Yougov acquires open banking start-up Lean App April 26, 2021 Data analytics firm Yougov has acquired open banking start-up Lean App to help improve its services with financial transaction data. Lean App has been acquired by Yougov on a three year earn-out, tied to enriching and expanding the research company’s data in the UK and the US. Lean App’s founders – Luke Dugdale, Tom Stuart, [...]
Pensionbee valued at £365m ahead of London IPO April 21, 2021 Pensionbee has priced its IPO at 165 pence per share valuing the company at £365m ahead of its listing this month. The pension consolidation business is set to join the high growth segment of the London Stock Exchange. Last week it announced an offer price range of between 155p and 175p per share. The offer [...]
Treasury to move forward with recommendations set out in listings review April 19, 2021 The Treasury will move forward with recommendations made by Lord Hill to encourage more fintechs to list in the UK. Last month the former EU commissioner published a set of recommendations which called for a range of deregulatory measures. Among the recommendations was the use of dual class shares, which allow company founders to maintain [...]
Starling Bank secures £50m investment from Goldman Sachs April 19, 2021 Digital lender Starling Bank has extended its latest funding round with a £50m investment from Goldman Sachs. Last month it announced a £272m Series D funding round led by Fidelity Management & Research which valued it in excess of £1.1bn pre-money. Starling Bank today said Goldman Sachs investment marked an extension of the oversubscribed round, [...]
Sunday Sitdown: Investors look past political changes as Brexit offers a chance to alter investment regulation, says City veteran April 18, 2021 More than 440 firms in banking and financial services have relocated part of their business, moved employees or set up new entities in the EU following Brexit. Dublin and Paris are the go-to destinations, as banks have moved or plan to move more than £900bn in assets to the EU, equivalent to 10 per cent [...]
Revolut targets $10bn valuation in upcoming funding round April 17, 2021 Revolut is eyeing a new fundraising round which would see the challenger bank’s valuation soar to more than $10bn. Last summer the neobank raised a further $80m to close out its series D funding round from private equity firm TSG, valuing the company at $5.5bn. Now Revolut has enlisted the help of US-based investment bank [...]
UK fintech investment off to flying start after series of mega deals April 16, 2021 After a gruelling year the UK’s fintech industry is back with a bang, attracting nearly $3bn across more than 100 deals in the first quarter alone. The fintech sector raised a total of $2.9bn in the first three months of the year across 117 deals, with investment levels 153 per cent higher compared to the [...]
Online safety bill risks being ‘as shallow as a puddle’, warns campaigner April 15, 2021 In the recently published Integrated Review, a detailed policy document setting out the UK’s national security and international policies, the government identifies online harms as one of the most serious threats to our way of life. The report highlights the government’s commitment to ‘promote a free, open, peaceful and secure cyberspace’. However, it does not reflect the [...]
Exclusive: London’s fintech bubble is ‘close to popping,’ warns Reed Smith partner April 13, 2021 A coalition of London fintech firms recently called on the Financial Conduct Authority to end the dominance of banks over the use of consumer data this year. They argue it would increase competition in the savings, credit, mortgages and pensions markets. Howard Womersley Smith, an expert fintech and data lawyer at Reed Smith in the [...]
Profile: A global payments chief on a mission to disrupt April 12, 2021 Tom Cregan, the managing director and CEO of digital payments giant EML, is a heavy metal drummer and martial arts enthusiast on a mission to infuse rhythmic harmony into the world of payments. His favourite part of any day as chief executive is, what he calls, finding a ”1+1=5 moment” by thinking and approaching an [...]