Financial institutions M&A sector trends: fintech — H1 2021 and outlook for H2 2021
Lasting success will belong to those who can combine frictionless digital
ecosystems with robust financial controls. That is fintech’s holy grail.
E-commerce and online financial services experienced exponential growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. The significance of digital offerings, and the RegTech tools to safeguard institutions and customers, has never been more apparent. Europe’s unicorns are at full gallop towards the digital future.
Overview
3 reasons why concerns around scarcity of support for fintechs amidst COVID-19 economic uncertainty were unwarranted:
- E-commerce and online financial services experienced exponential growth. Fintechs scaled up materially to match consumer demand
- Established banks pivoted to digital offerings in response to branch suspensions and closures
- Financial sponsors supercharged innovators to ride the wave of disruption
CURRENT MARKET
WE ARE SEEING
- Banks adopt multi-channel strategies towards digital transformation:
- Direct investments (e.g., Barclays’ participation in fundraisings for Amount, First Boulevard, TomoCredit and Hubx in H1 2021)
- Investments in dedicated fintech funds (e.g., BBVA’s US$150 million investment commitment to Propel)
- Nurturing ‘home grown’ innovation (e.g., HSBC’s launch of its multi-currency digital wallet and SME digital lender, Kinetic)
- Venture arm investments (e.g., Goldman Sachs Growth Equity’s investments in ComplyAdvantage, BackMarket Amount and Starling Bank in H1 2021)
- Partnerships with fintechs (e.g., Deutsche Bank’s JVs with Fiserv (payments acceptance), Silverflow (cloudbased card-acquiring services) and Treasury Intelligence Solutions (multi-bank services) in H1 2021)
- Participation in innovation consortia (e.g., BoI’s, AIB’s, Permanent TSB’s and KBC’s establishment of Syntech Payments)
- Financial sponsors piling into funding rounds in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic—payments, Open Banking, WealthTech, data analytics, InsurTech, e-trading and RegTech rake in the growth capital
- Fintechs come of age:
- Mega funding rounds (e.g., Wefox’s US$650 million Series C round, Klarna’s US$639 million Series H round and Mollie’s €665 million Series C round)
- Mergers between market leaders (e.g., Raisin & Deposit Solutions)
- Inorganic growth (e.g. Tink’s acquisition of FinTecSystems, and subsequent acquisition by Visa)
- Partnerships (e.g., Nordic API Gateway’s and Bankdata’s Open Banking partnership)
- Attainment of the Holy Grail (e.g., Alkami’s Nasdaq IPO and Dispersion’s AQSE IPO)
- Fintechs tackle social concerns, particularly reaching unbanked communities (e.g., Airtel Africa Mobile Money’s equity funding from QIA, Mastercard and The Rise Fund), servicing under-banked communities (e.g., Greenwood (ethnic minorities), Rewire (migrants) and First Boulevard (ethnic minorities)) and supporting LGBT initiatives (e.g., bunq’s launch of Mastercard ‘True Name’ credit cards)
KEY DRIVERS
- COVID-19 drives customer familiarity and utilisation—fintechs scale-up in response:
- Development stage (e.g., Gro, Butter and Bankly, amongst others, raised Seed funding in H1 2021)
- Early-stage (e.g., Volt, Finleap Connect and Upflow, amongst others, raised Series A funding in H1 2021)
- Mid-stage (e.g., Element Insurance, Divido and Treasury Prime, amongst others, raised Series B funding in H1 2021)
- Late-stage (e.g., Smart, Deserve and Viva Wallet, amongst others, raised Series D funding in H1 2021)
- High investor appetite for disruptors, including banks, financial sponsors, multinational financial services corporations, family offices, successful entrepreneurs and NGOs
- Material uptick in support for digital assets, with particular focus on:
- Digital asset custody (e.g., Deutsche Börse’s acquisition of majority stake in Crypto Finance)
- Crypto trading (e.g., Talos Trading, Bitpanda, Anchorage and Blockchain.com all successfully raised funds in H1 2021)
- Digital asset analytics (e.g., Kaiko’s US$24 million Series A funding round, led by Anthemis and Underscore VC)
- Crypto security (e.g., PayPal’s acquisition of Curv)
- Legislatures and regulators back digitalisation:
- Regulatory sandboxes—the Bank of Greece, Spain’s Secretariat General for the Treasury & International Financing and the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority all launched new sandboxes in H1 2021
- Government funding (e.g., UK’s new £375 million Future Fund, Germany’s €10 billion Future Fund and Ireland’s Strategic Investment Fund)
- ‘Grey cell’ resources (e.g., Ireland’s establishment of its new Department of Finance Fintech Group under the 2021 Finance Action Plan)
TRENDS TO WATCH
- Consolidation of fintech first-movers to conquer niches (e.g., BearingPoint RegTech’s acquisition of Vizor Software)
- Growing investor interest for:
- Fintechs offering ESG-compliant and ESG monitoring/reporting products
- RegTech which is scalable and compatible with legacy IT systems
- Banks yielding to customer demand for crypto trading and storage capability (e.g., Standard Chartered’s and BNY Mellon’s newly established crypto divisions)
- Continued competition between national governments and regulators to attract top innovators and talent
- Crumbling castles—over-ambitious fundraisings (e.g., Greensill’s fall from grace), geographic expansion (e.g., Revolut’s exit from Canada) and product offerings (e.g., NatWest’s closure of Esme Loans)
Our M&A forecast
Fintech—Publicly reported deals & situationsSupercharged bank and financial sponsor interest in funding rounds for fintechs which can demonstrate continued consumer appetite, scalability, nimbleness to respond to changing market conditions and sustainable management motivation. De-SPAC opportunities for first movers who can withstand public scrutiny. Increasing pressure on fintechs to generate profits and reduce reliance on private capital backing.
