BlackFin Tech weekly — May 3rd, 2023
Dear Fintech Folks, we hope you are all doing well and that you had a restful long weekend. As always, let’s dive into the latest trends and news about fintechs.
Last week we spotted 13 deals for a total amount of €90m raised with 6 deals in the UK, 4 deals in France, 1 in Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands.
The UK was the most active geography for the number of deals and amounts.
Congratulations to Zodia custody, the crypto custodian, on its €33m Series A, followed by pricing operation platform m3ter with a €15.9m Series A. Finally, the carbon tracker Carbon Chain raised an €11.4m Series A.
Let’s dive in:
- Crypto custodial unit Zodia Custody, a spin-off from Standard Chartered closed $36 million in new funding as part of a round led by Japan’s SBI Holdings, marking a dilution of the British bank’s ownership over its subsidiary. The series A fundraise, which also saw the bank’s venture arm SC Ventures participate, followed the launch of Zodia’s business in Japan as a joint venture with SBI Holdings in February. Zodia Custody provides digital-asset custody services to institutional clients.
- Zodia will use the funds for geographic expansion beyond its present markets in Europe and Asia, adding that the firm is also interested in opportunities in the Middle East. The funding will also be used to add more digital assets to Zodia’s coverage — including staked Ether, which has been in demand from the market following a key network upgrade for the Ethereum blockchain this month — and further develop its off-exchange settlement network.
- M3ter, the pricing operations platform, raised $14 million in Series A funding with notion capital and historical investors to further its mission to help software companies successfully operationalise modern usage-based pricing strategies to realise their full potential. The investment will support m3ter as it launches new analytics features and expands its U.S.
- M3ter came out of stealth a little over a year ago — a debut that coincided with the announcing of that seed round — and in that time it has grown its business 375%.
- Carbon chain raised a €11.4m Series A with Union square & voyager ventures. UK-based CarbonChain’s carbon accounting platform automates emissions tracking with granular, asset-level data, providing companies and financial institutions with visibility into their Scope 3 and supply chain emissions.
- With data collection from across the value chain, from raw material extraction to consumption, the platform enables carbon traceability and product carbon footprinting, as well as allowing users to identify emissions reduction opportunities. CarbonChain’s customers include thyssenkrupp Materials Services Eastern Europe, Societe Generale, Rabobank, Concord Resources, IXM, and Gunvor.
Congrats also to Wayhome, Tembo Money, Plumery, Bits Technology, Bastion Technologies, Qiti, Abby, The Attention Exchange, Belender, Fari for their fundraisings!
In addition to this week’s fundraising activity, we also observed some interesting M&A deals:
· The European Payments Initiative (EPI), the pan-European payments platform, has acquired iDEAL, the Dutch payment scheme, and Payconiq, the account-to-account payments platform. The EPI is a bank-backed venture that was initially set up to build a European rival to Mastercard and Visa. It is hoped that the two acquisitions will bring the venture one step closer to its vision for a new, unified instant payment scheme and platform.
· Deutsche Bank, Germany’s biggest bank, has acquired Numis, the broker and investment bank, in a deal valued at £410m. With this acquisition it is reported that Deutsche Bank sees an opportunity to expand its footprint in Europe’s largest market for investment banking fees. In addition, it will also offer Numis’s clients, who represent almost a fifth of companies in the FTSE 350, a broader range of services, including across international markets.
· Direct Line Group, one of the largest insurance providers in the UK, has acquired By Miles, the pay-by-mile insurance provider. It will add around 50,000 new customers with the acquisition, as well as £26m of Gross Written Premiums. Both companies will now join forces to create digital-first journeys enabling customers to pick the motor insurance cover that best suits them.
· Deutsche Börse, the stock exchange operator, announced a €3,9bn bid for SimCorp, the investment management software provider. The target said its board would unanimously recommend the acquisition which is expected to complement Deutsche Börse’s data analytics business.
And finally here are the news that caught our eye last week:
· Schroders slashes valuations of UK neobanks Revolut and Atom Bank. Revolut shareholder Schroders Capital Global Innovation Trust, part of asset management firm Schroders, has cut the valuation of its stake in the neobank by almost half — suggesting $15 billion (£12 billion) could be wiped off its $33 billion valuation.
· Founders Forum group acquires Tech Nation. Founders Forum Group, an event-powered community and group of businesses supporting entrepreneurs acquired Founders Forum for an undisclosed amount.Tech Nation has been a powerhouse over the last decade, supporting startups such as Monzo and Revolut to scale their businesses. The organisation announced its plans to cease operations after losing a £12.09 million Digital Growth Grant to Barclays Bank, citing that it could not continue without government funding.
· Binance.US pulls out of Voyager asset acquisition citing “hostile” regulations. Binance.US, the American arm of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, has decided to cancel its $1.3 billion deal to acquire the assets of Voyager Digital, a Canadian crypto broker. The deal, which was announced in September 2021, was supposed to close by the end of March 2023, but faced regulatory hurdles and delays.
· European Parliament Approves MiCA Law Regulating Cryptocurrencies. The European Parliament approves the first EU rules designed to trace cryptoasset transfers and beef up consumer protections. The regulation aims to ensure that crypto transfers, as is the case with traditional financial services, can be traced and suspicious transactions blocked.
Have a great week & see you next week!
