European fintechs raised £1.6bn in the first quarter of 2023, a massive 83% drop from this time last year. That’s less than the total raised by climate tech startups (£2.bn) and DeepTech startups (£2.3bn). It’s not all doom and gloom. Despite the drop in FinTech funding, VC’s are still investing in promising fintechs. 

So, who’s earned a slice of this year’s FinTech funding pie? 

kennek

Founder/s: Thibault Lancksweert, Edmund Parsons, Xavier De Pauw

Founded year: 2021

2023 Funding: £3M (Pre-seed)

Kennek’s changed the financial lending landscape with their forward-thinking approach. Kennek helps any lender to scale their operations, automate payments, manage risk and report to their investors. With a deep understanding of technology and a keen awareness of the evolving needs of the market, Kennek has positioned itself at the forefront of financial technology. Kennek’s platform employs an API-first approach, which means kennek integrate the leading API providers so you don’t have to. This allows you to harness the power of new technologies for Open Banking, Payments, Credit Scoring, and more, without the hassle and cost of integration.

Their latest funding will be used to streamline operations for lenders and round was led by Dutch Founders Fund, ffVC and Plug and Play Ventures.

Radix

Founder: Dan Hughes

Founded year: 2016

2023 Funding: $10M

One of Radix’s main aims is to tackle the risk of hacks in decentralized finance (DeFi). It does this through Scrypto, an “asset-orientated smart contract language,” which provides developers with an off-the-shelf tool for creating assets and setting the rules by which they can be transacted. The blockchain has more than 50 projects building on it, offering trading, saving, lending, gaming, non-fungible tokens (NFT) and wallets.
Radix’s unique consensus algorithm ensures fast and reliable transaction processing, while its smart contract capabilities enable the creation of complex financial instruments and automated agreements. 

The funding round was led by market maker and investment firm DWF Labs and gives Radix Tokens a valuation of $400 million

CyberSmart

Founder/s: Jamie Akhtar, Mariella Rosa Thanner

Founded year: 2016

2023 Funding: $34.2M (Series B) 

The small and medium business segment has increasingly become a target for those building cybersecurity solutions. CyberSmart is an innovative fintech company that specialises in cybersecurity solutions tailored specifically for the financial industry. With the rapid digitisation of financial services, the need for robust security measures has become paramount, and CyberSmart addresses this challenge head-on. Their services include threat intelligence, vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, and proactive monitoring, all designed to identify and mitigate potential risks.

The funding is being led by Oxx ,the European VC that focuses on growth rounds for SaaS startups, with strategic and other interesting backers participating.

Floodlight

Founders: Noam Bernstein, Oded Blayer

Founded year: 2021

2023 Funding: $6.4m (Seed funding) 

Floodlight provides an FCA authorised business account for for e-commerce SMEs to achieve their financial goals via financial coaching available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Users can connect the platforms of their choice, such as their Shopify store, bank accounts, PayPal, etc. to tap into relevant data that further strengthens their personalised insights. At the core of Floodlight’s offerings is their intuitive financial management platform, which provides users with a holistic view of their finances, including budgeting, expense tracking, and goal setting. 

The round was led by Aleph, and 83 North, with participation from Yuval Samet, Christopher North, and Juan Lobato. The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and its business reach.

Bud

Founders:  George Dunning, Edward Maslaveckas

Founded year: 2015

2023 Funding: Undisclosed (Late venture capital) 

Bud is an open banking API and financial data analysis for businesses. It is an account-linked expense management platform that allows users to manage finances. Users can connect bank accounts and credit cards in one place and customise budgets by automatically categorising expenses. It also provides access to various financial products such as pensions, insurance, currency exchange, investments, and more. 

The latest funding will be used for expansion into the US with key hires. The latest funding round was led by from HSBC, Goldman Sachs and TransUnion.

Cloudbilling 

Founders: CloudBilling is founded as a subsidiary of Yellowtail

Founded year: 2012

2023 Funding: undisclosed

Cloudbilling has developed a comprehensive platform that simplifies and streamlines the billing and invoicing process. By leveraging the power of the cloud, Cloudbilling enables businesses to automate their billing workflows, reduce manual errors, and accelerate revenue generation.

The Dutch company says it will use the fund to expedite its expansion in the UK and Nordics, while investing in sales and marketing and growing the company’s product development and operations teams accordingly. The funding announcement comes as the company recently witnessed robust demand for its cloud-based billing and business intelligence solutions, especially in EMEA and now in the UK.

Finst

Founders: Marcel Putina, Julien Vallet,

Founded year: 2022

2023 Funding: $4.4M (Seed Round) 

Finst is an Amsterdam-based cryptocurrency exchange led by a team of investment professionals who have previously contributed to build one of the largest retail investment platforms in Europe, DEGIRO. Finst offers a unique combination of safety, transparency and the lowest trading fees through its easy-to-use and innovative platform.

By leveraging decades of combined experience in trading, security and engineering, Finst aims to create a level playing field for all crypto investors and to set the highest standards in the cryptocurrency industry. Finst is a platform that lets you buy and sell individual cryptos or invest in smart crypto bundles. Crypto bundles enable you to diversify investments in one click, without a minimum amount.

