European FinTech deal this week include Flowdesk, Hokodo, SumUp
We feature Q&As with Christian Knott of Capnamic Ventures and Shane Riedel of Elucidate
If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to us: Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.
Check out the B2B FinTech Radar, our microsite focused on SaaS / Enterprise FinTech founders with global ambitions
7 Questions with Christian Knott of Capnamic Ventures
1. Please tell us a bit about yourself and your company.
Well, I am the typical business student, did my bachelor in Cologne, Master in Leipzig. Worked briefly for the European Commission but that was not my hometurf. Started working in Venture Capital in 2010 and am with Capnamic for 5.5 years now. Since 2018, I am partner.
In my private life I have a fiancée (wife at the end July), who I love to travel with. The more remote and beautiful the place the better.
http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-christian-knott-capnamic-ventures/
7 Questions with Shane Riedel of Elucidate
1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.
I spent most of my career in diplomacy with the United Nations and in finance (spread between London, Zurich and Singapore) and, as such, the shift to a FinTech start up has been both challenging and liberating. The cultural and operational contrast between a bank and Elucidate could not be more extreme, but for me it has been deeply satisfying to build a dynamic team and a product that transcends the capabilities of any one person or function.
I live in Berlin, which is a fantastic FinTech hub and offers a great quality of life. In my spare time I enjoy cycling and spending time outside of the city…perhaps harkening back to my upbringing in rural Ohio in the US.
http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-shane-riedel-of-elucidate/
French platform Flowdesk rakes in $30 million to drive financial services for cryptocurrencies
The Parisian digital asset service provider allows interconnection with more than 60 cryptocurrency exchange platforms
Paris-based crypto-asset trading platform Flowdesk has raised $30 million in funding to drive the growth of financial services for cryptocurrencies. The round saw the participation of Eurazeo, Aglaé Ventures, ISAI, Speedinvest, Fabric, Ledger, and Coinbase, and 20 angel investors, including Alexandre Prot (Qonto), Nicolas Julia (Sorare), Pascal Gauthier (Ledger) and Sébastien Borget (The Sandbox).
Founded in 2020 by Guilhem Chaumont, Paul Bugnot, François Cluzeau and Balthazar Giraux, the startup has developed an infrastructure that allows cryptocurrencies to interconnect and trade on various exchanges while guaranteeing the redundancy and scalability needed to support the growing number of crypto projects. The company offers four services, including asset management, brokerage, custody and market-making.
Currently, the French digital asset service provider allows interconnection with more than 60 cryptocurrency exchange platforms. Flowdesk recently opened offices in Singapore in March 2022 and now plans to open an office in the U.S. with the new funding.
Headquartered in Paris, Eurazeo is a leading global investment group, with a diversified portfolio of €18.8 billion in assets under management, including €12.5 billion from third parties, invested in over 430 companies. With considerable Private Equity, real estate, private debt and fund of funds expertise, Eurazeo accompanies companies of all sizes, supporting their development through the commitment of its nearly 300 professionals and by offering deep sector expertise, a gateway to global markets.
Hokodo Raises $40M in Series B Funding Round
Hokodo, a London, UK based digital trade credit provider, raised $40m in Series B funding.
The round was led by Notion Capital, with participation from Korelya Capital, Mundi Ventures, Opera Tech Ventures, Anthemis and Mosaic Ventures.
The company intends to use the funds for its expansion into new European markets and the development of BNPL solutions for telesales and in-store purchases.
Led by Louis Carbonnier, and Richard Thornton, Hokodo provides Buy Now, Pay Later solutions to the B2B market, enabling business customers to benefit from instant, interest-free payment terms. A leader in the field in the UK, the company is currently expanding into continental Europe, and working on the creation of new products devised to serve the B2B market.
With new merchants recently onboarded in France (Paris Fashion Shops) and Spain (Katoo), following launches in Belgium and the Netherlands (Ankorstore) earlier this year, a portion of the new funding will see the company expand its efforts to become the B2B BNPL category leader in continental Europe.
