Meet and hear from the startups, investors and financial institutions behind “what’s next in European FinTech” – on 18th November, FinTech Forum returns to the Airport Club, Frankfurt. Check out the line-up and register
Early stage European FinTech deals this week include Kevin., Multiverse Computing, Resistant AI, Primer,Billie.
We feature Q&As with Cynthia Nadal of SeedX Liechtenstein, Philipp Buschmann of AAZZUR, and Harald Axelius of Billender.
Apply / register for the FinTech Forum 2021 on 18th Nov. at the Airport Club, Frankfurt) here.
Check out the 2nd edition of Scaling Enterprise FinTech | The Handbook, launched in partnership with Money20/20 and SixThirty Ventures is out: http://www.fintechforum.de/sef/
If you are an early stage startup in Europe building the next big thing in FinTech, reach out to Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.
Q&A with Cynthia Nadal of SeedX Liechtenstein
1.Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.
My name is Cynthia, I am a Partner at Seed X Liechtenstein. I am an operator turned investor and I have previously worked with different accelerators including Techstars, King’s College and Founders Factory in London. Prior to being an investor I have worked for 11+ years at the fintech unicorn Markit (Now IHS markit, being bought by S&P). I learned there everything I know about great product development, corporate innovation and the hurdles of fast growth (IPO on the NASDAQ in 2014 at $5bn valuation, merger with IHS in 2016, now worth more than $40bn).
Work-wise I like connecting the dots and people, understanding the big problems needing solving and who we can learn from. Having the right network also helps to support founders in their growth.
http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-cynthia-nadal-of-seedx/
Cynthia is among the investors on stage at the FinTech Forum event on 18th Nov. 2021 at the Airport Club, Frankfurt: check out the line-up and register here.
Q&A with Philipp Buschmann of AAZZUR
1.Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.
I am an entrepreneur, a husband and passionate about fintech. At my first job at Razorfish I helped build trading tech for State Street Bank; as a strategy consultant I helped design the portal for online banking at Sparkasse and as an entrepreneur have helped lenders and challenger banks get launched.
My personal passion is cooking and snowboarding. One is good for the head (almost like a meditation) and the other is good at enjoyment and hurting myself on the slopes. These I think are natural Austrian hobbies: eat, drink and ski!
http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-philipp-buschmann-of-aazzur/
AAZZUR is among the startups selected to present at the FinTech Forum event on 18th Nov. 2021 at the Airport Club, Frankfurt: check out the line-up and register here.
Q&A with Harald Axelius of Billender
1. Please tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure.
Billender is the first buy now-pay later solution for paying bills. You simply snap a pic, you can pay any bill in seconds with a variety of flexible payment options. Billender simplifies payment of bills while giving the user a better overview of their personal finance. With services like Klarna, Affirm, Afterpay etc, consumers today are used to having access to all types of payment options, including flexible credits any time they want to purchase something. Billender applies the same model for paying bills. Before I started Billender, I was involved as an angel investor, chairman of the board and many other different roles at Savelend, Sweden’s largest peer-to-peer platform. I have a Master of Laws (LLM) but always worked in tech. I currently reside in Stockholm, Sweden and Marbella, Spain with my girlfriend Jenny. When I’m not working I enjoy taking 20 minute meditation naps with noise cancellation earphones or watching Youtube videos about the construction of different “mega projects” around the world.
http://www.fintechforum.de/7-questions-with-harald-axelius-of-billender/
kevin., a Lithuanian Fintech, Celebrates $10M Seed Round
kevin., a Lithuanian Fintech startup providing payment infrastructure for online, mobile, and physical sales, has secured $10 million of new capital in a seed funding round. The investment, which brings the company’s total capital raised to $14 million, was co-led by OTB Ventures and Speedinvest, two of Europe’s leading venture capital investors in early-stage European technology companies. Also joining the funding round were OpenOcean, Javier Perez’s Global PayTech Ventures, and individuals including AmRest founder Henry McGovern.
kevin.’s advanced A2A (account-to-account) payment infrastructure solution was created to change card payments to payments linked directly from customers’ bank accounts without using any third-party providers. The technology scales to businesses of any size and across industries, including retail, parking, fashion, car-sharing, deliveries, and insurance. kevin. focuses on mobile and POS payments where customers predominantly pay using cards. Its payment infrastructure is based on open banking – regulated by the European PSD2 Directive – which requires all banks and financial institutions in the European Economic Area to open their API for licensed third-party providers. kevin. develops only its own connections to the banks without using any third-party aggregators.
