European FinTech deals this week include HUBUC, Ageras group, Weavr, Atom, PayHawk and Scalapay
We feature Q&As with Stefan Klauser of Aisot and May Wang of Fin VC
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.
7 Questions with Stefan Klauser of Aisot
1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.
Hi, I am Stefan, Co-Founder & CEO at Aisot Technologies. We are a leading provider of real-time insights for trading and asset management. I always had a passion for both entrepreneurial work and predictive tools. The Oracle of Delphi was by far the coolest thing in Latin class. And my first business I „founded” as a kid, when selling cherries from our garden on our village’s streets. In my free time, I like to be in nature or sing. I have played in rock bands since I was a teenager.
http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-stefan-klauser-of-asiot/
7 Questions with May Wang of Fin VC
1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.
I’m an investor at Fin VC, a B2B Fintech/Insurtech focused global venture capital, based out of San Francisco. Fin VC is a team of FinTech nerds with capital, based in SF/NYC and focus on FinTech SaaS in the US and EU/UK. We deploy out of 3 strategies: Regatta (pre-seed, checks of $100K-$1M), Flagship (Early Stage – Seed->B, checks of $1-10M) and Horizons (Growth – C+, checks of $25-50M+, primary/secondary) and have an operating value playbook focused on global BD, corp dev, capital formation, product/GTM, key talent sourcing, and board leadership.
Personally, I’m an avid traveler and a global citizen who has lived in 4 countries across 3 continents. When not at work, you’ll find me hiking/surfing in the summer and skiing in the winter. I’m also mentoring students from underrepresented communities, and an advisor at a Uganda-based NGO.
http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-may-wang-of-fin-vc/
Offering any and all brands managed embedded financial services, Y Combinator alum HUBUC raises $10 million
By managing contracts, knowledge, regulatory requirements, integrations, and risk in-house, Barcelona’s HUBUC offers customers the ability to implement embedded finance services and go to market on average in 7-8 weeks.
Barcelona-based embedded financial services startup HUBUC has raised $10 million in a seed round. The new funding will be used to bolster the company’s European footprint, strengthen the compliance team, continue product development and further streamline the customer implementation process.
Traditionally dogged by regulatory restraints that vary from country to country, the process of implementing embedded finance solutions can be complex, time-consuming, and ultimately, costly. And while there’s certainly no shortage of providers on the market today, where HUBUC aims to stand apart from the crowd is through its managed service, and thus, speed of implementation.
Bringing transparency to crypto capital markets fetches $10 million for London-based Haruko
London startup Haruko is building one-stop shop for institutional crypto investors with $10-million seed funding.
The crypto ecosystem shows enormous promise as the breeding ground for game-changing innovation. While institutional capital is increasingly convinced of the opportunity, unfamiliar and unreliable technology remains a major barrier to entry. Bridging this gap with a platform that provides both a sophisticated but easy-to-use API and a convenient dashboard enabling institutional investors to easily interact with crypto markets is London-based Haruko.
The startup bringing an institutional-grade technology layer to connect capital to the blockchains, has now closed a $10 million funding. The seed round was led by Portage Ventures and White Star Capital.
Founded by Adam Carlile, Omer Suleman and Shamyl Malik, the startup powers institutional access to digital assets globally. Its platform enables large institutions to interact with crypto markets both on centralised exchanges (CeFi) and decentralised protocols (DeFi).
Ageras Group Raises $34M in Funding
The Ageras Group, a Copehagen, Denmark-based small business-focused financial services software and accounting marketplace, closed a €30m ($34m) funding round.
Backers included new investors Centripetal Capital and Saeid Esmaeilzadeh, which joined existing investors Investcorp Technology Partners, Lugard Road Capital and Roosgruppen, which all are participating in the round.
The company intends to use the funds to accelerate the expansion of its marketplace and acquire other fintech software startups.
Founded in 2012 by CEO Rico Andersen and CMO Martin Hegelund, Ageras Group provides small businesses with financial services software and accounting marketplace.
The company began as the online marketplace Ageras.com (matching SMEs with accountants) and has expanded into a 250-person team offering a complete ecosystem of tools and services for SMEs. Today, Ageras Group offers cloud-based accounting software through the products Zervant, Billy and Tellow and payroll software through Salary. In late 2021, the group launched an embedded fintech service providing financing options to its customers directly through its software. Ageras Group’s solutions have been used by more than 1 million small businesses across Europe and the U.S.
Weavr Raises $40M in Series A Funding
Weavr, a London, UK-based fintech provider that enables businesses with Plug-and-Play financial solutions, raised $40M in Series A funding.
