The global downturn has left its impact on all sectors, but fintech seems to have borne the brunt as the public-market valuations took a plunge last year. At this point in time, though VCs are more cautious than before and handling the situation with due diligence, they are still investing in fintechs.
Despite the odds, some promising fintechs have received funding in 2023 so far, despite the collapse of major banks such as SVB and Credit Suisse, the ongoing economic downturn, recession, layoffs and financial crisis. To mention some of the biggest ones, the Irish payment processing platform Stripe snapped $6.5 billion in funding despite its dropped valuation. At the same time, women-led Abound, a personal lending platform, raised over £500 million, and UK fintech Carmoola grabbed £103.5 million to reinvent auto financing.
So far in 2023, TFN has listed some noteworthy European fintech funding rounds. The data was collected from Dealroom.co. Check out below:
Zasta (Germany)
Founder/s: Jorg Sudkamp, Vladimir Vinogradov
Founded year: 2017
Total funding: NA
With the aim to make it easy for taxpayers to claim money back without filling in forms, German fintech Zasta provides intelligent software. The software for tax refunds automatically calculates the reimbursement amount and provides non-binding offers from a top tax advisor. Upon confirmation by the user, the tax accountant optimises the tax return and retrieves the user’s money.
Earlier this year, a German financier United Volksbank known for pumping credit into fintech biggies such as Billie and Mondu, pumped in €60 million in debt into the automated tax refunds app Zasta to help make its tax refund product more competitive.
Kontolink (Denmark)
Founder/s: Kim Agger
Founded year: 2018
Total funding: $1.1M
Bank transactions and vouchers are an essential part of the accounting software for small businesses. With the Danish app Kontolink, vouchers are automatically collected and matched with associated bank transactions, making bookkeeping automated and accounting easy, fast and efficient. It features solutions for payment tracking, bookkeeping management, account management, document management, and more. It also offers invoice management solutions for users.
In a recent development, the SaaS company Kontolink behind a new app for automatic bookkeeping has raised €1 million in pre-seed funding from experienced investor Torben Frigaard Rasmussen as well as Jonas Bøgh Larsen (founder of Pento), Kim Sneum Madsen (CEO at Umbraco) and Mogens Abel-Bache (CPTO at Siteimprove).
WinWinner (Belgium)
Founder/s: Matthias Browaeys
Founded year: 2016
Total funding: $12.1M
Ghent-headquartered WinWinner provides a one-stop-shop offer for companies that want to raise money through various forms of financing. These include win-win loans, ordinary loans, capital investments, crowdfunding, bank loans, etc. The company has helped many entrepreneurs, including Wim Ballieu, founder of Balls & Glory restaurants.
Operating with the objective to support entrepreneurs with financial support, Belgian startup WinWinner snapped €10 million to back Flemish entrepreneurs.
Bricknode (Sweden)
Founder/s: Jack Lystrup Johansson, Stefan Willebrand
Founded year: 2010
Total funding: $1.6M
Financial management solution provider Bricknode from Sweden delivers end-to-end solutions for banks, brokers, and other institutions. It offers user management, account management, order management, trade and settlement notes, and more. It also can be used for peer-to-peer lending, portfolio management, selling and managing structured products, and more.
This month, a fintech company Huddlestock acquired Bricknode for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition is a strategic move for both companies with Bricknode’s investment operations software and technology combining with Huddlestock’s trading technology and investment banking licence to create a leader in wealthtech solutions.
Kennek (UK)
Founder/s: Thibault Lancksweert, Edmund Parsons, Xavier De Pauw
Founded year: 2021
Total funding: $4.5M
UK fintech Kennek works with the goal to establish a scalable and robust lending infrastructure accessible to everyone. Its end-to-end operating system streamlines operations for lenders, credit investors, corporates and servicers in the alternative credit sector. The operating system will let users manage their risks, control their data, scale operations and access funding.
Last month, the fintech that develops operating systems for credit providers, netted $4.5 million in pre-seed funding led by Dutch Founders Fund, ffVC and Silicon Valley’s Plug and Play Ventures. The investment will be used to streamline operations for lenders.
TaxDown (Spain)
Founder/s: Enrique García Moreno, Alvaro Falcones Muñoz
Founded year: 2019
Total funding: $16.1M
Spanish startup TaxDown operates an easy-to-use platform that allows taxpayers to manage tax returns accurately. The platform eases the income tax filing process and helps taxpayers save money and provides advice and expert support as well. It automates income tax filing by calculating regional deductions due to users, so they do not have to navigate complex tax rules themselves.
The fintech specialised in income tax returns, closed a new investment round of €5.8 million a few days back. The funds came from Mediaset España, Atresmedia, JME Ventures and Base10 Partners and will be deployed to launch annual subscription plans tailored to each user and prepare cryptocurrency profit and loss tax reports.
Radix (UK)
Founder/s: Dan Hughes
Founded year: 2016
Total funding: $16.8M
Headquartered in London, the asset-oriented smart contract platform Radix provides DeFi protocols. It features a user-centric approach, liquidity solutions for tokens, API-based accessing of liquidity pools, and more. It also offers an alternative framework for the development of financial applications.
Already backed by LocalGlobe and Wise’s Taavet Hinrikus, Radix secured $10 million investment led by DWF Labs this month. The funding comes at a time when the company is prepping to launch its Babylon mainnet upgrade, which will introduce smart contract capability.
Instant Factoring (Romania)
Founder/s: Alexandru Lapusan, Cosmina Pirlea, Cristian Ionescu, Piotr Swieboda
Founded year: 2018
Total funding: $10.6M
The online platform offering invoice factoring loans for businesses from Romania lets users sell their invoices in advance for cash. Users need to create an account, provide their basic details, and upload their invoices to apply for invoice factoring loans. Once approved users receive the funds directly in their bank account.
In February, MicroEurope, which backs the microfinance sector in Europe, invested €600k in Instant Factoring in its first investment in Romania. It will let Instant Factoring will be able to expand its range of financial products.
CyberSmart (UK)
Founder/s: Jamie Akhtar, Mariella Rosa Thanner
Founded year: 2016
Total funding: $34.2M
When there is a surge in demand from SMBs to protect their businesses in the digital era, London’s female-founded CyberSmart provides cloud-based solutions for risk and vulnerability assessment. It provides a cybersecurity management platform for an enterprise to evaluate, comply, and certify for cyber essentials.
In February, CyberSmart received $15 million in Series B funding in a round led by Oxx alongside British Patient Capital, Legal & General Capital, Solano Partners, and previous backers IQ Capital, Eos Venture Partners, Winton Ventures, and Seedcamp. The investment will be used for its all-in-one cybersecurity and insurance solution targeting SMBs.
Grünfin (Estonia)
Founder/s: Alvar Lumberg, Karin Nemec, Triin Hertmann
Founded year: 2020
Total funding: $4.4M
Estonian startup Grünfin has built a retail investment platform exclusively for funds with positive environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors. The company screens funds before listing them, ranking each on its impact and return on investment. Users can choose to build an environmental, equality, or health-themed portfolio.
Earlier in 2023, Grünfin grabbed €2 million in seed funding from existing investors Norrsken VC, Specialist VC, Lemonade Stand and new investors Sie Ventures and HoneyBadger VC.