Multiverse Computing Closes €10M Seed Funding Round
Multiverse Computing, a San Sebastian, Spain-based quantum computing startup dedicated to finance, closed a seed funding round of €10m (USD $11.55m).
The round was led by JME Ventures and also included Quantonation, EASO Ventures, Inveready, CLAVE Capital (Mondragón Fondo de Promoción), Ikerlan, LKS, Penja Strategy, Seed Gipuzkoa and Ezten Venture Capital Fund.
The company intends to use the funds to consolidate growth and globalization strategy as well continue to advance its technology and marketing, to gradually enter into new markets such as energy, mobility and smart manufacturing.
https://www.finsmes.com/2021/10/multiverse-computing-closes-e10m-seed-funding-round.html
Resistant AI scores $16.6M for its anti-fraud fintech tools
Resistant AI, which uses artificial intelligence to help financial services companies combat fraud and financial crime — selling tools to protect credit risk scoring models, payment systems, customer onboarding and more — has closed $16.6 million in Series A funding.
GV (formerly Google Ventures) led the round, with participation from existing investors Index Ventures (led by partner Jan Hammer), Credo Ventures (led by Ondrej Bartos and Vladislav Jez) and Seedcamp, plus several unnamed angel investors specializing in financial technology and security.
The 2019-founded, Prague-based startup says the funding will be used to meet rising demand from global financial institutions, including by building out its product, engineering and sales operations teams beyond its existing footprint — which also includes offices in London and New York.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/resistant-ai-scores-16-6m-134554268.html
London FinTech Primer Raises $50M
FinTech payments startup Primer raised $50 million from ICONIQ Capital, the wealth manager of technology billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey. Other backers included Balderton Capital, RTP Global, Seedcamp, Speedinvest and Accel.
Headquartered in London and founded in 2020 by Gabriel Le Roux and Paul Anthony, both former employees of PayPal, Primer offers end-to-end payments infrastructure that works with multiple payment methods, including buy now pay later (BNPL). The startup has a workforce of 70 people across 20 countries and is now valued at $425 million.
https://www.pymnts.com/news/investment-tracker/2021/london-fintech-primer-raises-50m/
Berlin based BNPL Billie Raises $100 Million at $640 Million Valuation
Berlin-based BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) Billie has raised $100 million at a $640 million valuation according to a note from the Fintech. Simultaneously, Billie said it had received refinancing lines of $200 million per month. The capital will be provided by a consortium of German banks led by VVRB (Vereinigte Volksbank Raiffeisenbank eG) with participation from Raisin Bank and Varengold Bank.
The funding round was led by Dawn Capital, a firm with a Fintech portfolio that includes Tink, iZettle, Soldo, and Copper.
Other investors include Klarna and Tencent, alongside existing investors Creandum, Speedinvest, Picus and GFC.
Billie states that this funding round is the world’s largest to date in the B2B BNPL market.
Billie is a payment method for businesses, offering B2B companies digital payment services. Billie allows companies to pay and get paid on their own terms through modern checkout solutions. Based on proprietary, machine-learning-supported risk models, Billie offers fast liquidity, automated workflows, and access to modern payment solutions. Billie was founded in 2016 by the former founders of Zencap (Exit to Funding Circle). Billie is based in Berlin and employs over 130 people from over 35 countries.
Private equity buys into Italian fintech TAS Group, launches bid
Italian fintech company TAS Group said on Thursday a vehicle controlled by European private equity firm Gilde would launch a takeover bid for its shares at 2.2 euros each after taking control of its top shareholder.
Gilde Buy Out Partners aims to delist TAS Group from the Milan Stock Exchange. It agreed to acquire OWL, that controls 73.2% of TAS Group, valuing the stake 134.5 million euros ($156.61 million).
Shares in TAS, which develops software for payments and banking, jumped 4.85% to 2.16 euros at 0810 GMT on the Milan Stock Exchange.
Meet us at:
Web Summit, 1-4 Nov. 2021, Lisbon
SuperReturn International, 9-12 Nov. 2021, Berlin
FinTech Forum, 18 Nov. 2021, Frankfurt
Meet Our Partners:
Heussen https://www.heussen-law.de
IDA Ireland https://www.idaireland.com
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
Conversation opened. 1 read message.