Fintech—Publicly reported deals & situations
Banks invest heavily in digitalisation strategies
Banks will still have the appetite for fintech M&A in 2021, but the economic uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic will make them more cautious in their deal-making. S&P Global (January 2021)
Deal highlight:
White & Case advised Goldman Sachs Growth Equity on its participation in the US$335 million Series D funding round for Back Market, alongside General Atlantic, Eurazeo Growth, Daphni, Financière Agache and Aglaé Ventures.
Direct investments:
- Intesa Sanpaolo (RegTech): Acquisition of 25% of Tinexta (June 2021)
- HSBC and ING (POS finance): Participation in US$30 million Series B funding round for Divido (June 2021)
- Bank Hapoalim (RegTech): Participation in US$31 million Series C funding round for ThetaRay (May 2021)
- Barclays Principal Investments (BaaS): Participation in US$100 million Series D funding round for Amount (May 2021)
- EBRD and Goldman Sachs (Payments): Equity investment in DgPays (March 2021)
- Barclays (Neo-banking): Participation in US$5 million Seed funding round for First Boulevard (March 2021)
- Barclays (Consumer credit): Participation in US$7 million Seed funding round for TomoCredit (February 2021)
- Barclays (B2B capital-raising platform): Participation in US$5.5 million Series A funding round for Hubx (February 2021)
- AIB, Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB and KBC Bank Ireland (Payments): Participation in €5.9 million Seed funding round for Synch Payments (January 2021)
- Santander (Consulting): €2 million equity investment in Connecting Visions (January 2021)
- BNY Mellon, Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas and Citigroup (Securities lending): Participation in €14.4 million Series B funding round for HQLAx (January 2021)
Dedicated fintech funds:
- BBVA: US$150 million investment commitment to Propel (February 2021)
Home-grown innovation:
- ING: Launch of German digital investment advisory service (May 2021)
- HSBC: Launch of multi-currency digital wallet (May 2021)
- HSBC: Launch of SME digital lender, Kinetic (March 2021)
Venture fund investments:
- Goldman Sachs Growth Equity (RegTech): US$20 million equity investment in ComplyAdvantage (May 2021)
- Goldman Sachs Growth Equity (e-commerce): Participation in US$335 million Series D funding round for Back Market (May 2021)
- Goldman Sachs Growth Equity (BaaS): Participation in US$100 million Series D funding round for Amount (May 2021)
- Goldman Sachs Growth Equity (Digital banking): £50 million equity investment in Starling Bank (April 2021)
- National Bank of Egypt/Al Ahly Capital (Payments): Acquisition of 75% of Momken (March 2021)
- ING Ventures (AI vis-à-vis NPLs): US$3 million equity investment in Flowcast (March 2021)
- ABN AMRO Ventures (Digital banking): Participation in €7.5 million equity investment in Penta (February 2021)
- Wells Fargo Strategic Capital (Treasury services): Participation in US$20 million Series A funding round for Trovata (January 2021)
Partnerships:
- RBL Bank (SME lending): Indian SME lending JV with Tide (June 2021)
- National Bank of Oman (Loyalty points): Loyalty points JV with Loylogic (June 2021)
- Société Générale (Treasury management): Treasury management solution JV with Kyriba (June 2021)
- Deutsche Bank (Payments): Payments acceptance JV with Fiserv (June 2021)
- Goldman Sachs (Payments): Digital payments JV with Visa (June 2021)
- Deutsche Bank (Payments): Cloud-based card-acquiring services JV with Silverflow (May 2021)
- BankDhofar (Payments): Payment solutions JV with Thawani Technologies (April 2021)
- Deutsche Bank (Retail banking): Multi-bank services JV with Treasury Intelligence Solutions (March 2021)
- Commerzbank (Digital banking): Digital banking JV with Google (March 2021)
- Railsbank (Payments): Banking and payments JV with Volt (March 2021)
Innovation consortia:
- Bank of Ireland, AIB, Permanent TSB and KBC: Establishment of Syntech Payments (January 2021)
Aftermath of COVID-19 sees financial sponsors pile in
Global investment in fintech fell significantly in 2020 as COVID-19 hit, but picked up significantly in H2 2020. Global investment across PE and VC was US$105 billion across 2,861 deals in 2020, down on the US$165 billion recorded in 2019. Finextra (February 2021)
Participation in funding rounds/ equity investments:
- Chrysalis Investments (Pensions platform): Participation in £165 million Series D funding round for Smart (June 2021)
- Mission Holdings and Ally Ventures (Payments): Participation in US$50 million Series D funding round for Deserve (June 2021)
- Blackstone (Payments): Participation in €665 million Series C funding round for Mollie (June 2021)
- EQT Ventures (Payments): Participation in US$23.5 million Series A funding round for Volt (June 2021)
- SBI Investment (Open banking): Participation in €22 million Series A funding round for Finleap Connect (June 2021)
- CPP Investments (BaaS): Participation in US$187 million Series C funding round for 10x Future Technologies (June 2021)
- Serena Capital (Digital banking): Participation in €13 million Series A funding round for Memo Bank (June 2021)
- Wafra Capital Partners and Quilam Capital (Alternative finance): Participation in £160 million Venture funding round for ThinCats (June 2021)
- 9yards Capital and eFounders (Payments): Participation in US$15 million Series A funding round for Upflow (June 2021)
- MMC Ventures (Treasury finance): Participation in US$10 million Series A funding round for TreasurySpring (June 2021)
- Softbank Vision Fund 2 (Payments): Participation in US$639 million Series H funding round for Klarna (June 2021)
- Tencent (WealthTech): Participation in €150 million Series E funding round for Scalable Capital (June 2021)
