Top 5 FinTech deals of May 2021 (UK & Europe version)
By Megha Bhattacharya
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the process of digitalisation for the financial services industry. Amidst the unprecedented market volatility, the industry’s appetite for digital technology has been on the rise. The new year saw some significant deals being undertaken by FinTech companies.
Check out the top 5 FinTech deals that took place in May 2021 (UK & Europe) :
UK-based small business loan platform Funding Circle and Atom, the UK’s app-based bank, announced a lending partnership that will provide £300 million of new funding to small businesses. With £350 million already lent through the Funding Circle platform, this latest commitment brings Atom’s total lending with Funding Circle to £650 million.
According to Atom, it will utilise FinTech Funding Circle’s technology and distribution platform to deploy new funding to around 4,000 UK small businesses, continuing Atom’s support for UK SMEs. The partnership will support SMEs through Funding Circle’s Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS) product and existing loan product. Atom will lend through the platform alongside a wide range of investors, including banks, asset management companies, insurance companies, government-backed entities, individuals and funds.
UK digital investment platform Wealthify partnered with Tink to boost payment initiation services and transform the way investors transfer money to their investment accounts. The partnership sees Tink’s payment initiation service (PIS) technology embedded in the Wealthify app. This enables investors to seamlessly transfer an initial investment sum during the onboarding process and make additional payments to top up their accounts.
In June 2020 FinTech Wealthify became a wholly-owned subsidiary of insurance and investment giant Aviva and is set to double its 50,000 investors in the coming year. Starting out as a Stocks, Shares and General Investment accounts platform, it has since expanded into Ethical Investments, Junior Stocks and Shares ISAs and Self-invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs).
Business financial platform Tide announced a partnership with cloud business management solutions provider Sage with an aim to offer an integrated banking and accounting product for Tide members. The partnership will provide UK self-employed and business owners with a new product that combines banking and accounting in a single digital environment. By connecting banking data and Tide’s existing finance and admin tools to Sage’s accounting and compliance services, the FinTech’s members will be able to streamline financial and compliance processes, such as self-assessment and year-end accounts.
FinTech Tide stated that its partnership with Sage will offer a seamless accounting tool from the FinTech’s app, that will provide members with compliant accounts and insights about their businesses to reduce the time spent and stress of traditional accounting.
Railsbank and open finance platform Plaid have announced a partnership in a bid to enable any company, or brand, in the UK to embed finance into their customer journey. The companies stated that the collaboration is expected to satisfy increasing demand from companies and brands, both within and outside the financial services industry, who are adding end-user wallets, payments, savings, credit and bank accounts to their platforms and wish to simplify the process.
According to Railsbank, the partnership will enable customers to offer Payment Initiation to consumers and SMEs, which allows customers to instantly collect money directly from their bank account. It provides benefits such as increased user experience, lower costs, greater speed, boosted security and faster conversion. It offers a lower-cost alternative to cards and provides a simple account opening or wallet replenishment experience. Payment Initiation is available on a mobile or desktop. The company’s customer ikigai will be using Payment Initiation as a function of its investment management offering.
ACI Worldwide has announced a collaboration with J.P. Morgan in a bid to enable merchants in certain European countries to deliver in-store payment acceptance capabilities to their customers. Through this collaboration, merchants will have a pre-certified and easy-to-onboard service combining J.P. Morgan’s European acquiring platform with the ACI Omni-Commerce solution to deliver in-store payment acceptance capabilities.
The FinTech’s Omni-Commerce is a secure, cloud-based, point-to-point encryption (P2PE)-validated payments platform, providing merchants with a safe, consistent and seamless payments experience across all channels, whether in-store, online or mobile.
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