BlackFin Tech Weekly — March 29th
Hello everyone,
In 2021 in the fintech world, weeks go by and look the same. We’re going to have to get used to saying “what a week!”, as fintech players do not seem to want to rest.
We recorded 12 fundraisings for European fintechs last week, for a total raised of €500m. Blockchain.com, winner of the week, raised $300m from Lightspeed Venture Partners, VY Capital and DST Global. This round valued the company at $5.2bn, 73% more than the company was deemed worth only a month ago! Second place goes to PPRO and its $90m round. Freetrade is ranked third with its $69m funding round.
Geography- wise, half of the deals happened in the UK. Otherwise, we spotted a deal in each of the following countries: Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, France, and Latvia.
Subsector-wise, 4 deals were in the Banktech, 3 in Payments, 2 in Investment Banking, 1 in Wealth Management and 1 in Insurtech. There was also 1 deal in fintech-related Healthtech.
Let’s dive in:
Blockchain raises $300m:
- Founded in 2011, Blockchain.com offers wallets, trading and numerous other crypto-related services to its 31 million customers. The company claims to have over 70 million wallets spanning over 200 countries.
- This Series C round comes right after a $120m round that occurred last February.
- The investment was led by DST Global, Lightspeed Venture Partners and VY Capital.
- The funds are expected to further help the company reach more global customers as the crypto industry scales to a whole new dimension.
PPRO raises $90m:
- PPRO’s technology allows payment services providers and enterprises with payment platforms to plug in via APIs and offload the complexities and costs of providing payment method choices to local consumers.
- PPRO has seen growth due to the ecommerce boom. The company doubled its year-on-year transaction volumes in the 4th quarter of 2020 and increased its global team by more than 60% in 2020.
- The financing comes as a strategic investment from JPMorgan Chase and Eldridge, extending the round from January 2021 in which the company raised $180m and hit $1bn valuation.
Freetrade raises $69m:
- Launched in 2018, Freetrade is a commission-free trading app that is regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Freetrade does not charge commission on individual trades nor does it generate revenue via payment for order flow (like Robinhood), but it charges a monthly fee depending on the type of account. The company reports to have more than 600k users and a quarterly trade volume of £1bn.
- The Series B funding round was led by Left Lane Capital, with the participation of Draper Esprit and L Catterton.
- Freetrade will use the funds to accelerate its growth in international markets and allow the team to scale the product.
Congrats also to Omnio, Kontist, Fixico, Meniga, Zaver, Vega, Osu, MySofie and Jeff.
Have a great week everyone, stay safe & keep powering on!
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