- Witan Group, Ilavska Vuillermoz Capital, finleap, signals VC, Versorgungswerk der Zahnärztekammer Berlin and Mundi Ventures (InsurTech): Participation in €16 million Series B funding round for Element Insurance (June 2021)
- Target Global (InsurTech): Participation in US$650 million Series C funding round for Wefox (June 2021)
- SVB Capital (Payments): Participation in US$100 million Series C funding round for Chipper Cash (May 2021)
- Benhamou Global Ventures, Saints Fund, OurCrowd and SBT (RegTech): Participation in US$31 million Series C funding round for ThetaRay (May 2021)
- General Catalyst (Payroll technology): Participation in US$15.6 million Series A funding round for Pento (May 2021)
- WestCap, Hanaco Ventures and Invus Opportunities (BaaS): Participation in US$100 million Series D funding round for Amount (May 2021)
- Middlegame Ventures (Payroll technology): Participation in €11 million Series A funding round for Payslip (May 2021)
- Sequoia Capital (Digital banking): Participation in US$5 million pre-Seed funding round for Telda (May 2021)
- Global Ventures (Payments): Participation in US$8 million pre-Series A funding round for Mamo (May 2021)
- Deciens Capital and QED Investors (Baas): Participation in US$20 million Series B funding round for Treasury Prime (May 2021)
- Group 11 (Freelancer banking): Participation in US$55 million Series B funding round for Lili (May 2021)
- Greenoaks (BaaS): Participation in €60 million Series B funding round for Vivid Money (April 2021)
- Tencent Breyer Capital (Neo-banking): Participation in US$80 million Series D funding round for Viva Wallet (April 2021)
- Prime Ventures (InsurTech): Participation in €20.7 million Series B funding round for Qover (April 2021)
- Prosus Ventures and Tencent (Online trading): Participation in US$80 million Series C funding round for BUX (April 2021)
- Altos Ventures (Payments): Participation in US$20 million Series A funding round for Candex (April 2021)
- Draper Esprit (Financial software): Participation in US$60 million Series B funding round for FintechOS (April 2021)
- QED Investors (Payments): Participation in US$20 million Series A funding round for Payhawk (April 2021)
- Gauss Ventures and M&F Funds (Payments): Participation in US$80 million Series B funding round for Zilch (April 2021)
- Global PayTech Ventures (Payments): Participation in €8 million Series B funding round for Cardlay (April 2021)
- x15ventures (Payments): US$1 million equity investment in Payable (April 2021)
- Bain Capital (Payments): Participation in US$21 million post-Seed funding round for Orum (April 2021)
- D1 Capital Partners (Corporate credit cards): Participation in US$115 million Series B funding round for Ramp (April 2021)
- VC Global Ventures (Payments): Participation in US$18.5 million Series A funding round for PayMob (April 2021)
- Addition (Open banking): Participation in US$70 million Series D funding round for TrueLayer (April 2021)
- Ibex Investors and Lutetia Technology Partners (Tax compliance): Participation in US$32 million Series C funding round for BlueDot (April 2021)
- Altimeter Capital, Silver Lake, Ribbit Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, New Enterprise Associates, Spark Capital and Thrive Capital (Open banking): Participation in US$425 million Series D funding round for Plaid (April 2021)
- SoftBank Vision Fund 2 (Social commerce): Participation in £216.8 million Series E funding round for Meesho (April 2021)
- Galaxy Digital and Framework Ventures (Decentralised finance): Participation in US$7.1 million Seed funding round for Gro (March 2021)
- Blenheim Chalcot (BNPL): Participation in £15.8 million Seed funding round for Butter (March 2021)
- Velocity Capital Fintech Ventures and Frumtak Ventures (Green banking products): Participation in €10 million Venture funding round for Meniga (March 2021)
- Vault (Payments): Participation in US$2 million Seed funding round for Bankly (March 2021)
- GrayBella Capital (BaaS): Participation in €30 million Series C funding round for Omnio (March 2021)
- Left Lane Capital (Online trading): Participation in £50 million Series B funding round for Freetrade (March 2021)
- Valar Ventures (Digital banking): Participation in US$25 million Series A funding round for Kuda (March 2021)
- Insight Partners (Payments): Participation in US$50 million Series C funding round for Pollinate (March 2021)
- Valar Ventures (Crypto trading): Participation in US$170 million Series B funding round for Bitpanda (March 2021)
- Derayah Ventures (SME financing): Participation in US$7.2 million Series A funding round for Lendo (March 2021)
- Inflexion (Payments): Minority equity investment in CMS Payments Intelligence (March 2021)
- Fasanara Capital (Payments): Participation in US$5.5 million Seed funding round for Diem (March 2021)
- Avenir Growth Capital and Tiger Global Management (Payments): Participation in US$170 million Series C funding round for Flutterwave (March 2021)
- DST Global and General Catalyst (InsurTech): Participation in US$150 million Series C funding round for Zego (March 2021)
- Fidelity Management & Research (Digital banking): Participation in £270 million Series D funding round for Starling Bank (March 2021)
- Vertex Ventures (Data analytics): Participation in US$24 million Series B funding round for Seebo (March 2021)
- AME Cloud Ventures (Digital banking): Participation in £75 million Series G funding round for Monzo (February 2021)
- Raba and firstminute capital (API solutions): Participation in US$4 million Seed funding round for Stitch (February 2021)
- Enlight Growth Partners (Online trading): Participation in US$24 million Series A funding round for Parkside Securities (February 2021)
- Target Global (Open banking): Participation in US$13 million Seed funding round for Tarabut Gateway (February 2021)
