BlackFin Tech weekly — May 9th, 2023
Dear Fintech Folks, we hope you had a royally good weekend celebrating the coronation of King Charles III. Now, let’s reign in our focus and take a look at the latest news and trends in the fintech world.
Last week we spotted 8 deals for a total amount of €61.8m raised with 2 deals in France and Germany, and 1 in the UK, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
Congratulations to Pennylane, the accounting solution, on its €29,5m Series C, followed by credit scoring platform Kreditz, which secured a €10m venture round. Finally, the crypto wallet provider Tangem raised a €7.3m venture round.
Let’s dive in:
· Pennylane raised a €29.5m Series C in Q1 2023, which has only just been announced. The post-money valuation is €483m. The round was led by DST Globlal, the fund set up by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, which injected a €26.5m ticket. Sequoia Capital put in another €2 million.
· The company wants to become the leading financial OS on the European market, enabling thousands of small businesses to centralize their financial management in a single tool.
· The start-up has signed a partnership with the accounting firm Keobiz, which has provided it with 12k customers. They have multiplied their number of clients by 13x in one year, to 50k.
· Kreditz raised €10m in a Venture round with Ingka Investments and Creades. The start-up specializes in helping banks and financial institutions analyze bank transaction data and obtain a comprehensive view of applicant profiles.
· Kreditz has obtained the Account Information Services license from the Swedish FSA. The new funding will be used to accelerate Kreditz’s growth and facilitate expansion into new markets.
· Tangem has announced an $8m Venture round led by Shima Capital. The latest round brings the total fundraising to $23 million across two rounds. SBI, the Japanese group, led the previous round of $15 million.
· Tangem is a digital asset management solutions provider focused on hard wallets. The company is looking to expand its ecosystem further in the self-custodial web3 storage solutions space. Tangem is looking to increase its market share in an industry dominated by the likes of Ledger which announced a $108 million extended Series C round at the end of March.
Congrats also to Green-Got, Kertos, Penzilla, FROST, and Imeureka for their fundraisings!
In addition to this week’s fundraising activity, we also observed the following M&A deals:
· VentureWave, the Irish private equity firm, has acquired FunderBeam, the blockchain-based startup for angel investors. The majority stake comes as part of a €40m investment round that will give FunderBeam the opportunity to expand its offering to institutional clients, including VC funds, family offices, brokers, and investment banks. The company is also focused on going to market globally, with plans to enter the US market in 2024.
· Ideagen, the global software provider for high-compliance industries, has acquired OnePlace Solutions, a global software provider helping organisations improve information management and governance. More than 11,400 companies trust Ideagen to help solve complex quality, risk, audit, and compliance challenges. The addition of OnePlace Solutions will strengthen its suite of solutions, enhance its collaboration capabilities, and drive greater connectivity of Microsoft 365 within organisations.
· Trapets, the software company offering solutions to fight financial crime, has acquired Regtech Solutions, the KYC and AML solutions provider. The acquisition will strengthen Trapets’ position in the Nordic regulatory technology market.
· CACI Limited, the leading data and technology solutions company, has acquired Bitweave, the back-office software solutions provider for the crypto industry. The acquisition will expand CACI’s range of technology solutions for clients in both the public and private sectors.
And finally, here are the news that caught our eye last week:
· Apple’s newly launched high-yield savings account has reportedly attracted around $1 billion in deposits within its first week. The Apple Card savings account, launched in April in partnership with Goldman Sachs, offers US consumers a high-yield annual return of 4.15%. According to Forbes, the savings account attracted $400 million in deposits on the launch day alone, with approximately 240k accounts being opened by the end of the first week.
· PacWest plummets 50% as it explores potential sale. PacWest said it was exploring “all options to maximize shareholder value” and had hired Piper Sandler to help with the process.
· UK watchdog to simplify IPO rules to boost tech listings. The UK accounted for only 5% of global IPOs between 2015 and 2020. To encourage more companies to list and grow, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has proposed new rules to simplify public listings in order to attract more tech and early-stage companies to the exchange.
· Pepe (PEPE) Market Cap Skyrockets, Approaching $1 Billion. Pepe Coin (PEPE) has been one of the best performers in the crypto sector lately, with its price surging by over 900% for the past seven days. It marked another 60% increase on Friday, while its market capitalization skyrocketed to above $1 billion.
Have a great week & see you next week!
