Early stage European FinTech deals include Deine Studienfinanzierung, Juni, Smart Protection etc. We feature Q&As with Matthias Klein of Opportunity Network and Christian Nentwich of Duco.
The 12th FinTech Forum is a wrap- check out the event in tweets.
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 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/
finleap invests in deineStudienfinanzierung – the digital financial platform for young academics
finleap, Europe’s leading Fintech ecosystem, welcomes a new addition to its portfolio: The company “deineStudienfinanzierung” becomes part of the finleapfamily through investment. Launched in 2018, the platform has a clear mission: to enable all students to study without financial worries. To this end, the platform aggregates the largest financing products – from long-term to daily needs – for studies. Behind the company is a team around the 24 year old founder and CEO Bastian Krautwald, who founded deineStudienfinanzierung during his studies.
Sweden-Based Fintech Juni Secures €2 Million Through Latest Seed Round Led By Venture Fund Cherry
Juni, a Sweden-based fintech startup, announced on Thursday it secured €2 million through its Seed funding round, which was led by Cherry, an early stage European venture fund. The company reported that it was created by a group of marketers and fintech entrepreneurs tired of “modern” banks creating problems for us rather than solving them.
“Juni automatically fetches invoices from your advertising networks and business Gmail account. No more time wasted downloading and uploading receipts.”
Founder of Juni, Samir El-Sabini, stated that he and his team want to help anyone working in e-commerce and performance marketing become a more efficient entrepreneur by allowing them to focus on what truly matters for their business.
Spanish anti-counterfeit startup Smart Protection closes €10 million Series B
Smart Protection, a Madrid-based startup developing anti-counterfeit software, has raised €10 million in Series B funding. The round was co-led by the Dutch fund Knight Capital along with the Spanish-Israeli Swanlaab Venture Factory. CDTI, the Spanish National Innovation Agency, participated as well.
A handful of previous investors — including Nauta Capital, JME Ventures, Bankinter, Big Sur Ventures and Telefónica — joined this round, too, some of whom participated in the startup’s €5.2 million Series A last year.
Smart Protection’s platform tracks down and removes illegal digital copies of users’ assets, be that a pirated movie on a backwoods streaming website or a counterfeit product on a marketplace.
https://tech.eu/brief/smart-protection-series-b/
Satispay Raises €93M in Series C Funding
Satispay, a Milan, Italy-based mobile payments startup, raised €93m in Series C funding.
The round – completed at a €180M pre money valuation – consists of €68M of newly issued primary shares and approximately €25M secondary shares purchased from existing investors. Upon closing of this round, Satispay has now reached a total of €110M in primary capital raised since its inception in 2013 having already raised €42M from business angels as well as industrial and international investors via series A and B rounds.
The round was co-led by Square, Tencent, LGT Lightstone and TIM Ventures. The formal closing is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to complete by the end of the year.
https://www.finsmes.com/2020/11/satispay-raises-e93m-in-series-c-funding.html
“Meet” us at:
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