- Team8, Blumberg Capital and LionBird Ventures (Investment platform): Participation in US$12 million Series A funding round for FundGuard (February 2021)
- HV Capital, RTP Global, Presight Capital, S7V and VR Ventures (Digital banking): Participation in €7.5 million Series B+ funding round for Penta (February 2021)
- JG Summit Holdings, Apis Growth Fund II and African Rainbow Capital (Digital banking): Participation in US$110 million Series B funding round for Tyme (February 2021)
- Insight Partners (Data analytics): Participation in US$75 million pre-IPO funding round for Earnix (February 2021)
- Andreessen Horowitz (Consumer financial management): Participation in US$65 million Series A funding round for SeedFi (February 2021)
- Grove Ventures (RegTech): Participation in US$9 million Seed funding round for Mirato (February 2021)
- Element Ventures (Payments): Participation in €4 million Series A funding round for Billhop (February 2021)
- Warburg Pincus (AI-enabled FI customer experience): US$75 million equity investment in Personetics (February 2021)
- M2 Asset Management and Coeli (Digital banking): Participation in US$30 million Series A funding round for Northmill (February 2021)
- Coatue Management (Payments): Participation in US$108 million Series D funding round for BharatPe (February 2021)
- DST Global, Serena, LocalGlobe and Breega (Invoice management): Participation in €20 million Seed funding round for Libeo (February 2021)
- Andreessen Horowitz, Greenfield One and Electric Capital (Payments): Participation in US$20 million Series A funding round for Celo (February 2021)
- Insight Partners (Core banking): Participation in US$53 million Series C funding round for Nymbus (February 2021)
- Point72 Ventures (BaaS): Participation in US$13.5 million Series A funding round for Trade Ledger (February 2021)
- TLV Partners (Payments): Participation in US$13 million Venture funding round for Mesh Payments (February 2021)
- Innovia Capital (Data analytics): Participation in US$43 million Series B+ funding round for Symend (February 2021)
- Fuel Ventures (Online trading): Participation in £2 million Seed funding round for Wombat (February 2021)
- SciFi VC (Payments): Participation in US$5.5 million Seed funding round for Balance (February 2021)
- Silverton Partners (Payments): Participation in US$3.6 million Seed funding round for Routefusion (February 2021)
- Shorooq Partners (BaaS): Participation in US$7.6 million Series A funding round for NymCard (February 2021)
- Ribbit Capital (Online trading): Participation in US$2.4 billion late-stage funding round for Robinhood (February 2021)
- Fasanara Capital (Payments): Participation in US$48 million Seed funding round for Scalapay (January 2021)
- SBI Investment and Sony Innovation Fund (Payments): Participation in US$15 million Series B funding round for Token (January 2021)
- Addition (Payments): Participation in US$102 million Series B funding round for Fast (January 2021)
- General Atlantic (Mobile banking): Participation in US$100 million Series C funding round for Albert (January 2021)
- Cathay Innovation and Idinvest (BNPL): Participation in €49 million Series B funding round for Alma (January 2021)
- ToscaFund Asset Management (WealthTech): Participation in €25 million Series C funding round for Elinvar (January 2021)
- Elevator Ventures (Payments): Participation in €16 million Series C funding round for Twisto (January 2021)
- SFC Capital (Personal finance management): Participation in £300,000 pre- Seed funding round for Quirk (January 2021)
- Seventure (WealthTech): Participation in €8 million Series A funding round for wealthpilot (January 2021)
- Tiger Global Management (Payments): Participation in US$450 million Series C funding round for Checkout.com (January 2021)
- Pamica (RegTech): Participation in €1 million Seed funding round for b.fine (January 2021)
- PayPal Ventures, Coinbase Ventures and Winklevoss Capital (Cryptocurrency tax compliance): Participation in US$100 million Series A funding round for TaxBit (January 2021)
- TCV (SaaS banking): Participation in €110 million Series D funding round for Mambu (January 2021)
- Long Arc Capital (Payments): Participation in €25 million Venture funding round for TagPay (January 2021)
- DST Global, Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital, Tiger Global and General Catalyst (Consumer credit): Participation in US$81 million Series C funding round for Cred (January 2021)
Acquisitions:
- BearingPoint RegTech (RegTech): Acquisition of Vizor Software (June 2021)
- Astorg and Bridgepoint (RegTech): Acquisition of Fenergo (May 2021)
Dedicated fintech funds:
- Oneplanetcrowd: Successful investment from Unknown Group (May 2021)
- Crypto Valley Venture Capital: Successful US$14.1 million funding round from Mathias Ruch, Ralf Glabischnig, Marco Bumbacher, Olaf Hannemann, Daniel Grossen, Christian Jaag and Lorenz Furrer (May 2021)
- Illuminate Financial: Successful US$100 million fundraising (March 2021)
- Finch Capital: Successful €150 million fundraising for Europe III fund, aimed at participation in 15 to 20 Series A and B funding rounds (February 2021)
Other FIs believe the hype
- Fidelity (Online investing): Acquisition of minority stake in Moonfare (March 2021)
- Hanwha (Payments): Participation in US$300 million late-stage funding round for Grab (January 2021)
Fintechs scale up
Deal highlight:
White & Case advised Tink, one of Europe’s premier open banking platforms, on its acquisition of FinTecSystems.
Deal highlight:
White & Case advised Pollinate, creator of white-labelled digital marketplaces for the business customers of the world’s largest banks, on its US$50 million Series C funding round for Insight Partners.
Deal highlight:
White & Case advised Wefox, a Germany-based digital insurer, on its US$650 million Series C funding round, led by Target Global.
