Early stage European FinTech deals include Zelf, Maslife, TreeCard etc. We feature Q&As with Alex Schlicher of My Football Space and Marcus Polke of signals Venture Capital. FinTech Forum goes on tour across the Atlantic: check out FTF On Tour | US X EMEA on 18th Mar. 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.
Scaling Enterprise FinTech: with Marcus Polke, signals Venture Capital
Samarth Shekhar
Hi Marcus, before we get started with the questions, it would be great to share a bit about yourself- both at work and at leisure.
Marcus Polke
Sure. I’m a tech industry guy who became VC 13 years ago, so I think I have a good view on both the operational and the financing side of things. I was one of the first people to work for Amazon here in Europe, then I ran all of AOL’s ecommerce businesses in Germany, and led a large marketplace business, all of their European operations. That marketplace business we sold to Amazon.com in 2008, and that’s when I switch the side of the table to the VC side of things. Since then, I’m a technology investor. Two years ago, I joined signals VC and now run it together with my partner Christian Weniger.
Other than that, I’m a marathon runner, I’m a family man, a father of three, and I live between Munich and Berlin and invest across Europe.
interview-with-marcus-polke-signals-venture-capital
7 Questions with Alex Schlicher of My Football Space
Interviewed by FinTech Forum Co Founder Frank Schwab.
About My Football Space: My Football Space wants fans all over the world to be able to support and digitally connect to the clubs they believe in.
Now on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXB5cerfv00
http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-alex-schlicher-of-my-football-space/
Zelf Raises $2M in Pre-Seed Funding
Zelf, a French messenger-based bank for Gen Z, secured $2m in pre-seed funding.
The round was led by 3VC with participation from Seed Х, Hard Yaka, Yair Goldfinger, and Chris Adelsbach, venture partner at Techstars, and founding partner at Outrun Ventures.
The company intends to use the funds to further boost growth and expand its services through Europe, in Spain, Germany, Poland, Italy, and to establish its presence in the UK and the US.
Led by Elliot Goykhman, Founder & CEO, Zelf is a Gen Z neobank that brings financial services directly to instant messengers like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, and Viber. Users can an IBAN account and receive a virtual Mastercard card in a few minutes. Once issued, a customer can send and receive money through the messaging platform of their choice.
https://www.finsmes.com/2021/02/zelf-raises-2m-in-pre-seed-funding.html
Maslife raises £3M, London fintech wants to transform your finances with a healthier approach
Maslife, a London-based financial and well-being banking app, has secured £3 million funding in a seed capital raise. To date, the company has raised over £5 million.
How will the funding be used?
The funding will be used to support the company’s global growth ambitions, broaden and accelerate product development and develop its proprietary technology further.
Focus on health and wellbeing
Founded in 2019 by Kash Amini, Maslife aims to help people to make more informed and positive lifestyle, well-being, and financial choices. The company was built on the principle that our health and wellbeing are intrinsically linked.
TreeCard Raises $5.12M in Seed Funding
TreeCard, a London, UK-based wooden Mastercard™ payment card that plants trees with everyday spending, raised a $5.12m in seed funding.
The round was led by EQT Ventures, with participation from Seedcamp and Episode 1 and angels including Matt Robinson (the founder of GoCardless) and Charlie Delingpole (founder of ComplyAdvantage).
The company intends to use the funds to hire fintech talent, support product roll-out across the UK, and expand into the US and key European markets.
Founded in August 2020 by 23 year-old Jamie Cox (CEO and co-founder), alongside James Dugan (CMO and co-founder) and Gary Wu (co-founder and CTO), TreeCard links with current bank accounts, enabling users to integrate the service into their usual spending habits.
https://www.finsmes.com/2021/02/treecard-raises-5-12m-in-seed-funding.html
French Insurtech Zelros Raises $11 Million Through Series A Funding Round Led By BGV
Zelros, a French insurtech platform, announced earlier this week it secured $11 million through its Serie A funding round, which was led by BGV with participation from ISAI Cap Venture, and Plug and Play. The investment round brings the company’s funding to $16.5 million.
Founded in 2016, Zelros is a B2B independent software vendor specialized in the insurance and bancassurance markets.
Bitcoin payments fintech Bottlepay raises £11m seed round
Investors in the seed round of the Bitcoin-based global payments app Bottlepay include billionaire hedge fund manager Alan Howard.
Bottlepay, a payments app bringing real-time global payments in Bitcoin and other currencies, has closed an £11m ($15m) seed funding round.