Notion Capital with its headquarters in London is a Venture Capital investing firm focused on European SaaS and Cloud, with more than 100 investments to date.
European fintech SumUp raises €590 million
SumUp, a London-based maker of point-of-sale payments solutions for small businesses, raised €590 million in equity and debt funding led by Bain Capital Tech Opportunities at an €8 billion valuation.
Why it matters: This reflects softening valuations for European fintech, given reports from earlier this year that investors were floating a €20 billion mark for SumUp.
Caveat: This is still a massive step-up for the company, which last raised equity funding in 2017. Or, put another way, SumUp isn’t in the same boat as Swedish fintech Klarna — once Europe’s most valuable startup with a $45 billion valuation, which now is said to be seeking new funds at around $15 billion.
Details: The round was split evenly between equity and debt. Other investors include BlackRock, btov Partners, Centerbridge, Crestline, Fin Capital and Sentinel Dome Partners.
The bottom line: “I can very comfortably say the €8 billion is a true and fair valuation, because that’s the price people put on the company in the worst of markets… In this environment we think we will see good opportunities for M&A deals once people realize that money is not free any more.” — SumUp CEO Marc-Alexander Christ to the FT
Bain Capital Tech Opportunities pursues investments in application software, fintech and payments, healthcare IT and infrastructure and security. Bain Capital, LP is one of the world’s leading private investment firms with approximately $160 billion of assets under management that creates lasting impact for our investors, teams, businesses, and the communities in which we live
iDenfy launches a new Business Verification platform and partners with the Swedish Fintech Juni
Kaunas, Lithuania (June 28, 2022) – the Lithuanian identity verification and compliance company iDenfy, joined forces with Juni, the financial management platform made for ecommerce. iDenfy’s mix of built-in identity verification and Business Verification services will protect Juni from fraud.
Reduced costs, personalization, greater convenience, or speed are all factors that make ecommerce and fintech players successful in today’s digital sphere. While the benefits paint a positive picture, there’s also a riskier part to online business. According to iDenfy, cybercrime takes a toll on the fintech and ecommerce markets, making fraudsters and their crimes an issue that’s hard to tackle.
Juni follows a similar approach, and as an industry innovator, the fintech player constantly looks for new ways to bridge the gap between security and speed. For this reason, Juni decided to upgrade its fraud prevention package and implement iDenfy’s latest product, the Business Verification platform.
The goal at Juni is to provide its clients with the best-in-class financial ecosystem while at the same time, ensuring complete transparency and safety. Businesses that use Juni’s services can track their entire business profile in one place. Juni claims to have created one dashboard where companies get a centralized overview of bank accounts, ad networks, and payment gateways. This helps them monitor their business activity and improve cash flow more efficiently.
Once started with remote ID verification, iDenfy now offers many fraud prevention tools that help businesses detect and prevent criminal activity as well as comply with ever-changing regulations. According to Juni, iDenfy presented a unique opportunity to combine identity verification with Know Your Business (KYB) services. iDenfy will provide its partners with the Business Verification platform that helps detect bogus companies.
As per iDenfy, its Business Verification removes the struggle for Compliance officers who need to follow strict laws and check multiple data points manually. iDenfy’s platform assists Juni in automating its onboarding process in accordance with global and local regulations. iDenfy’s Business Verification platform can block certain IPs or activity codes from onboarding. It helps Juni detect and prevent fraudulent activity automatically by running Sanctions, PEPs, and Adverse Media verification checks.
According to Juni, iDenfy’s new services have already improved its ability to screen the identity of applicants more efficiently, which is one of the main factors that the fintech’s customers expect. Juni also claims to be working with iDenfy to develop the Business Verification platform further. The next stage will be to add more automation features to reduce the likelihood of human error quicker.
“We are actively collaborating on building a very special platform. iDenfy is known as a solid identity verifier, but very few, if any, providers offer both a KYB tool and an ID verification tool that we could find. For that, we are very grateful.” – noted Patrick Ryan, FinCrime Director, Juni.
