Top 10 FinTech funding rounds – January 2021 (UK & Europe)

By Megha Bhattacharya

Studies have shown that the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the FinTech ecosystem. The number of FinTech deals has taken a hit as investors are choosing mature companies over early-stage deals to put their money in. Although some FinTechs received hefty investments, Emerging Payments Association’s analysts revealed a significant contraction for the market, with fintech funding in Q1 2020 already down $2 billion from Q4 2019.

Check out the ten noteworthy European FinTech funding deals that took place in January 2021 –

1. Checkout.com ($450 million)

Headquartered in London, Checkout.com offers enterprise businesses with global payment processing capabilities and direct access to domestic acquiring across payment methods and geographies.

Checkout.com has closed a $450 million Series C funding round, announcing it has become the most valuable venture-backed business in EMEA with a post-money valuation of $15 billion. The Series C was led by Tiger Global Management, followed by Greenoaks Capital, Insight Partners, DST Global, Coatue Management, Blossom Capital, Endeavor Catalyst and Singapore’s Sovereign Wealth Fund GIC. It also makes Checkout.com the fourth largest FinTech globally.

The FinTech has raised a total of $830 million within the last two years, a balance sheet which can allow for continued strategic investments and product developments – such as the Checkout.com Payouts solution which saw exponential growth over the last year.

2. Rapyd ($300 million)

FinTech as a Service company Rapyd secured $300 million in a Series D financing round. The round was led by Coatue and saw the participation of investors including Spark Capital, Avid Ventures, FJ Labs, and Latitude, General Catalyst, Oak FT, Tiger Global, Target Global, Durable Capital, Tal Capital, and Entrée Capital.

The FinTech stated that the new financing will be used to grow the engineering and product teams as well as expand the ‘Self-Service’ feature of the platform. The company also aims to strengthen its core market focus that includes B2C and B2B eCommerce payments, marketplace, and financial services businesses.

UK-based Rapyd’s payments network and FinTech as a service platform enables businesses and consumers to engage in local and cross-border transactions in any market.

3. Nucleus Commercial Finance ($273.5 million)

Online balance sheet lender, Nucleus Commercial Finance, reports that it has secured a £200 million funding line, aiming to help with increasing the platform’s capacity or ability to support more UK-based businesses. It acquired the funding line from two investment management companies.

The FinTech has been involved in serving as a lender or provider of CBILS cash. The platform has also been pivoting towards automated underwriting. Nucleus’ management noted that they plan to use the funds acquired to continue lending to UK businesses after the government scheme ends.

4. PPRO ($180 million)

Local payments infrastructure provider PPRO has secured over $180 million in new investments from Eurazeo Growth, Sprints Capital and Wellington Management following a doubling of year-on-year transaction volumes. With the investments, which were raised just six months after a $50 million round, the FinTech is now valued at over $1 billion.

The funding will fuel PPRO’s continued global expansion and support the development of its innovative border-free payment technology and services, Black said.

PPRO allows payment services providers and enterprises with payment platforms to plug in via APIs and offload complexities and costs of providing payment methods to local consumers.

5. Mambu ($132 million)

German Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) banking platform provider Mambu has announced a €110 million ($132 million approx) funding round, bringing the total valuation of the FinTech to over €1.7 billion. The latest round was led by TCV, the growth-stage investor which has previously invested in Netflix, RELEX, Spotify and WorldRemit, with additional investments from Tiger Global and Arena Holdings. Existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Runa Capital and Acton Capital Partners also contributed.

The FinTech stated that the financing will be used to accelerate growth and deepen its footprint across the 50 markets it already operates in – including Brazil, Japan and the US.

Mambu’s SaaS banking platform accelerates and simplifies the way financial products are built and serviced by any financial institution and is used by traditional banks, FinTech startups, financial institutions, nonprofits and other businesses to power their financial products and services. Its customers include ABN AMRO, N26, OakNorth, Orange and Santander.

6. Curve ($95 million)

London-based FinTech Curve raised $95 million as a part of its Series C investment round. The funding round was led by IDC Ventures, Fuel Venture Capital and Vulcan Capital (the investment arm of the estate of Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul G. Allen), with participation from OneMain Financial, the US personal finance company, and Novum Capital.

The FinTech aims to leverage the funds for accelerating its international expansion including to the US as well as strengthen its position in Europe. It will also utilise the fresh funding for boosting product innovation for Curve Credit in early 2021. The recent fundraiser brings the total investment to almost $175 million.

7. Clark ($83 million)

Clark, a Frankfurt, Germany-based digital insurance manager, raised €69m in Series ​C funding. The round was led by Tencent with participation from existing investors Portag3 Ventures, White Star Capital and Yabeo. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate its growth through further investments in its product and user acquisition.

Founded in June 2015 by Dr. Christopher Oster, Steffen Glomb, Dr. Marco Adelt and Chris Lodde, Clark is an insurance manager that offers its customers a digital way to improve their policies.

8. Sysnet ($65 million)

Sysnet, a Dublin-based payments security company, raised $65 m in debt funding as it rolls on with its latest acquisition. The company acquired NuArx, a US-based firm providing security solutions for payments technology.

The latest funding comes in the form of debt financing from US investment firm Keybanc Capital Markets. This follows a €150 million investment last year from FTV Capital and True Wind Capital.

Established in 1989, Sysnet Global Solutions provides payment card industry, cyber security and compliance solutions that help businesses to improve security and acquiring organisations to reduce risk

9. GetSafe ($30 million)

European digital insurance company Getsafe secured $30 million in a Series B funding round led by Swiss Re’s digital platform iptiQ. The round also saw the participation of existing investors such as g Earlybird, CommerzVentures, btov Partners and Capnamic Ventures. Getsafe plans to extend its funding with a second tranche to be closed ahead of the receipt of the company’s own insurance licence, scheduled for the first half of 2021.

FinTech Getsafe is a fully digital insurance company that aims to help people cover themselves and their universe from their smartphone. Using technology, the company offers renters, legal and car insurance and plans to further expand its product offering into health and life. The Getsafe app is available to customers 24/7 and 365 days a year, allowing them to file claims or change their coverage in real-time.

10. Minna Technologies ($18.7 million)

Minna Technologies, the Swedish subscription management software provider, secured €15.5 million in a Series B funding round led by Element Ventures along with the participation of Visa, MiddleGame Ventures, and Nineyards Equity. The recent funding round takes the total amount raised to around €23 million. The new funding is expected to help the company to expand its open banking technology globally.

Minna Technologies, founded in 2016 in Sweden, enables customers to manage subscription services via their bank’s app. It aims to reduce the burden on bank call centers with its integration with Visa, by stopping payments from cards. The platform also notifies customers when a free trial is about to end to prevent them from being charged and facilitates utilities switching to help customers find better deals.

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