BlackFin Tech weekly — May 22nd, 2023
Dear Fintech Folks, we hope you had a fantastic weekend. Let us now take a moment to look back upon the latest news and trends from the exciting world of fintech.
Last week we spotted 13 deals for a total amount of €188.4m raised, with 6 deals in the UK and 1 in each of Italy, France, Finland, Lithuania, Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands.
Congratulations to Smart, the retirement savings platform, on its €87.2m Series E, followed by Pigment, which secured a €64.2m Venture round. Finally, Mitiga, the tech provider for parametric insurance, raised a €13.3m Series A.
Let’s dive in:
- Smart, the London-based start-up, has closed a $95m Series E round led by Aquiline and followed by existing investors Barclays, Chrysalis Investments, Fidelity International Strategic Ventures, DWS and Natixis Investment Managers.
- The company helps employers fulfil their auto-enrolment obligations by setting up their pension schemes and consolidating them in its Keystone retirement savings platform. It currently serves 70,000 employers and more than 1 million individuals.
- Pigment has raised a $70m venture round at an $850m valuation. The round was led by ICONIQ and followed by Accel, Visionaries Club and Blossom Capital.
- The company develops a business planning and forecasting platform that can replace Microsoft Excel or legacy tools, such as business planning products from Oracle or SAP. The startup also announced the launch of a new AI-based product earlier this month.
- Mitiga solutions has raised a €13.25m Series A round led by Kibo Ventures that also saw participation from investors including Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, Nationwide Ventures, Faber Ventures, and CREAS Impacto.
- The firm was officially founded in 2018 as a spin-off of the National Supercomputing Centre in Barcelona. Mitiga Solutions boasts a prestigious list of clients which includes insurance companies like Howden Group, international bodies such as EUROCONTROL and UNDP, and non-profit organisations like the Danish Red Cross.
Congrats also to Particula, Mayfair Coin, Wide Group, Aibidia, AMLYZE, Hands In, Jenesys and Trusty Digital for their fundraisings!
In addition to this week’s fundraising activity, we also observed the following M&A deals:
Nordea, the financial services group, has completed the acquisition of Advinans, the digital pensions broker. The deal strengthens Nordea’s life and pension offering in Sweden and accelerates the bank’s strategic ambitions within savings following its acquisition of Topdanmark Life (now Nordea Pensions) in 2022.
Regnology, the regulatory reporting software provider, has acquired Metadata Technology, a UK-based provider of data solutions. The acquisition will reinforce the capabilities that were established when Regnology was formed in 2021 from the merger BearingPoint RegTech, a former business unit of BearingPoint Group, and Vizor Software, a global leader in regulatory and supervisory technology.
Fabrick, the leading Open Finance provider, has acquired Judopay, the mobile payments company. The acquisition is a major step for Fabrick’s expansion into the UK market.
Ripple, the crypto solutions provider for businesses, has acquired Metaco, the crypto custody firm. The deal was valued at $250m, with just over half paid in cash and the remainder in equity.
Edenred, the voucher and card provider, has acquired Reward Gateway, the employee benefits software solution. The deal was valued at £1.15bn, representing a 20x multiple on forecasted 2023 EBITDA.
Micappital, the automated savings and investment manager, has acquired 4,000 policies held by Singular Cover, the insurtech.
Naxicap Partners, the private equity firm, has acquired 60% of Hello Syndic, the co-ownership management platform, for €21m. It was simultaneously announced that Hello Syndic would acquire Faciliciti, its competitor.
And finally, here are the news that caught our eye last week:
· The Bank of England is planning to reject Revolut’s application for a banking licence. The UK’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) told the government in March, according to The Telegraph, that it intended to issue a warning notice to Revolut over concerns around the fintech’s balance sheet. Revolut’s existing services will not be affected if it is refused but the company would be unable to offer mortgages and loans to UK customers.
· Teradata and FICO partner for real-time payments fraud detection. The companies plan to bring to market integrated advanced analytic solutions for real-time payments fraud, insurance claims, and supply chain optimization. The new global partnership is expected to deliver reduced costs, improved profits, increased risk mitigation and greater customer satisfaction for their respective customers.
· Binance has become the latest cryptocurrency exchange to exit the Canadian market citing new guidance. The move follows that of crypto exchange OKX in March and US blockchain infrastructure platform Paxos in April. In February, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) introduced new rules for firms, stating that crypto exchanges must have enhanced protections for the custody and segregation of crypto assets for Canadian clients and are prohibited from offering margin, credit or other forms of leverage. All cryptocurrency exchanges must also register with Canadian regulators before onboarding users in the country.
Have a great week & see you next week!
