed-funding/
Target Global, Partech Ventures and Avid Ventures invest €32 million in elopage
elopage was founded in 2015 by Özkan Akkilic and Tolga Önal with the mission of empowering and enabling digital entrepreneurs to launch and scale their online businesses by selling digital products, courses, memberships, and subscriptions.
Today elopage, a fast-growing SaaS platform and payment provider for digital entrepreneurs, creators, SMEs and enterprise businesses, has announced the successful completion of its funding round of €32 million to empower digital businesses at all stages of growth. The Series A funding, which is the SaaS company’s first-ever round, is backed by leading tech investors including lead investor Target Global as well as France-based Partech Ventures and US-based Avid Ventures.
Target Global is a venture capital firm that invests in tech companies across their lifecycles whose recent investments include Plentiful and Fuse Autotech.
Money2020 Europe: 21-23 Sep. in Amsterdam
Radical change requires a radical catalyst. Fintech has a big journey to go on, and Money20/20 Europe is here to help you take the first big leap into the unknown. This is the only place where the whole community, from payments to banking to retail to regulation and beyond, comes together to make the decisions that shape the future.
This September, get ready for a reimagined Money20/20 Europe experience that puts you in the driving seat. The conversations that take place here will decide our collective trajectory.
Buy your pass: https://bit.ly/2TjdoEQ
Meet us at:
Money2020 Europe, 21-23 Sep. 2021, Amsterdam
South Summit, 5-7 Oct. 2021, Madrid
Web Summit, 1-4 Nov. 2021, Lisbon
FinTech Forum, 18 Nov. 2021, Frankfurt
Slush, 1-2 Dec. 2021, Helsinki
Meet Our Partners:
Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de
Opportunity Network https://www.opportunitynetwork.com/fintech-forum
Money2020 Europe https://europe.money2020.com
InsurTech Insights https://insurtechinsights.com
Finovate Europe https://informaconnect.com/finovateeurope/
FN FinTech 40 https://www.fnlondon.com