Early stage European FinTech deals include Cooler Future, Purple Dot, Cado Security etc. We feature Q&As and Christian Rokitta of QUIN and Christian Nentwich of Duco, as well as the investors who will be sharing their insights at the 12th FinTech Forum’s digital edition on 19th Nov. 2020. Check out the near-final line-up and agenda, and register here: http://ftf12.eventbrite.com. If you have any questions, reach out to Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.
12th FinTech Forum- check out our Q&As with the investors who will be “on stage” and sharing their insights:
- Astrid Freier of Vidici Ventures
- Manuel Silva Martinez of Mouro Capital (earlier Santander InnoVentures)
- Paula Blazquez Selano of InnoCells / Banco Sabadell
- Daniel Andemeskel of Universal Investment
7 Questions with Matthias Klein of Opportunity Network
1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.
Throughout my professional career I have always been focussed on simplifying complicated processes. As an investment banker I have helped medium sized corporates using standardized derivative solutions in their hedging programs. And I have also helped many startups, especially Fintechs, especially in Europe and Singapore, to not just focus on over-engineering their products, but on creating real value for clients as well.
In my role as Country Director Germany for Opportunity Network I currently play a huge role in enabling entrepreneurial spirits in startups, business associations, banks and corporates with one another. Via Opportunity Network’s digital matchmaking platform CEOs and decision makers can post, find and connect with commercial, funding and acquisition deals worldwide, at any given time of the day.
Last but not least, I love cooking with my family & friends and consider my kitchen as an innovation accelerator.
http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-matthias-klein-of-opportunity-network/
Scaling Enterprise FinTech: with Christian Nentwich of Duco
1. Give us the backstory- what were you up to before starting up, how did you get the founding idea?
I had personally been around data in financial services since I finished my PhD in Computer Science – on complex data validation! Having seen first hand how tough the data challenges are with thousands of systems, hundreds of thousands of people working manually… it felt like there was a better and faster way than writing specifications and code, and that we wanted data management in the hands of the end users in these companies. And so we set out to solve one of the big initial problems we wanted to focus on: data reconciliation.
http://www.fintechforum.de/scaling-enterprise-fintech-with-christian-nentwich-of-duco/
7 Questions with Christian Rokitta of QUIN
1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.
During my studies I realised quite early that ETFs would become a big trend in the financial sector. As my professional career has been mainly focused on personal finance and software development, my main focus at QUIN today is on product management. Besides work, my hobbies are sports (especially football and tennis). Furthermore I like to read and am passionate about good food.
http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-christian-rokitta-of-quin/
Finnish startup Cooler Future wants to fight climate change with impact investing, raises over €1 million
Finnish fintech startup Cooler Future recently raised €1.4 million to continue developing what it says will be Europe’s first climate impact investing app, where users can track the environmental impact of each euro invested. The round saw investments from Lifeline Ventures, Nordic Makers, Gary Lin (Purple Orange Ventures) and Patrick Schmidt (CEO at Global Fashion Group).
https://tech.eu/brief/cooler-future-funding/
Fintech for Fashion: Purple Dot Raises £1.35 Million Seed Round
Purple Dot, a payment platform for fashion merchandisers that enables consumers to offer to purchase a product at below the retail recommended price, has raised a £1.3 million seed round. The funding was led by Connect Ventures. Other investors participating in the round include AI Seed, Moxxie Ventures, Andy Chung and Philipp Moehring from AngelList, Vijay Pandurangan (ex-Twitter), Alex Roetter former SVP of Engineering at Twitter and the family office of Paul Forster, co-founder of Indeed.com.
Cado Security Raises $1.5M in Seed Funding
Cado Security, a London, UK-based provider of a cloud-native cyber forensics and response platform, closed a $1.5m seed funding round. The round was led by Ten Eleven Ventures. In conjunction with the funding, Ten Eleven Ventures General Partner Mark Hatfield, will join the Cado Security board of directors. The company intends to use the funds to expand its development team in the United Kingdom.
Co-founded by James Campbell and Christopher Doman, Cado Security provides Cado Response, an agentless, cloud-native forensics solution that allows security professionals to understand an incident’s impact across all environments, including cloud and containers as well as on-premise systems.
https://www.finsmes.com/2020/11/cado-security-raises-1-5m-in-seed-funding.html
3Commas.io Raises $3M In Series A Funding
3Commas.io, a Tallinn, Estonia-based non-custodial, Order Management System (OMS) and crypto-asset management platform, raised $3M in Series A financing. The round was led by Alameda Research.