Funding for the UK’s standout fintech sector dropped 23 per cent in 2020, despite the UK’s wider tech industry raking in a record US$15 billion. Financial News (March 2021)
Companies worldwide clinched almost US$700 billion worth of M&A during the first 2 months of 2021, as consolidation in the technology sector fuelled deal activity. Financial News (March 2021)
The UK retained its role as the top-ranking investment destination in Europe, with US$4.1 billion invested across a total of 408 deals in 2020. Finextra (January 2021)
Stockpiling growth capital:
- Smart (Pensions platform): Successful £165 million Series D funding round, led by Chrysalis Investments (June 2021)
- Deserve (Payments): Successful US$50 million Series D funding round, led by Mastercard, Mission Holdings and Ally Ventures (June 2021)
- Mollie (Payments): Successful €665 million Series C funding round, led by Blackstone (June 2021)
- Volt (Payments): Successful US$23.5 million Series A funding round, led by EQT Ventures (June 2021)
- finleap connect (Open banking): Successful €22 million Series A funding round, led by SBI Investment (June 2021)
- 10x Future Technologies (BaaS): Successful US$187 million Series C funding round, led by BlackRock and CPP Investments (June 2021)
- Memo Bank (Digital banking): Successful €13 million Series A funding round, led by Serena Capital (June 2021)
- ThinCats (Alternative finance): Successful £160 million Ventune funding round, led by Wafra Capital Partners and Quilam Capital (June 2021)
- Upflow (Payments): Successful US$15 million Series A funding round, from 9yards Capital and eFounders (June 2021)
- Pennylane (Financial data management): Successful €15 million Series A funding round, led by Global Founders Capital and Partech (June 2021)
- TreasurySpring (Treasury finance): Successful US$10 million funding round, led by MMC Ventures and Anthemis Group (June 2021)
- Klarna (Payments): Successful US$639 million Series H funding round, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 (June 2021)
- Scalable Capital (WealthTech): Successful €150 million Series E funding round, led by Tencent (June 2021)
- Element Insurance (InsurTech): Successful €16 million Series B funding round, from Witan Group, Ilavska Vuillermoz Capital, finleap, signals VC, Versorgungswerk der Zahnärztekammer Berlin and Mundi Ventures (June 2021)
- Divido (POS finance): Successful US$30 million Series B funding round, led by HSBC and ING (June 2021)
- Wefox (InsurTech): Successful US$650 million Series C funding round, led by Target Global (June 2021)
- Chipper Cash (Payments): Successful US$100 million Series C funding round, led by SVB Capital (May 2021)
- Curve (Payments): Successful £10 million equity crowdfunding round (May 2021)
- Paysend (Payments): Successful US$125 million Series B funding round, from Infravia Growth Capital, Hermes GPE Innovation Fund and Plug and Play (May 2021)
- ThetaRay (RegTech): Successful US$31 million Series C funding round, from Benhamou Global Ventures, Saints Fund, OurCrowd, Bank Hapoalim and SBT (May 2021)
- ComplyAdvantage (RegTech): Successful US$20 million Series C funding round, led by Goldman Sachs (May 2021)
- Pento (Payroll technology): Successful US$15.6 million Series A funding round, led by General Catalyst (May 2021)
- Amount (BaaS): Successful US$100 million Series D funding round, from WestCap, Hanaco Ventures, Goldman Sachs, Invus Opportunities and Barclays Principal Investments (May 2021)
- Payslip (Payroll technology): Successful €11 million Series A funding round, led by Middlegame Ventures (May 2021)
- Telda (Digital banking): Successful US$5 million pre- Seed funding round, led by Sequoia Capital (May 2021)
- Mamo (Payments): Successful US$8 million pre- Series A funding round, led by Global Ventures (May 2021)
- Treasury Prime (BaaS): Successful US$20 million Series B funding round, led by Deciens Capital and QED Investors (May 2021)
- Lili (Freelancer banking): Successful US$55 million Series B funding round, led by Group 11 (May 2021)
- Vivid Money (BaaS): Successful €60 million Series B funding round, led by Greenoaks (April 2021)
- Viva Wallet (Neo-banking): Successful US$80 million Series D funding round, led by Tencent, EBRD and Breyer Capital (April 2021)
- Qover (InsurTech): Successful €20.7 million Series B funding round, led by Prime Ventures (April 2021)
- Tamara (Payments): Successful US$110 million funding round, led by Checkout. com (April 2021)
- BUX (Online trading): Successful US$80 million Series C funding round, led by Prosus Ventures and Tencent (April 2021)
- Candex (Payments): Successful US$20 million Series A funding round, led by Altos Ventures (April 2021)
- FintechOS (Financial software): Successful US$60 million Series B funding round, led by Draper Esprit (April 2021)
- Payhawk (Payments): Successful US$20 million Series A funding round, led by QED Investors (April 2021)
- Zilch (Payments): Successful US$80 million Series B funding round, led by Gauss Ventures and M&F Fund (April 2021)
- Fintern (Data analytics): Successful £32 million equity and debt funding round (April 2021)
- Cardlay (Payments): Successful €8 million Series B funding round, led by Global PayTech Ventures (April 2021)
- Appzone (Digital banking): Successful US$10 million Series A funding round, led by CardinalStone (April 2021)
- Payable (Payments): Successful US$1 million equity investment from x15ventures (April 2021)
- Orum (Payments): Successful US$21 million post- Seed funding round, led by Bain Capital (April 2021)
- Ramp (Corporate credit cards): Successful US$115 million Series B funding round, led by D1 Capital Partners and Stripe (April 2021)
- Alpian (Digital banking): Successful US$18 million Series B funding round (April 2021)
