PrimaryBid lands $190m in SoftBank-led Series C investment round
The money will be used to expand across continental Europe and the US.
France
French BNPL fintech Alma raises €210m Series C to support European expansion
To date, Alma has raised €180m in equity and more than €100m in debt financing.
Revenue-based financing platform Silvr lands €130m Series A
Silvr intends to hire 100 people across its sales, marketing, product and tech teams.
Worldline plans to expand workforce by 25% with 5,000 new hires
Hires form part of strategy to become go-to paytech in Europe’s payments ecosystem.
Spend management platform Spendesk hits unicorn status with €100m funding
Spendesk will use the funding to nearly double its workforce.
French fintech Qonto secures €486m Series D funding to boost European growth
The bumper funding round takes the start-up’s valuation to €4.4 billion.
Payroll automation start-up PayFit achieves unicorn status after €254m Series E
The fintech intends to hire 400 new employees across Europe in 2022.
ING announces exit from French retail banking market
The firm has been active in the French retail banking market since 2000.
Financial services app Lydia hits unicorn status with latest funding
Paris-based Lydia has raised over $100 million in new funding.
BNP Paribas partners European paytech SIA to launch branded corporate cards
“The payment card market is undergoing a huge transformation,” says BNP’s head of cards.
Lydia to white-label Bitpanda platform for digital assets
Partnership will provide investment opportunities to Lydia’s 5 million customers via its app.
French fintech Swile lands $200m investment to drive Latin American expansion
Start-up also plans to release two new digital-led products.
Sibos 2021: CBDCs important to future of industry, says SocGen CEO
Speaking at Sibos 2021, Frédéric Oudéa says CBDCs “might be more efficient than, and might replace, cash”.
Société Générale to cut 3,700 jobs, combine IT systems in Credit du Nord merger
French banking group plans to have 30% of its retail products sold online by 2025.
Swan raises €16m Series A to accelerate European expansion
The BaaS platform wants to democratise access to banking services.
Scalapay raises $155m in Series A round to fund BNPL expansion
European payments firm seeks greater foothold in core markets.
Yolt shuts down app to focus on open banking technology services
The Yolt app has more than 1.6 million downloads.
JP Morgan pays €25m to settle French fraud case
US lender settles over arrangements with Wendel Investment Group.
Open banking platform finleap connect overhauls management team
Uwe Sandner, Katja Hunstock and Ignacio Garcia named as CTO, CPO and CSO.
Singapore fintech Thunes acquires payments platform Limonetik
The firm will combine Limonetik’s PaaS model with its existing global payments network.
Spendesk lands €100m Series C funding round
The Paris-based firm plans to use the funds to double its staff and accelerate product development.
Monetary Authority of Singapore and Banque de France conduct cross-border CBDC test
The experiment was supported by JP Morgan’s blockchain innovation lab, Onyx.
Credit and payments platform Younited lands $170m investment
The new funding brings the French firm’s total raised to $400 million.
Crédit Agricole CIB plans quantum computing project with new partnership
French bank signs deal with Pasqal and Multiverse Computing.
Orange Bank partners Younited to underpin consumer credit boost
The bank says it strengthens “essential links” in its credit value chain.
Arkéa Banking Services picks Finastra for Fusion Risk outsourcing
The bank will offer the services of Fusion Risk modules to its compatriots.
Trade Republic plots European expansion with $900m Series C fundraise
German trading app aims for a roll-out across the euro zone.
Video: pick of the week – Tink and AmEx team up; Commerzbank agrees 10,000 job cuts
A top pick of stories from the world of finance and tech in bitesize video format, twice a week.
Tink and American Express sign European open banking deal
New AmEx customers will “seamlessly connect” to their accounts.
Amartha, Vivid Money, Expensya & a55 feature in May funding rounds
A clutch of early investment rounds from May you could have missed.
HSBC to pay more than €1bn to get rid of loss-making French branches
The French unit moved to the shelf back in September 2019.
French watchdog says banks risk “marginalisation” by Big Tech payment apps
The paper focuses on Big Tech-associated threats to competition.
Hospitality payment app Sunday raises record €20m seed round for Europe
The start-up claims to cut the costs for operators to 0.5% per transaction.
France’s central bank warns fintech industry of rules when using term “neobank”
The industry has long called out the interchangeable use of the word “neobank”.
La Banque Postale picks Ebury for international SME transfers
French postal bank aims to expand abroad for SME customers.
PayFit raises €90m to automate payroll and HR for European SMEs
The previous funding round closed in 2019, with €70 million.
Landesbank Saar signs BearingPoint RegTech for SFTR compliance
Franco-German bank to deploy Abacus/Transactions platform.
Orange seeks buyer for loss-making banking unit
Orange’s banking ops in trouble despite an income of €79 million last year.
Fintech funding round-up: SeedFi, Libeo, Ember and Finch Capital
A round-up of some of the recent investments in fintech, paytech and tax tech firms.
Sopra Steria invests in Parisian fintech Particeep
Banking software firm picks up minority stake in SaaS fintech.
