Welcome to the FinTech Monthly for March 2016, filmed at Level 39 in London’s Canary Wharf.
Investments
Dublin-based Future Finance, Europe’s biggest student lender, raised £119m taking its total funds raised to £185m. The investment came from multiple firms, including QED Investors and Blackstone Group LP. The service, which launched in May 2014, has loaned over £25m to date.
There has been a considerable amount of other funding news this month. LendInvest, the property finance marketplace, completed a £17m Series B; payments company GoCardless raised $13m; blockchain intelligence firm Elliptic closed a $5m round and e-lending platform EZBob Ltd raised £20m.
The Budget
In his spring Budget speech, George Osborne revealed the government’s intention to work with the ‘New Bank Start-up Unit’ to promote the authorisation of more new banks. I asked Sam Brown, of law firm Gowling WLG, what impact the Budget will have on UK FinTech companies, take a look at the video to see what he said.
Acquisition
Atom Bank, which is backed by Spanish banking giant BBVA, announced its acquisition of Grasp, a design and development firm based in the north of England. The terms of the deal were not revealed, but the plan is for Grasp’s team to help grow Atom’s customer base through an improved user experience, incorporating gamification, 3-D visualizations and mobile apps.
The Pulse of Fintech
KPMG published its quarterly The Pulse of FinTech report with CB Insights. According to the report, global investment in FinTech companies totaled $19.1bn in 2015, with $13.8bn invested into VC-backed FinTech companies. This represents a 106% increase on 2014. European FinTech companies raised $1.5 billion in 2015.
The report predicts FinTech investment will continue to grow in Europe over the next few years, with corporate investors potentially taking more interest.
Android Pay
Android announced that, in the next few months, Android Pay would launch in the UK. Those with Android handsets will be able to use the service everywhere contactless payments are accepted. Android Pay has been growing steadily in the US with 1.5 million new registrations occurring each month.
That’s it for this episode of Fintech Monthly. Keep an eye on Tech City News for more FinTech stories and for more of our videos, subscribe to our YouTube channel.