- PayMob (Payments): Successful US$18.5 million Series A funding round, led by VC Global Ventures (April 2021)
- TrueLayer (Open banking): Successful US$70 million Series D funding round, led by Addition (April 2021)
- BlueDot (Tax compliance): Successful US$32 million Series C funding round, led by Ibex Investors and Lutetia Technology Partners (April 2021)
- Plaid (Open banking): Successful US$425 million Series D funding round, led by Altimeter Capital, Silver Lake and Ribbit Capital (April 2021)
- Meesho (Social commerce): Successful £216.8 million Series E funding round, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 (April 2021)
- Gro (Decentralised finance): Successful US$7.1 million Seed funding round, led by Galaxy Digital and Framework Ventures (March 2021)
- Butter (BNPL): Successful £15.8 million Seed funding round, led by Blenheim Chalcot (March 2021)
- Roaring (Data analytics): Successful Series A funding round, from Nordstjernan (March 2021)
- Meniga (Green banking products): Successful €10 million Venture funding round, led by Velocity Capital Fintech Ventures and Frumtak Ventures (March 2021)
- Bankly (Payments): Successful US$2 million Seed funding round, led by Vault (March 2021)
- Omnio (BaaS): Successful €30 million Series C funding round, led by GrayBella Capital (March 2021)
- DgPays (Payments): Successful equity investment from EBRD and Goldman Sachs (March 2021)
- Freetrade (Online trading): Successful £50 million Series B funding round, led by Left Lane Capital (March 2021)
- Kuda (Digital banking): Successful US$25 million Series A funding round, led by Valar Ventures (March 2021)
- Pollinate (Payments): Successful US$50 million Series C funding round, led by Insight Partners (March 2021)
- Lendo (SME Shari’ahcompliant financing): Successful US$7.2 million Series A funding round, led by Derayah Ventures (March 2021)
- CMS Payments Intelligence (Payments): Successful equity minority investment from Inflexion (March 2021)
- Diem (Payments): Successful US$5.5 million Seed funding round, led by Fasanara Capital (March 2021)
- Flutterwave (Payments): Successful US$170 million Series C funding round, led by Avenir Growth Capital and Tiger Global Management (March 2021)
- Zego (InsurTech): Successful US$150 million Series C funding round, led by DST Global and General Catalyst (March 2021)
- Komainu (Crypto custodian): Successful US$25 million Series A funding round, led by Elwood Asset Management (March 2021)
- Flowcast (AI vis-à-vis NPLs): Successful US$3 million investment from ING Ventures (March 2021)
- Starling Bank (Digital banking): Successful £270 million Series D funding round, led by Fidelity Management & Research (March 2021)
- Seebo (Data analytics): Successful US$24 million Series B funding round, led by Vertex Ventures (March 2021)
- Codat (Data analytics): Successful Series A funding round, led by PayPal Ventures and American Express Ventures (March 2021)
- Klarna (Payments): Successful US$1 billion late-stage funding round (March 2021)
- Monzo (Digital banking): Successful £75 million Series G funding round, led by Nikesh Arora and AME Cloud Ventures (February 2021)
- Stitch (API solutions): Successful US$4 million Seed funding round, led by Raba and firstminute capital (February 2021)
- Monument (Digital banking): Successful £28 million Series A funding round (February 2021)
- Parkside Securities (Online trading): Successful US$24 million Series A funding round, led by Enlight Growth Partners (February 2021)
- Tarabut Gateway (Open banking): Successful US$13 million Seed funding round, led by Target Global (February 2021)
- FundGuard (Investment platform): Successful US$12 million Series A funding round, led by Team8, Blumberg Capital and LionBird Ventures (February 2021)
- Bottlepay (Payments): Successful £11 million Seed funding round, led by Alan Howard, FinTech Collective and Nydig (February 2021)
- Penta (Digital banking): Successful €7.5 million Series B+ funding round from finleap, HV Capital, RTP Global, Presight Capital, S7V, VR Ventures and ABN AMRO Ventures (February 2021)
- Tyme (Digital banking): Successful US$110 million Series B funding round, from JG Summit Holdings, Apis Growth Fund II and African Rainbow Capital (February 2021)
- Earnix (Data analytics): Successful US$75 million pre- IPO funding round, led by Insight Partners (February 2021)
- SeedFi (Consumer financial management): Successful US$65 million Series A funding round, led by Andreessen Horowitz (February 2021)
- Mirato (RegTech): Successful US$9 million Seed funding round, led by Grove Ventures (February 2021)
- Billhop (Payments): Successful €4 million Series A funding round, led by Element Ventures (February 2021)
- Personetics (AI-enabled FI customer experience): Successful US$75 million equity investment from Warburg Pincus (February 2021)
- Northmill (Digital banking): Successful US$30 million Series A funding round, led by M2 Asset Management and Coeli (February 2021)
- BharatPe (Payments): Successful US$108 million Series D funding round, led by Coatue Management (February 2021)
- Libeo (Invoice management): Successful €4 million Seed funding round, led by DST Global, Serena, LocalGlobe and Breega (February 2021)
- TomoCredit (Consumer credit): Successful US$7 million Seed funding round, led by Barclays (February 2021)
- Celo (Payments): Successful US$20 million Series A funding round, led by Andreessen Horowitz, Greenfield One and Electric Capital (February 2021)
- Nymbus (Core banking): Successful US$53 million Series C funding round, led by Insight Partners (February 2021)
- Trade Ledger (BaaS): Successful US$13.5 million Series A funding round, led by Point72 Ventures (February 2021)
- Mesh Payments (Payments): Successful US$13 million Venture funding round, led by TLV Partners (February 2021)
