BlackFin Tech Weekly — May 17th
Hi everyone,
While last week seems rather quiet at first glance, the British SaltPay took the opportunity to raise an impressive Series C of $500m. Congrats!
As we said, it was a calm week: there were only 5 deals recorded. But the total raised remains rather impressive, with €451m. Congrats to SaltPay, which represents ca 90% of this week’s raised €.
Geography-wise, 2 deals were announced respectively in the UK and in France. We also spotted 1 deal in Austria.
Looking at sub-sectors, 2 deals were in Wealth Management. Payments, Insurtech, and Banktech also account for 1 deal each.
Let’s have a closer look at the past week announced deals:
SaltPay raises a $550m Series C:
- Founded in 2019, SaltPay has built a pan-European cooperative of payments components, targeting small and medium merchants. Several different payment brands now sit under the SaltPay group across Portugal, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Iceland and the UK.
- Hedosophia and Tiger Global are among those who participated in SaltPay’s round. It remains rather obscure how this is labeled as Series C, and what has been the past history of the company. We will know better in the coming months!
Bitpanda €10m Series B extension:
- Bitpanda is a retail broker for cryptocurrencies, precious metals, and more.
- This round comes after a $170M Series B round in March led by Valar Ventures and partners of DST Global — raising the company’s valuation to $1.2bn. Backers included Jump Capital, Wintermute Trading, and LeadBlock Partners.
- The company intends to use the funds to bring in extensive know-how to strengthen its institutional offering in Europe ranging from referral solutions all the way to custom build comprehensive tech integrations. Services will be integrated into apps and allow users to invest in all assets — whether it’s a fintech, multi-bank, robo-advisor, traditional bank or online platform.
Klub raises a $10m Seed round:
- The startup has just completed a €8.3 million round of financing led by Amnis Ventures, BlackDragon and Moonwhale Ventures with the goal to launch an investment platform for high-income individuals looking for high-yield — and, by definition, volatile — products.
- The app works by invite. Subscribing to Klub gives access to a payment card (and an associated bank account) as well as an online platform that allows investing in risky products. For example, the startup offers its customers to buy crypto-currencies, take stakes in startups or invest in savings, credit, real estate products, etc.
- Thanks to this funding round, the start-up will develop its R&D and recruit about 15 people. The app was launched in beta test in December 2020 and is used by 200 people; 1,000 people are on the waiting list.
Congrats also to Adhara Limited and Dalma.
See you next week!
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