Which Are the Most Important Fintech News from February 2024

There is never a dull moment in the fintech sector. Companies are founded, investments are made and new products are brought onto the market. It’s sometimes difficult to keep track of things.

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Six million dollars for Monite

Monite has successfully completed a top-up financing round of $6 million. This brings the company’s total seed-stage funding to a total of $16 million. Valar Ventures and Third Prime led the round, supported by existing investors. T

he fresh funds will primarily be used for expansion in the USA. Monite offers B2B platforms invoice management solutions for SMBs, including quotes, reminders, payment links and seamless accounting integration.

CommerzVentures leads funding for Tuum

Estonia-based Tuum has secured €25 million in a Series B financing round led by CommerzVentures, the venture arm of Commerzbank. Speedinvest and existing investors also took part in the financing.

Tuum operates a modular core banking platform and reports a significant increase in sales over the past three years. The investment is intended to support Tuum’s expansion into new markets, product development and the expansion of its module offering.

50 million euros for Finom

The fintech company Finom has completed a Series B financing round of 50 million euros. The funding was led by existing investor General Catalyst and new investor Northzone. Other existing investors including Cogito Capital, Entrée Capital, FJLabs, s16vc and Target Global also participated. This increases the current funding of the fintech active in Germany to over 100 million euros.

The funds will be used to improve its product offerings, implement new marketing initiatives and expand its accounting services. Finom offers banking services such as online banking, physical and virtual cards, payment processing, invoicing and foreign exchange services.

Bitwala receives investment from Blockchain Founders Fund

The Blockchain Founders Fund (BFF) invests in Bitwala. Previously known as Nuri, the company had to file for bankruptcy in the summer of 2022. CEO Dennis Daiber and co-founder Jan Goslicki, together with UK-based Claret Capital and several angel investors, took over the intellectual property of the Nuri business.

After a restart in September 2023, Bitwala says it is reporting profits. No information was provided on the amount of the investment.

New fintech company already worth $75 million?

Only launched in January and not yet a finished product: The fintech Dwinity, a blockchain startup from Munich, is said to be worth $75 million.

Accordingly, the first investors have joined the young company at this rate, which was founded by ex-Klarna manager Christian Mangold. Dwinity wants to offer a “decentralized Web3 data ecosystem”.

Solaris shortly before taking over the ADAC credit cards

The ADAC has apparently prepared its members in a letter for the upcoming takeover of the credit card portfolio by Solaris. The migration should therefore be completed in the third quarter of the year.

This completes the replacement of LBB. The information to members is the signal that Solaris meets the necessary requirements. The first reports about the takeover appeared months ago, but then there were delays, among other things because of the question of financing (which is still officially unresolved). According to experts’ estimates, Solaris needs 100 million in new equity for regulatory protection.

Vivid withdraws accounts from Solaris

According to various media reports, the business relationship between the Berlin neobank Vivid and Solaris is ending. Vivid plans to offer its services under its own license in the future. However, the company does not have a full banking license, which is why Vivid itself speaks of financial services such as cards, accounts and payments.

As reported, Vivid had taken over the Luxembourg fintech Joompay and can therefore use its e-money license. The decision to move away from Solaris saves the fintech costs.

Temenos shares crash after reports

Following a report from Hindenburg Research about alleged deficiencies in the books of Temenos, a banking software provider, the company’s stock fell dramatically. Hindenburg also said it has entered into a short position.

Temenos rejects the allegations and describes the report as false and misleading. The first analysts, on the other hand, are concerned about the allegations and are currently reviewing their recommendations for Temenos shares. The stock has lost around two-thirds of its value since its peak in 2019.

Cure Finance sold

Around six months after founder Martin Buhl bought his company Cure Finance out of bankruptcy, the fintech has found a new investor. Rebmann Research, a company specializing in market research in the healthcare sector, is taking over the majority stake in the start-up.

Details about the price and conditions were not revealed. Cure Finance offers financial management support for medical practices.

Adyen with more sales

Adyen recorded net sales of 887 million euros in the second half of 2023, representing growth of 23 percent compared to the previous year. However, the pace of growth has slowed compared to the previous year. The payment volume processed amounted to 544.1 billion euros, an increase of 29 percent compared to the previous year. EBITDA grew by 14 percent to 423 million euros.

