BlackFin Tech Weekly — April 26th
Hello fintech folks,
Like the French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who joined the International Space Station last weekend, fintech investments have also skyrocketed last week.
We recorded 16 fundraisings for European fintechs last week, for a total raised of €465m, which is more than 3 times last week’s total funds raised. Alan, king of the week, raised €185m in a round led by Coatue. This Series D makes Alan the 12th French unicorn with €1.4bn valuation, therefore joining Dataiku, Doctolib, Blablacar, and other rare and fantastic creatures. Second place goes jointly to BUX with its $80m round led by Prosus and Tencent and Zilch with its $80m led by Gauss and M&F.
Geography-wise, France and the UK represent 80% of the total funds raised last week: 9 deals for €202m for the UK and 3 deals for €189m for France. Following are Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the Czech Republic.
Subsector-wise, 4 deals were in the Banktech, 4 in Payments, 3 in Insurtech, 2 deals in Wealth Management, and 2 deals in Investment Banking.
Let’s dive in:
Alan raises €185m:
- Founded in 2016, Alan provides insurance plans to companies ranging from startups to enterprises. The company currently covers more than 9400 companies in France, Belgium, and Spain, representing 155,000 members.
- This Series D funding brings the company’s valuation to €1.4bn, making it a unicorn.
- New investors arrived at the table, namely Coatue, Dragoneer, and Exor. Existing investors Index Ventures, Ribbit Capital and Temasek also participated in this round.
- The funding will fuel the recruitment efforts of an additional 400 employees and help reach 1 million members by 2023.
BUX raises $80m:
- With over 500,000 customers, BUX is Europe’s fastest-growing neo-broker. BUX’s flagship platform, BUX Zero, is making commission-free investing accessible, intuitive, and affordable for both first-time and existing investors allowing them to invest in a large suite of shares or ETFs they care about. BUX Zero is currently available in the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, France, and Belgium.
- The funding round was led by Prosus Ventures and Tencent, with participation from additional new investors ABN Amro Ventures, Citius, Optiver, and Endeit Capital. Existing investors HV Capital and Velocity Capital Fintech Ventures also participated in the round.
- The proceeds will help BUX accelerate its ambition to become the leading destination for Europeans who want to do more with their money.
Zilch raises $80m:
- Buy Now Pay Later market saw many big players appearing in the past few months, especially Klarna. Zilch is certainly going to be one of them by reaching over $500m valuation (only 2 years after launching its beta!).
- Zilch’s service offers consumers the ability to pay wherever Mastercard is accepted and spreads the payment out over 6 weeks with zero interest and zero fees. The company also offers its customers a unique feature, tap to pay.
- The Series B funding round, backed by numerous investors including Gauss Ventures and M&F Fund, will be used to launch in the USA and continue the company’s growth in the UK by investing further in product innovation and development and hiring an additional 100 employees.
We would like to give a shout-out to Ornikar, the French online driving school, which managed to raise a big €100m Series C from KKR, Idinvest, Elaia, Bright Eyes Ventures, Bpifrance, H14. The proceeds will help Ornikar engage its international expansion and add car insurance products to its offer.
Congrats also to Starling Bank, FintechOS, Payhawk, InsureQ, Causal, 3s.money, TeraBlock, Veracash, Rosaly, Mutumutu, Loyalize, Vantik and BITE Investment.
Have a great week everyone, stay safe & keep powering on!
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