Early stage European FinTech deals include ShareVision, Threatray, Airbank etc. We feature Q&As with Paul Christensen of Previse and Javier Correa of PostFinance AG.
If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.
Scaling Enterprise FinTech: with Paul Christensen of Previse
1. Tell us a bit about yourself and your company
I have a bit of an unusual background, having been born on a piece of tin in the jungle of Papua New Guinea. Respect to my mother, who is an inspiration! I’m a fintech nut. I’ve been in fintech for 25 years, having been part of the founding team of Volbroker.com in the late nineties. I then spent time in several banks, including a decade at Goldman where I led their strategic investments and corporate venturing team. But I knew that I wanted to get back to building and creating. So I started on a quest, with my amazing co-founders (Andre, Giulio and Philipp) and our team, to fix B2B payments.
Our company is a data science firm, on a mission to instantly pay the world’s millions of small sellers, so that they don’t have to wait and chase for weeks and months to get paid. Our purpose is to unleash the power of data for business.
http://www.fintechforum.de/scaling-enterprise-fintech-with-paul-christensen-of-previse/
Scaling Enterprise FinTech with Javier Correa of PostFinance AG
1. A year since the first lockdowns- is this is a good time to be building or scaling an Enterprise FinTech (/ InsurTech) firm in Europe?
Yes, generally it always is, as long as there is a strong value proposition behind and clearly articulated. There is incremental talent looking to jump into an exciting journey. Customers and prospects have been made strongly aware of additional needs and/or of the advantages from innovative business models/technologies/products and services. In addition, deep pools of capital looking for attractive opportunities to support these teams.
5-questions-with-javier-correa-of-postfinance-ag
These two Q&As are part of Scaling Enterprise FinTech | The Handbook, featuring Q&As on the journey to scale, lessons learnt etc. with 16 founders and 10 leading investors.
ShareVision Raises $2.1M in Seed Funding
ShareVision, a London, UK-based provider of a financial streaming platform, raised $2.1m in seed funding.
The backers were not disclosed.
The company intends to use the funds to scale its platform.
Led by Amit Jay Shah, CEO, ShareVision provides a platform where both businesses and consumers are streaming content on the stock market, economical updates and financial education.
https://www.finsmes.com/2021/06/sharevision-raises-2-1m-in-seed-funding.html
Threatray Raises €2.3M in Funding
Threatray, a Swiss cyber-security analytics company, raised €2.3M in funding.
The round was led by Verve Ventures with participation from existing investors Hammer Team, SICTIC, BackBone Ventures and the innofund by SZKB.
The company intends to use the funds to expand its team.
Led by Endre Bangerter, CEO and co-founder, Threatray provides a malware intelligence platform which gives enterprise and government security teams deep visibility into attempted and unfolding malware attacks, facilitating effective defense and response to cyber-attacks.
https://www.finsmes.com/2021/06/threatray-raises-e2-3m-in-funding.html
Airbank receives €2.5 million with scouts from Accel and Sequoia on board
The Berlin-based fintech aimed at helping startups and SMB’s better manage their cash, Airbank, has closed a €2.5 million seed round that saw backing from Accel scout Luca Ascani, and Sequoia scout Marc McCabe.
Founded in January of this year by Chris Zemina (former Principal with Speedinvest’s fintech fund) and Patrick de Castro Neuhaus, Airbank is connecting all bank accounts and financial data and putting it in one place. The startup offers startups and SMB’s bank account aggregation, cash flow management, multi-user permissions, and single sign-on capabilities and has high hopes to become the leading finance orchestration platform in Europe.
https://tech.eu/brief/airbank-receives-e2-5-million-with-scouts-from-accel-and-sequoia-on-board/
Polish fintech Booste raises €12m and plots expansion into Ireland
The newly raised capital will help the start-up grow its team and expand into markets such as the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands.
Poland’s Booste has raised €12m from investors to bring its revenue-based financing system to e-commerce businesses in more countries – including Ireland.
The Warsaw-based start-up provides flexible financing to companies, with a particular focus on the e-commerce sector, to help them fund digital ads, marketing campaigns and inventory spend.
https://www.siliconrepublic.com/start-ups/booste-poland-fintech-expand-ireland
Fintech startup Volt collects $23.5M
London-based Volt has raised $23.5 million in a Series A led by EQT Ventures. The startup’s open payments gateway allows merchants and payment service providers to process transactions securely between accounts in Europe. Augmentum Fintech and Fuel Ventures were among the investors participating in the round, which Volt will use to fund product development and its international expansion.
https://pitchbook.com/newsletter/fintech-startup-volt-collects-235m
Coinbase backed DeFi platform Tesseract raises $25 million
Helsinki’s Tesseract, which specialises in bridging institutional capital flow between traditional and digital asset finance has raised $25 million in one of the largest Series A rounds in Finland to date.
The startup was founded in 2017 and offers margin lending, OTC lending, partnerships with retail trading platforms, and decentralised finance. Tesseract offers a white-label solution for retail trading platforms, exchanges, custodians, fiat on-ramps and and wallet providers and reports a “one of a kind” margin lending platform in use by hedge funds and market makers.
https://tech.eu/brief/coinbase-backed-defi-platform-tesseract-raises-25-million/
Hellas Direct Raises €32M in Funding
Hellas Direct, a Athens, Greece-based technology-driven insurance company operating in Greece and Cyprus, raised a further EUR 32m in funding, bringing the total raised to date to €56m.
Backers included the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Portag3, the IFC (member of the World Bank Group), Endeavor Catalyst and family offices including those of Jon Moulton and Lord O’Neill.
Led by Alexis Pantazis and Emilios Markou, Hellas Direct is a digital-first, full-stack insurance company, empowered by technology and the use of advanced analytics.
https://www.finsmes.com/2021/06/hellas-direct-raises-e32m-in-funding.html
AI-powered insurance pricing automation platform Akur8 raises $30 million
Akur8, who uses a proprietary “Transparent AI” to automate insurance pricing, has landed $30 million from BlackFin Capital and MTech Capital in order to help actuaries and pricing teams make better, faster decisions. To date, Akur8 has raised $42 million.
Founded in 2018 by Guillaume Beraud-Sudreau and Samuel Falmagne, Akura8 automates the generation of pricing models, while still allowing actuaries to have control over the process. The startup combines the power of machine learning and the transparency required in the highly regulated insurance rating-making industry.
https://tech.eu/brief/ai-powered-insurance-pricing-automation-platform-akur8-raises-30-million/
10x, a UK fintech, raises $187M to build new services for old banks
As so-called neobanks continue to gain more traction in the market with their more modern takes on banking and other financial services, a startup that’s building technology to help incumbent players better compete is announcing a big round of funding.
10x Future Technologies, a London-based fintech that helps larger, established banks build both next-generation services as well as tools to help their older services work more efficiently, has raised $187 million. We understand from sources close to the company that 10x’s valuation with this round is in the range of $700 million.
Dutch payments startup Mollie raises another $800M at a $6.5B valuation
A payments startup whose backend was originally built by the founder while still living with his parents and bootstrapping the company is today announcing a massive round of funding that catapults it into being one of the most valuable startups in Europe. Mollie, an Amsterdam-based startup that provides a way for businesses to integrate payments into sites, documents and other services by way of an API, is today announcing that it has raised €665 million ($800 million) in an all-equity round that values the company at €5.4 billion ($6.5 billion).
Blackstone Growth (BXG), Blackstone’s growth equity investing business, led the investment, with participation also from EQT Growth, General Atlantic, HMI Capital, Alkeon Capital and TCV.
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