The round was led by Tiger Global with participation from QED Investors, Anthemis, Mubadala, Latitude, Headline, Seedcamp, Force Over Mass Capital and UFP Fintech.
The company intends to use the funds to support international expansion plans, beginning with an official U.S. market launch.
Led by CEO Alex Mifsud, Weavr is an open platform for embedded finance for the digital economy.
Atom Raises More Than £75M in Equity Funding
Atom bank, a Durham, UK-based app-based bank, raised more than £75m in new equity funding as it continues to grow its profitability and drive to IPO.
The round will be led by BBVA and by Toscafund with participation from co-investors Infinity Investment Partners. The round is now being opened to other existing shareholders. The digital lender has now raised more than £115m in the last 12 months.
Led by Mark Mullen, Chief Executive Officer, Atom launched operations in April 2016, offering Fixed Saver accounts and secured business lending for small and medium-sized enterprises (‘SMEs’), followed by its automated mobile mortgage proposition in December 2016. Atom launched an Instant Saver in September 2020.
With a team of over 400 people, the company delivered its first monthly operating profit during Q2 and has continued to grow its revenues throughout the year while maintaining a tight control on its costs.
Bulgaria now has its first unicorn in Payhawk as the company adds an additional $100 million
In adding another $100 million to an already impressive $115 million Series B round, payments and expense management startup Payhawk has provided Bulgaria with its first card-carrying member of the unicorn club
Payments and expense management firm Payhawk has added $100 million to its Series B round, now standing at $215 million, and in so much, provides the company with a $1 billion valuation and Bulgaria with its first unicorn.
As a testament to the company’s rapidly accelerating velocity, this Series B extension arrives only three months after the company’s initial announcement of $115 million, a round that was announced only 7 months since the closing of a $20 million Series A round.
Preceded only by now publicly listed UiPath, Payhawk’s Series B round is the second-largest ever of its kind for a B2B company in the CEE region, with the new funding fueling the addition of 60 senior software engineers in the Sofia office, alongside planned office openings in Amsterdam and Paris in March, and New York in September. The company reports that it’s well on track to triple the headcount from 100 to more than 300 staff members by the end of this year.
Scalapay Raises $497M in Series B Funding
Scalapay, a Milan, Italy-based payment solution that enables customers to buy now and pay later (BNPL) without interest, raised $497M in Series B funding.
The round, which brought total funding raised to date to over $700M, was led by Tencent and Willoughby Capital, with participation from Tiger Global, Gangwal, Moore Capital, Deimos, and Fasanara Capital.
Founded by Simone Mancini and Johnny Mitrevski in 2019, Scalapay is an innovative payment solution for e-commerce merchants across the globe that allows customers to buy now and pay later, without interest. Their BNPL offerings include three options for customers (Pay in 3, Pay in 4, and Pay Later) in which customers are not required to make any payments upfront, and can instead opt to pay in 3 installments, 4 installments, or entirely after 14 days.
CommerzVentures closes €300 million fund to boost European fintech and insurtech startups
Specialising in fintech companies, Frankfurt-based CommerzVentures has announced the close of their third fund at €300 million. The fund will go towards supporting early and growth-stage companies in the fintech and insurtech space. The freshly emerging climate fintech space will also benefit from the fresh funds – building towards being Europe’s foremost VC in this emerging sector.
The latest fund, which saw Commerzbank return as the sole LP, brings their combined total fund size to €550 million.
Launched in 2014, CommerzVentures has successfully invested in 28 companies. Continuing their strategy of targeting exceptional founder teams with the ambition to solve billion-dollar problems, CommerzVentures continues to invest with a global outlook, focusing on Europe, Israel and the USA.
Catalyst Romania wraps up €50 million fund to invest in early-stage tech firms in South Eastern Europe
Targeting investments in technology companies, Catalyst Romania has announced the closing of its second venture capital fund. On the back of strong demand from institutional and private investors, the original target of €40 million was substantially exceeded and the fund reached its hard cap of €50 million.
The second-generation venture fund in Romania will continue focusing on early-stage technology companies and make investments of €1-3 million to high-potential technology SMEs from Romania and South Eastern Europe.
Since its first closing in November 2020, it has invested in two companies and three more are in the due diligence phase. The first investment was in Seedblink, which is a next generation crowd-investing platform. Its second investment was in Code of Talent, a leading micro-learning solution dedicated to employee training.
Meet us at:
Finovate Europe 2022, London: 22–23 March 2022
Money2020 Europe, Amsterdam: 7-9 June 2022
South Summit 2022, Madrid: 8–10 June 2022
SuperVentures Berlin: 14–15 June 2022
Digital Insurance Agenda, Amsterdam: 29–30 June 2022
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