The company intends to use the funds to accelerate the execution of a roadmap that includes innovative new products, integration with DeFi, and newer asset classes and drive further international expansion.
Launched in 2017 by CEO Yuriy Sorokin, 3Commas is a non-custodial, Order Management System (OMS) and crypto-asset management platform that offers a unified access point and interface with the 23 of the worlds’ top crypto exchanges.
https://www.finsmes.com/2020/11/3commas-io-raises-3m-in-series-a-funding.html
Oxford-based AI startup Mind Foundry closes €11.46 million funding round to create a future where humans and AI work together
Mind Foundry, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) company that spun out of the University of Oxford’s Machine Learning Research Group (MLRG), just has raised an additional €11.46 million in Series A funding led by Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance (ANDI) and joined by existing investors Parkwalk Advisors, Oxford Sciences Innovation, the University of Oxford, and the Oxford Technology and Innovations EIS Fund.
Mind Foundry was founded in 2016, and with the new funding, the company has raised a total of €20,56 million to date.
Mind Foundry’s mission is to create a future where humans and AI work together to solve the world’s most important problems. With customers across several industries, Mind Foundry’s AI platform learns about and understands your business to help your team make better decisions.
Clarity AI raises $15 for sustainable investment platform
Spanish fintech Clarity AI has raised $15m to further develop its platform that analyses the societal impact of investment portfolios.
Clarity AI was founded in Madrid in 2017 by Rebeca Minguela, who last month featured in our rundown of Europe’s leading women in fintech. The platform uses in-house technology to leverage big data and machine learning (ML) to assess and provide a transparent image of the impact of investments on society and the planet.
“Investors attempting to evaluate impact have faced fragmented and unreliable data, inconsistent subjective definitions, and a lack of standards and tools for comprehensive analysis,” says Minguela. “Clarity AI provides a solution for that.”
Online SME Lender Funding Circle Acquires £30 Million from British Business Investments
Funding Circle (LSE: FCH), an SME lender that facilitates loans in both the US and parts of Europe, has acquired £30 million in capital from British Business Investments.
British Business Investments operates as a commercial subsidiary of the British Business Bank.
Funding Circle plans to use the funds by allocating them to UK-based small businesses via its SME Direct Lending Fund, which was launched in July 2019. The fund aims to give institutional investors access to SME loans. These investors may include pension funds, insurance firms and local authorities.
German Fintech Vivid Money Secures €15 Million Through Series A Funding Round Led By Ribbit Capital
German-based fintech startup Vivid Money announced on Thursday it secured €15 million through its Series A funding round, which was led by venture capital firm Ribbit Capital. The investment brings Vivid Money’s valuation to €100 million.
Launched earlier this year, Vivid Money stated it offers users a “unique” mobile banking app, whether it’s payments, transfers, high-interest saving accounts, multi-currency accounts for travels, spendings reports, split bills.
“Banking needs to put the customer first — and in control. With our knowledge and experience, we strive to help our customers earn, grow, and increase their capital. Online banking needs to be very easy, and on the other hand, very safe. Vivid is a financial platform that lets customers live their economic life to the fullest and stands out.”
Frank Schwab joins the Advisory Board of Sonect
Mit Frank Schwab konnte Sonect einen der einflussreichsten FinTech- und Banking- Experten im deutschsprachigen Raum als Advisor gewinnen. Als ehemaliger Chairman von Hufsy und als ehemaliger CEO der Fidor TecS AG verfügt Frank Schwab über fundierte Kenntnisse bei der Markteinführung von disruptiven, digitalen Banking Lösungen.
Dank Frank Schwab erhält Sonect Zugang zu einem branchenübergreifenden Netzwerk im deutschen Fintech-Sektor. Mit seiner langjährigen Erfahrung in der strategischen Weiterentwicklung von zukunftsweisenden Zahlungstechnologien wird er Sonect dabei unterstützen, die Marke nachhaltig im deutschen Markt zu positionieren.
https://sonect.net/ch-de/frank-schwab-tritt-dem-advisory-board-von-sonect-bei/
“Meet” us at:
12th FinTech Forum, Frankfurt, 19th Nov. 2020 http://www.fintechforum.de/events/
FinTech Junction, Tel Aviv, 24 Nov. 2020 https://www.fintechjunction.com/annual/
MoneyConf / WebSummit, Online, 2-4 Dec. 2020 https://websummit.com/moneyconf
Meet Our Partners:
Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de
Nagarro https://www.nagarro.com/en
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