The app aims to cash in on the boom in digital payments by giving access to a real-time open payment network. This allows instant payments, including micropayments and cross border transactions.
While Bitcoin has c.65 million owners around the world there is a lack of use of the cryptocurrency for transactions owing to cumbersome and expensive fees.
https://www.altfi.com/article/7616_bitcoin-payments-fintech-bottlepay-raises-11m-seed-round
Monument Raises Over £28M in Series A Funding
Monument, a London, UK-based digital first bank, raised over £28m in Series A funding round.
Backers included new investors Eric Zinterhofer, Rakesh Loonkar, and Harry Handelsman.
The company, which has raised approx. over £40m in funding since inception, intends to use the capital to complete the build of its technological and operational capabilities and to be ready for launch in the Summer of 2021.
Led by Mintoo Bhandari, CEO, Monument received its “authorisation with restriction” (AWR) banking licence in October 2020.
monument-raises-over-28m-in-series-a-funding.html
Klarna Valued at $31 Billion After U.S. Growth Stoked Investors
Klarna Bank AB said it raised $1 billion at a valuation of $31 billion, triple the price investors gave the Swedish payments firm during its last funding round, following rapid growth in its U.S. business.
Europe’s most valuable startup initially set out to raise $500 million. Klarna Chief Executive Officer Sebastian Siemiatkowski said high investor demand led to this doubling, but could have gone as high as $3 billion. It had been valued at $10.65 billion as recently as September.
CM com N : .com Acquires Dutch Fintech Company PayPlaza
CM.com, a global leader in cloud software for conversational commerce, reached agreement to acquire PayPlaza, an innovative Point of Sale (POS) Payment Acceptance Platform. The acquisition forms a next step for CM.com to offer omnichannel communications and payments solutions from one single platform. The transaction comprises a consideration of € 10 million (excluding a capped earn-out). Upon closing, the acquisition will be immediately accretive to EBITDA.
Founded in 2010, PayPlaza is a fast-growing company which employs approximately 50 people across offices in the Netherlands, Germany and Spain, and has around 20,000 payment terminals connected to its platform.
CM-com-N-nbsp-com-Acquires-Dutch-Fintech-Company-PayPlaza-32578969
Scaling Enterprise FinTech | The Handbook
Scaling Enterprise FinTech brings together insights on the journey to scale – sales, (US) go-to-market, raising venture financing etc. – from the founders, investors and financial institutions behind Europe’s leading B2B FinTech scale-ups. Email contact (at) fintechforum.de if you would like to learn more or contribute to our upcoming Handbook (out in Mar. 2021), featuring proprietary research of ca. 65 scale-ups and Q&As with founders and investors.
http://www.fintechforum.de/sef/
Join us for Bar on The Block webinar on Thursday, March 4th to learn more about cryptocurrency derivatives.
About this Event
In this webinar, we’ll discuss one of the oldest forms of a financial contract- DERIVATIVES! We’ll deep dive into the types of crypto derivatives products, their common forms, policy, and regulatory regime. We’ll have an in-depth discussion on how derivatives are used in crypto trading, what kinds of Crypto derivatives can be traded both on traditional exchanges and regulated crypto exchanges, the biggest risks that traders face, and why investor interest seems to be surging in crypto-derivatives.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/an-insight-into-crypto-derivatives-tickets-137765609647
FinTech Forum On Tour | US X EMEA: Uncovering Opportunities Across the Atlantic
A year since the first lockdowns were announced, FinTech Forum goes on tour to the US, in partnership with SixThirty Ventures. Join us as we talk to leading financial institutions on both sides of the Atlantic to understand the topmost priorities and challenges that are shaping their innovation agendas. We discuss how they are fast-forwarding digitalization and engagement with FinTech innovators, and the opportunities this presents for B2B/ Enterprise FinTech startups across the globe.
Registration (subject to approval): http://ftfusa2021.eventbrite.com
Meet us at:
An Insight Into Crypto Derivatives, 4 Mar. 2021
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/an-insight-into-crypto-derivatives-tickets-137765609647
FinTech Forum On Tour | US X EMEA: Uncovering Opportunities Across the Atlantic, 18 Mar. 2021 http://ftfusa2021.eventbrite.com
Finovate Europe, 23-25 Mar. 2021
https://informaconnect.com/finovateeurope/
InsurTech Insights, 1-2 Sep. 2021, London
https://www.insurtechinsights.com/europe/
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