BlackFin Tech Weekly — December 13th
Dear fintech folks,
What a week! Christmas is approaching, and VCs surely are in the mood as they pour hundreds of millions into European Fintech companies!
Last week, €1.1bn was raised across 19 deals. Congratulations to Monzo, a British neobank that raised a large $475m Venture Round! Next up, we have Mambu, a core banking solution based in Germany that raised a €235m Series E! The third startup on the podium is Pleo, a Danish expense management tool for SMBs which raised a $200m Series C extension.
Geography-wise, Germany and the UK brought the most deals this week: 5 each! They are closely followed by France where 4 deals took place, then Spain which hosted 2 deals. Denmark, Spain, Switzerland, and Finland got a deal each.
Subsector-wise, most deals (9) were in Banktech, then Payments and Investment Banking with 4 each, while Wealth Management and Insurtech generated a deal each.
Let’s dive in:
Monzo raised $475m:
- The company has closed a $475m round at a $4.5bn valuation, led by Abu Dhabi Growth Fund and followed by both new investors Coatue and Alpha Wave Ventures and existing investors Accel and Goodwater Capital.
- Founded in 2015, Monzo is now Europe’s third most valuable neobank after Revolut and N26.
- In 2020, Monzo added 1m new customers and increased its revenue by 18% to reach £67.2m. It now has over 5m UK customers and the largest market share in UK digital banking measured by number of users: 39%.
Mambu raised €235m:
- The German company raised a large €235M Series E round led by EQT Growth, other investors are not disclosed.
- This round values the company at €4.9bn, a significant uplift from the €1.7bn valuation from Series D less than a year ago.
- Mambu has built a set of APIs which empower other businesses like Fintechs to offer lending, deposits, and other banking products without having to build them themselves from scratch.
- The company has more than 200 customers that collectively serve 53m users in 65 countries. Customers include both Fintechs like N26 and incumbents like ABN Amro or Raiffeisen Bank.
Pleo raised $200m:
- The Danish startup raised a large new round presented as a Series C extension and led by new investor Coatue Management, with strong participation from Alkeon Capital. Current investors like Bain Capital, Thrive Capital, Kinnevik, Creandum, Founders, Stripes, and Seedcamp also took part in the round.
- This round values the company at $4.7bn, a significant uplift from the $1.7bn valuation from Series C less than six months ago. Déjà vu?
- The company developed expense management tools for SMBs, enabling them to issue company cards and manage the way employees spend money. “The relevance of tooling to allow workforces to work in smooth ways while being distributed is very high right now” said co-founder and CEO Jeppe Rindom in an interview.
- The company has over 20 000 customers, adding more than 3000 in the last 6 months. Around 1000 new customers join each month. The offering is live in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Spain, Ireland, and the UK. According to the company’s plan, 14 new countries should go live soon starting with Austria, and then Finland, the Netherlands, France, and Portugal.
Congrats also to Lydia, Enfuce, Pento, SPG Group, Cassini Systems, Tulipshare, MYRE, fonYou, Aria, Receeve, JellyFi, Troy, Umushroom, Hakuna, Beatvest & Belvo.
See you next week!