The capital raised will be used to expand Finst’s range of products drive its international expansion plans.

Fourthline

Founders: Chris van Straeten, Krik Gunning

Founded year: 2017

2023 Funding: $54M

Fourthline is a RegTech leader that provides AI-powered and compliant KYC and AML solutions. Known for their expertise in identity verification and fraud prevention solutions Fourthline are on a mission to make digital transactions safe and secure, Fourthline focuses on helping financial institutions comply with regulations and protect themselves and their customers from fraudulent activities.

Their latest round was raised from new and existing institutional investors. The funding will be used to transform financial compliance for banks, financial institutions and fintechs and will help the AI-powered company to become the undisputed tech platform of choice to alleviate the compliance burden for European regulated institutions.

Prewave 

Founders: Dr. Lisa Smith, Harald Nitschinger

Founded year: 2017

2023 Funding: $19M (Series A)

Prewave is a supply chain risk management and compliance platform. Recognising the critical importance of supply chain resilience and risk mitigation, Prewave harnesses advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, to help businesses proactively identify and address potential disruptions within their supply chains.

Prewave’s platform continuously monitors a vast range of data sources, including news articles, social media feeds, and sensor data, to detect early warning signals of potential risks or disruptions. By analysing this real-time data using advanced algorithms, Prewave can provide actionable insights and predictive analytics to its clients, enabling them to make informed decisions and take proactive measures to mitigate risks.

In addition to the investment from Creandum, existing investors KOMPAS, Ventech, seed+speed, Segnalita, Speedinvest, Working Capital Fund, and xista science ventures also participated in the round.

Raisin

Founders: Kevin Mountford, Michael Stephan, Tamas Giorgadse, Dr. Frank Freund

Founded year: 2012

2023 Funding: $64M (Series E)

Raisin provides an open banking infrastructure for the global $50+ trillion deposit market that benefits banks and savers alike. For savers, it means more product choice and decision power. Customer-facing institutions like banks benefit from best-in-class savings marketplace solutions for their own customers, while deposit-taking banks receive flexible, cost-effective access to diversified deposit funding.

With the new investment, Raisin aims to give more consumers access to simple and convenient products by investing in new features, even simpler processes and broader accessibility, and to accelerate growth in expanding markets such as the United States, where Raisin entered in 2020 and added over $1 billion AuM in 2022 alone.

Pliant  

Founders: Vess Bakalov, Dimitar Blagoev, and Matt Goldberg

Founded year: 2015

2023 Funding: $28M (Series A)

Pliant’s platform offers physical and virtual Visa credit cards for businesses, enabling them to take advantage of worldwide payment acceptance. It also offers financial software companies the option to embed its card platform into their existing product offerings.

With the fresh funds, Pliant plans to build out the technological capabilities of its platform and enter additional global markets. In 2022, the company expanded into seven European markets and claims its customer portfolio grew six-fold.

Pliant previously raised $20 million over its pre-seed and seed rounds in 2021. Its Series A, which Pliant claims is the largest fintech funding in Germany so far in 2023, brings its total raise to $48 million.

Moonfare  

Founders: Alexander Argyros, Steffen Pauls

Founded year: 2016

2023 Funding: $28M (Series C)

Moonfare makes it possible for qualified individual investors to invest in top-tier private equity and venture capital funds from firms like KKR, Carlyle, EQT and Insight Partners at low minimums and via a fast and user-friendly digital experience. Accredited investors can easily sign up to our platform to access top-tier investment opportunities, expert knowledge, curation and higher returns at lower entry points.

The latest round of funding will enable the team at Moonfare will offer new products, expand into new markets and strengthen their senior management team with seasoned private equity experts.

Mondu 

Founders: Philipp Povel, Gil Danziger, Malte Huffmann

Founded year: 2021

2023 Funding: $13M (Series A)

Mondu enables merchants and marketplaces to offer their business customers the most popular B2B payment methods with flexible payment terms in an online checkout. It’s Buy Now, Pay Later solutions include, purchase on invoice, SEPA direct debit, and installments. In addition, businesses that use Mondu are protected from default risk and save the hassle of collections and dunning.

The new investment follows an impressive first year for Mondu, where the company scaled fast, expanded into new markets and launched more products that simplify the financial lives of businesses. The Series A extension will enable further market growth and product development. Mondu is exploring new use cases for its B2B payment products, such as an omnichannel solution

ID Finance 

Founders: Alexander Dunaev, Boris Batine

Founded year: 2015

2023 Funding: $32M (Equity funding)

Founded in 2015 with its headquarters in Barcelona and a presence in Mexico, ID Finance uses analytics and machine learning to provide retail banking and finance solutions to more than five million registered users in both countries. ID Finance have processed more than ten million credit applications, and claims to have been profitable since its inception.

With the fresh investment, ID Finance will focus on the roll-out of its financial wellness app Plazo in Spain and Mexico. The company has also appointed its co-founder Boris Batine as CEO of Plazo to oversee the roll-out of the app.