“Our team strives to create safe solutions that allow other businesses to focus on their primary goals without needing to do the administrative work. Our Business Verification and identity verification platform is a ready-made service that helps compliance officers to eliminate fraud risks faster. We’re glad that our partners at Juni share a similar vision and have the same values regarding security.” – explained Domantas Ciulde, iDenfy’s CEO.
About iDenfy
iDenfy, a platform of identity verification services and fraud prevention tools, ensures AML and KYC compliance for every company — from large-scale businesses to small organizations. The rapidly growing business was named the best “Fintech Startup” in 2020. The company also received recognition for winning a Baltic Assembly Prize for innovation in 2021.
For more information and business inquiries, please visit www.idenfy.com.
About Juni
Founded in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2020, Juni aims to be the financial companion for ecommerce. Listed as the fastest-growing fintech startup in Europe in 2021, Juni empowers ecommerce entrepreneurs to make better decisions, scale-up and unlock the full potential of ecommerce. With Juni, you can track your entire business in one place: a dedicated online space, tailor-made for ecommerce.
For more information, go to juni.co.
Breega is now armed with a fresh €250 million fund, and counts half a billion in assets under management
Having backed 83 companies across 7 countries, and completing four fundraising rounds over the course of seven years, this latest collection of capital provides Breega with over half a billion in assets under management.
Parisian built-by-founders-for-founders VC firm Breega returns to the pitch with a fresh €250 million fund specifically aimed at supporting approximately 20 founders raising capital at Series A and above levels, specifically, but not solely limited to the those operating in the fintech and insurtech industries.
If you’ve been playing along at home, you might remember that the Ben Marrel, Francois Paulus, and Maximilien Bacot-founded firm closed a €110 million seed fund no fewer than 16 months prior, as well as wracking up another €20 million for a ‘opportunities’ vehicle in October of the same year.
After completing four fundraising rounds over the course of just seven years, Breega has backed 83 companies across 7 countries, and seen 9 exits. With this latest collection of capital, the fund now manages over half a billion in assets.
According to a Breega spokesperson, the firm has already begun deploying capital from the new fund, investing in several startups including fintech Keebo, proptech UKIO, and insurtech Mila.
As is de rigueur in today’s VC funding landscape, Breega prides itself on an inhouse, free-of-charge ‘Scaling Squad’; a unit comprised of professionals experienced in the arts of business growth and pairing, talent acquisition, and naturally, marketing and communication.
Presto Ventures Closes Fund II, at €30M
Presto Ventures, a Prague, Czech Republic-based venture capital firm, investing in early-stage B2B startups from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), closed its Fund II, €30m.
The fund is backed entirely by private investors, including family offices and a number of successful entrepreneurs and exited founders committed to expediting business connections and additional capital in follow-on rounds.
Through this fund, Presto will invest in up to forty B2B tech startups at seed and pre-seed stages in the CEE region, supporting them with fast access to capital, fast business development, and fast growth.
Presto has already invested in startups such as Cloudtalk, IP Fabric, Yieldigo, Sharry and Wolf3D.
Led by Přemysl Rubeš, Founder and Managing Partner, a former mathematician, holding scientific and engineering degrees from the Nuclear Sciences Faculty at CTU Prague and ENSTA ParisTech, the firm also announced the appointment of three new partners. They are:
- Roman Nováček, a CFA charterholder and ex-analyst at US private equity firm GTE. Recently named on Forbes 30 Under 30 list for 2022, Nováček is also one of the youngest partners at a CEE VC firm, and will oversee financial planning and analytics at Presto,
- Vojta Roček, who founded and sold business intelligence startup Stories.bi to Workday, and
- Eduard Kučera, who built and managed the Business Intelligence department of cybersecurity giant Avast.
These new additions boost the fund’s credentials in diverse areas such as blockchain, data, cybersecurity, enterprise software and SaaS.
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