As part of the figures presentation, Adyen cited the US market as particularly challenging. The company says it has made strategic investments here (e.g. in alternative payment methods such as open banking) in order to respond to the changes in the market in North America.

G+D increases its stake in Netcetera

Giesecke+Devrient (G+D) has increased its stake in the software company Netcetera to 95 percent. The company wants to expand its presence in the areas of digital payments and banking solutions. G+D originally announced around a year ago that it wanted to increase its stake in the company to 60 percent.

Netcetera offers a wide range of digital products and services for financial platforms, including web and mobile banking, financial advisory, digital wallets, e-commerce, and commercial banking and financial services services.

Creditshelf applies for protective shield proceedings

Creditshelf announces that it will apply for protective shield proceedings in accordance with the Insolvency Code. The Board of Directors believes that the essential basis for a “positive continuation forecast” for Creditshelf is no longer met.

All in all, the main shareholder Obotritia has apparently not made an agreed payment, which means Creditshelf is running out of money. Most recently, a commitment of 40 million euros apparently fell through.

Auxmoney with record securitization

The credit platform Auxmoney was able to successfully place a record volume of 500 million euros in a new securitization transaction. According to its own information, the company has successfully brought asset-backed securities (ABS) with a volume of 1.3 billion euros onto the market.

Lemonway doubles sales

The fintech Lemonway, specializing in solutions for B2B, B2C and C2C marketplaces as well as alternative financial platforms, reports a processed business volume of 9.6 billion euros in payment flows for 2023.

According to the company’s own information, this corresponds to growth of 24 percent compared to the previous year. For this year 2024, Lemonway predicts an increase to 12 billion euros. The company also doubled its revenue from 16 million euros to 32 million euros within a year and achieved a net profit of 5 million euros.

Is Trade Republic planning to get into securities lending?

After the introduction of a Visa card, which received great media attention, Trade Republic is already planning its next offer, according to co-founder Christian Hecker. This should be a securities loan.

Competitor Scalable Capital launched a similar product in October of last year. The credit limit depends on the value of the respective portfolio. Customers can use the loan freely or purchase additional assets with it.

Klarna offers its own login service

Klarna has launched its new service “Sign in with Klarna”, which positions itself against the well-known systems of large US companies. The Registered service enables faster check-out and additionally offers personalized offers from retailers if consumers agree to data sharing. It is now available in 23 countries, including Germany.

Raisin transforms ETF-Robo into digital asset management

The Berlin fintech Raisin is transforming its ETF robo into “digital wealth management” and is using the asset management of Raisin Bank from Frankfurt. Upvest provides the investment interface infrastructure for this purpose.

Raisin wants to achieve a better link between savings and investment products through asset management. This is intended to enable the Raisin “Weltsparen” offer to expand its investment offering and offer individual investment recommendations based on various factors.

Adyen and Billie form a partnership

Adyen and Billie become partners. Thanks to the cooperation, Adyen merchants can offer their business customers the BNPL payment method. Integrating Billie’s BNPL solution into the Adyen platform addresses B2B trading challenges such as cash flow management, payment defaults and fraud risks.

Business customers can postpone their payment for up to 30 days, while retailers receive their money immediately after the goods have been shipped. The partnership is initially launching in Germany, Austria, Sweden and the Netherlands and will soon be available in other countries.

Iwoca and Qonto expand partnership

The two companies Iwoca and Qonto are expanding their existing partnership. The embedded lending cooperation enables Qonto’s customers to receive individual financing options for their company growth. In 2024, Iwoca aims to provide at least 200 million euros for SMEs.

Qonto customers can access Iwoca’s financing directly via the platform and thus apply for loans of up to 500,000 euros. The entire process is completely digital.

The Apple Card has more than 12 million users

Apple has announced that users of its Apple Card earned over $1 billion in cash back from their spending with the card last year. The company also announced that the number of card users has exceeded 12 million.

The Apple Card was introduced in 2019 and is only available in the United States. Another interesting number: almost 30 percent use it to make several payments per month.

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(Featured image by u_n898l6o2op via Pixabay)

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First published in Payment & Banking. A third-party contributor translated and adapted the article from the original. In case of discrepancy, the original will prevail.

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