- Symend (Data analytics): Successful US$43 million Series B+ funding round, led by Innovia Capital (February 2021)
- Globacap (Trading platform): Successful US$9 million Series A+ funding round, led by Johannesburg Stock Exchange (February 2021)
- Hubx (B2B capital-raising platform): Successful US$5.5 million Series A funding round, led by Barclays (February 2021)
- Wombat (Online trading): Successful £2 million Seed funding round, led by Fuel Ventures (February 2021)
- WealthArc (WealthTech): Successful US$4 million Seed funding round, led by The Next Impact (February 2021)
- Balance (Payments): Successful US$5.5 million Seed funding round, led by SciFi VC and Stripe (February 2021)
- Routefusion (Payments): Successful US$3.6 million Seed funding round, led by Silverton Partners (February 2021)
- NymCard (BaaS): Successful US$7.6 million Series A funding round, led by Shorooq Partners (February 2021)
- Robinhood (Online trading): Successful US$2.4 billion latestage funding round, led by Ribbit Capital (February 2021)
- Scalapay (BNPL): Successful US$48 million Seed funding round, led by Fasanara Capital (January 2021)
- Synch Payments (Payments): Successful €5.9 million Seed funding round, led by AIB, Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB and KBC Bank Ireland (January 2021)
- Check (Payroll finance): Successful US$35 million Series B funding round, led by Stripe and Thrive (January 2021)
- Token (Payments): Successful US$15 million Series B funding round, led by SBI Investment and Sony Innovation Fund (January 2021)
- Wyre (Payments): Successful US$5 million Venture funding round, led by Stellar Development Foundation (January 2021)
- Fast (Payments): Successful US$102 million Series B funding round, led by Addition and Stripe (January 2021)
- Albert (Mobile banking): Successful US$100 million Series C funding round, led by General Atlantic (January 2021)
- Remagine (“Impact” financing platform): Successful €20 million Seed funding round, backed by Jonathan Weiner and Michael Vaughan (January 2021)
- Alma (BNPL): Successful €49 million Series B funding round, led by Cathay Innovation and Idinvest (January 2021)
- Elinvar (WealthTech): Successful €25 million Series C funding round, led by ToscaFund Asset Management (January 2021)
- Twisto (BNPL): Successful €16 million Series C funding round, led by Zip and Elevator Ventures (January 2021)
- Quirk (Personal finance management): Successful £300,000 pre-Seed funding round, led by SFC Capital (January 2021)
- Wealthpilot (WealthTech): Successful €8 million Series A funding round, led by Seventure (January 2021)
- Trovata (Treasury services): Successful US$20 million Series A funding round, led by Wells Fargo Strategic Capital (January 2021)
- PPRO (Payments): Successful US$180 million funding round, led by Eurazeo Growth, Sprints Capital and Wellington Management (January 2021)
- X1 (Consumer credit): Successful US$12 million funding round, led by Spark Capital (January 2021)
- Numbrs (Personal finance): Successful US$30 million funding round, led by Saidler & Co. (January 2021)
- Grab (Payments): Successful US$300 million funding round, led by Hanwha (January 2021)
- Rapyd (Payments): Successful US$300 million Series D funding round, led by Coatue (January 2021)
- Curve (Payments): Successful US$95 million Series C funding round, led by IDC Ventures, Fuel Venture Capital and Vulcan Capital (January 2021)
- Checkout.com (Payments): Successful US$450 million Series C funding round, led by Tiger Global Management (January 2021)
- HQLAx (Securities lending): Successful €14.4 million Series B funding round, led by BNY Mellon, Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas and Citigroup (January 2021)
- b.fine (RegTech): Successful €1 million Seed funding round, led by Pamica (January 2021)
- TaxBit (Cryptocurrency tax compliance): Successful US$100 million Series A funding round, led by PayPal Ventures, Coinbase Ventures and Winklevoss Capital (January 2021)
- Mambu (SaaS banking): Successful €110 million Series D funding round, led by TCV (January 2021)
- TagPay (Payments): Successful €25 million Venture funding round, led by Long Arc Capital (January 2021)
- Cred (Consumer credit): Successful US$81 million Series C funding round, led by DST Global, Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital, Tiger Global and General Catalyst (January 2021)
Inorganic growth–mergers:
- Raisin & Deposit Solutions (Deposits): Merger (June 2021)
Inorganic growth– acquisitions:
- Tink (Open banking): Acquisition of FinTecSystems (May 2021)
- OpenPayd (Banking): Acquisition of Axis Bank UK (April 2021)
- Mindcurv Group (Cloud consulting): Acquisition of minority stake in Cloud Consulting Group (March 2021)
- Avaloq (Tax processing): Equity investment in Raquest (February 2021)
- Equifax (Open banking): Acquisition of AccountScore (February 2021)
- United Fintech (RegTech): Acquisition of 25% stake in TTMzero (February 2021)
- Keru Fintech Investments (Payments): Acquisition of Holvi (February 2021)
- SumUp (Core banking tech): Acquisition of Paysolut (February 2021)
Partnerships:
- Wealthify: Open banking JV with Tink (May 2021)
- Nordic API Gateway & Bankdata: Open banking partnership (February 2021)
- Raisin: Savings JV with Aviva (February 2021)
Holy Grail:
- Alkami (BaaS): Nasdaq IPO (April 2021)
- Dispersion (DLT): AQSE IPO (April 2021)
Fintech, the ‘enabler’ – tackling social concerns
Deal highlight:
White & Case advised Qatar Holding LLC, an affiliate of the Qatar Investment Authority, the sovereign wealth fund of the state of Qatar, on entering into an agreement to make a US$200 million investment in Airtel Mobile, one of Africa’s leading mobile money businesses.
- Airtel Africa Mobile Money (Payment services for the underbanked): Successful US$200 million investment from QIA (June 2021)
- bunq (‘True Name’ credit cards): Launch of Mastercard ‘True Name’ credit cards (May 2021)
- Airtel Africa Mobile Money (Payment services for the underbanked): Successful US$100 million investment from Mastercard (April 2021)
- Airtel Africa Mobile Money (Payment services for the underbanked): Successful US$200 million investment from The Rise Fund (March 2021)
- Greenwood (Neo bank focused on Black and Latino communities): Successful US$40 million funding round, led by Mastercard and Visa (March 2021)
- Rewire (Neo bank focused on the migrant community): Successful US$20 million Series B funding round, led by OurCrowd (March 2021)
- First Boulevard (Neo bank focused on the Black community): Successful US$5 million Seed funding round, led by Barclays (March 2021)
Top-down support for fintechs ramps up
The UK FCA is to use its legislative powers to steer Open Finance—extension of Open Banking-like data sharing to a wider range of financial products, such as savings, investments, pensions and insurance. Finextra (March 2021)
UK chancellor Rishi Sunak is preparing to unveil a fast-track fintech visa to attract top tech talent to post-Brexit Britain. Finextra (February 2021)
Non-profit organisations:
- Stellar Development Foundation: US$5 million equity investment in Wyre (January 2021)
Regulators:
- Greece’s Sandbox: Launch of Bank of Greece’s regulatory sandbox (June 2021)
- UK FCA’s scalebox: Launch of FCA’s ‘scale box’ to support growth-stage businesses (April 2021)
- UK FCA’s Digital Sandbox: Launch of 2nd phase of FCA’s Digital Sandbox (April 2021)
- UK FCA’s new DLT sandbox: Launch of FCA’s new sandbox for DLT-based businesses (April 2021)
Governments:
- Spain’s Sandbox financiero: Launch of regulatory sandbox under supervision of Spain’s Secretariat General for the Treasury & International Financing (May 2021)
- Bahrain’s Supernova: Launch of Central Bank of Bahrain’s fintech innovation challenge (May 2021)
- UK’s new Future Fund: £375 million fund to support innovative businesses (April 2021)
- Ireland’s Strategic Investment Fund: €42 million equity investment in Stripe (March 2021)
- Germany’s Future Fund: Launch of €10 billion equity fund for tech start ups (March 2021)
- Ireland’s 2021 Finance Action Plan: Established new Department of Finance Fintech Group (February 2021)
Beware the lure
- Greensill: Fall from grace (April 2021)
- Revolut: Exit from Canada after failing to exit beta (March 2021)
- NatWest: Closure of Esme Loans (March 2021)
ICOs/Cryptocurrencies
Support for crypto businesses
Financial sponsors:
- Anthemis and Underscore VC (Crypto data analytics): Participation in US$24 million Series A funding round for Kaiko (June 2021)
- Augmentum Fintech (Crypto lending): Participation in US$25 million funding round for Tesseract (June 2021)
- Andreessen Horowitz (Crypto trading): Participation in US$40 million Series A funding round for Talos Trading (May 2021)
- Dawn Capital and Target Global (Digital asset custody): Participation in US$50 million Series B funding round for Copper (May 2021)
- Valar Ventures and DST Global (Crypto trading): Participation in US$182.04 million Series B funding round for Bitpanda (May 2021)
- Oak HC/FT (DLT infrastructure): Participation in US$300 million Series D funding round for Paxos (April 2021)
- Balderton Capital (Digital asset custody): Participation in US$22 million Series A funding round for Finoa (April 2021)
- DST Global, Lightspeed Ventures and VY Capital (Crypto wallet): Participation in US$300 million Series C funding round for Blockchain.com (March 2021)
FMI:
- Deutsche Börse (Crypto trading and digital asset custody): Acquisition of majority stake in Crypto Finance (June 2021)
SWFs:
- GIC (Crypto trading): Participation in US$80 million Series C funding round for Anchorage (February 2021)
BigTech:
- Google Ventures (Crypto trading): Participation in US$120 million Series C funding round for Blockchain.com (February 2021)
Bulge bracket:
- Standard Chartered (Crypto brokerage): Launch of UK and European institutional digital asset brokerage and exchange platform (June 2021)
- Commerzbank (Crypto marketplace): Investment in 360X to build DLTbased digital asset marketplace (April 2021)
- BNY Mellon (Crypto trading): Establishment of digital asset division (February 2021)
Trade participants:
- Nuvei (Crypto infrastructure): Acquisition of Simplex (May 2021)
- Elwood Asset Management (Crypto custodian): Participation in US$25 million Series A funding round for Komainu (March 2021)
- PayPal (Digital asset security): Acquisition of Curv (March 2021)
- SBI Digital Asset Holdings (Digital asset banking): Participation in funding round for Sygnum (February 2021)
De-SPAC:
- FinTech Acquisition Corp V (Brokerage): Acquisition of eToro (March 2021)
IPOs:
- The Bitcoin Fund (Crypto-only fund): Nasdaq Dubai IPO (June 2021)
- Safello (Bitcoin exchange): Nasdaq First North IPO (May 2021)
Market participants seeking scale
- Kaiko (Crypto data analytics): Successful US$24 million Series A funding round, led by Anthemis and Underscore VC (June 2021)
- Tesseract (Crypto lending): Successful US$25 million Series A funding round, led by Augmentum Fintech (June 2021)
- Talos Trading (Crypto trading): Successful US$40 million Series A funding round, led by Andreessen Horowitz (May 2021)
- Copper (Digital asset custody): Successful US$50 million Series B funding round, led by Dawn Capital and Target Global (May 2021)
- Bitpanda (Crypto trading): Successful US$182.04 million Series B funding round, led by Valar Ventures and DST Global (May 2021)
- Paxos (DLT infrastructure): Successful US$300 million Series D funding round, led by Oak HC/FT (April 2021)
- Finoa (Digital asset custody): Successful US$22 million Series A funding round, led by Balderton Capital (April 2021)
- Bitpanda (Crypto trading): Successful US$170 million Series B funding round, led by Valar Ventures (March 2021)
- Sygnum (Digital asset banking): Successful funding round, led by SBI Digital Asset Holdings (February 2021)
- Anchorage (Crypto trading): Successful US$80 million Series C funding round, led by GIC (February 2021)
- Blockchain.com (Crypto trading): Successful US$120 million Series C funding round, led by Google Ventures (February 2021)
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