Voyager Digital, a publicly-traded cryptocurrency platform in the United States, announced the acquisition of Denmark-based cryptocurrency payment platform Coinify. According to CoinDesk, the deal valued at about US$84 million in stock and cash. Under the terms of the share purchase agreement, the consideration to Coinify shareholders will consist of 5,100,000 of newly issued shares of Voyager Digital Ltd. common stock and US$15 million in cash. As part of the agreement, the company will retain US$5.5 million of cash on the Coinify balance sheet. Voyager will retain substantially all current Coinify employees, entering into employment agreements with key members of the…

In Europe, the Nordic countries of Sweden, Denmark and Norway have the most advanced open banking ecosystems. Trailblazing regional regulatory regimes, highly developed digital infrastructures, and a pan-Nordic collaborative approach have enabled these countries to take the lead over the rest of Europe, a new research by Mastercard found. The report, titled Open Banking Readiness Index: The Future of Open Banking in Europe, explores the status of open banking in ten selected European markets, and found that across Europe, Sweden, Denmark and Norway are at the forefront of the open banking movement. To date, they are the only countries in…

Nordic challenger bank Lunar announced a EUR 210 million series D funding round led by family-owned investment company HEARTLAND. Other investors included Kinnevik, one of Europe’s leading growth investors, and Tencent, a leading China-based technology company. Alongside the lead investors, IDC Ventures, Fuel Ventures, MW&L Capital Partners and Peter Mühlmann, the Founder and CEO of Trustpilot, also invested. They will join current investors such as SEED Capital, Chr. Augustinus Fabrikker, Socii Capital and Greyhound Capital. The new investment was secured following a rapid acceleration in growth from both private and business customers. Lunar now serves more than 325,000 customers across…

Danish fintech Pleo announced that it has raised US$150 million in a Series C funding round to become a unicorn with a company valuation of US$1.7 billion. The Series C round was co-led by Bain Capital Ventures and Thrive Capital, with contributions from existing investors Creandum, Kinnevik, Founders, Stripes and Seedcamp. Keri Gohman, a partner at Bain Capital Ventures will be joining Pleo’s board of directors. Pleo offers smart company cards that enable employees to buy the things they need for work, while keeping a company’s finance director in control of spending. With the new funds, Pleo will be ramping…

Rapyd, a global fintech-as-a-service company, has entered into a definitive agreement with Arion Banki to acquire Valitor, an Icelandic payments solutions company, for US$100 million. The acquisition of Valitor will complement Rapyd’s existing payment capabilities throughout Europe, as well as enhance its issuing portfolio. Valitor provides both in-store and online payments acceptance solutions as well as card issuing to SMB merchants in Iceland, the U.K. and Ireland, and across Europe. Following Rapyd’s recent US$300 million financing round, the company is actively pursuing acquisition opportunities, targeting strong payments companies and enhancing their capabilities by connecting them to the Rapyd Global Payments…

Danish personal financial management (PFM) app Spiir announced that it has launched a beta version of its app in the Baltics ahead of their recent expansion into Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The team behind the app has made a special beta flow within the app to improve the user experience and gather feedback for future adjustments. Spiir said that it already has more than 400,000 users across the Nordics. With the help of open banking, the Spiir app can connect to users’ bank accounts and deliver a complete financial overview, even if they have different accounts in different banks. The…

Visa announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Tink, a Swedish open banking platform, for 1.8 billion Euros (US$2.2 billion). Tink will retain its brand and current management team, and its headquarters will remain in Stockholm, Sweden. The combination of Visa’s proven infrastructure and sustained investment in resilience, cybersecurity and fraud prevention with Tink’s APIs, technology and customer relationships is expected to help accelerate the adoption of open banking in Europe by ensuring a secure, reliable platform for innovation. As a result, consumers can better control their financial experiences, including managing their money, financial data and financial goals.…

Icelandic digital banking and finance solutions developer Meniga has signed a new partnership agreement with Nordea, a financial services groups in the Nordics, to continue the integration of its cashback rewards platform within the latter’s mobile banking app in Sweden. According to the agreement, Nordea will continue to offer personalised cashback rewards, which are tailored to individual spending profiles, to its customers in Sweden. Through the multi-bank platform, banks can seamlessly integrate, via Meniga’s cloud-based API, cashback rewards directly into their mobile banking applications, and provide their customers with various personalised, cashback rewards and discounts from retail brands. The platform…

Dreams, a Swedish provider of behavioural and engagement banking solutions, announced the launch of its financial wellbeing platform in partnership with Ukrainian commercial bank UKRSIBBANK BNP Paribas Group. The company’s financial wellbeing platform is now embedded into UKRSIBBANK’s mobile banking app, giving its 2 million customers across Ukraine access to a full range of additional functionalities from which they can set and achieve money-saving goals through clever, automated saving features, in addition to nudges and hacks. The integration will help UKRSIBBANK to revamp its digital banking offering with a more personalised and engaging user experience, which will drive customer satisfaction…

The central bank of Sweden Riksbank pilots phase two of its e-krona project with Swedish bank Handelsbanken and TietoEVRY, a Finnish IT software and service company providing IT and product engineering services. The pilot project run by the Riksbank aims to assess the possibilities of introducing a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). The e-krona pilot is therefore moving on from only having simulated participants to cooperation with external participants in the test environment. In this second phase, one aspect the Riksbank hopes to investigate is how well the e-krona’s technical platform works when integrated with the internal systems of a…

Sweden’s open banking platform Tink continues its expansion across Europe with the acquisition of FinTecSystems, a German open banking infrastructure fintech, powering over 150 banks and fintechs in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The acquisition of FinTecSystems is conditional upon approval from the national competent authorities. Tink said in a statement that this acquisition builds on the €175 million investment that it had secured through two funding rounds in 2020, and complements its organic growth strategy to enhance its platform, increase connectivity and expand its product offering across Europe. Following the acquisition, FinTecSystems will continue to serve new and existing customers…

Home to one of the largest and best-known tech ecosystems in Europe, Sweden is now emerging as a fintech powerhouse, counting nearly 400 companies that use technology and digital platforms to support, enable or innovate banking and financial services, according to data from Invest Stockholm, the official investment promotion agency of the city. Some of these companies are now world leaders in their own industry, while others are rapidly expanding overseas. To get a sense of the Sweden’s most innovative and successful fintech companies, we look today at seven fast-growing Swedish fintech companies and their recent developments. For this list,…

Financial Software and Systems (FSS), a global provider of integrated payment products and a payment processor, is partnering with Zwipe, a Norway-based paymets fintech, to bring biometrics payment cards to issuers globally. Both entities will collaborate closely, offering greater value to customers by combining FSS’s Unified Issuance Platform and Zwipe Pay One biometric card capabilities, supported by Zwipe’s fast-growing global network of card manufacturing partners. As part of this collaboration, FSS will offer Zwipe Pay ONE biometric payment cards globally. The initial focus will be in those markets where contactless is bringing considerable benefits in the area of financial inclusion…

HIPS Payment Group, an Ireland-based provider of e-commerce and mobile payment solutions, and The Payment House, a Nordic payment processor for taxi companies in Scandinavia, announced their partnership to enable payment with crypto currency in over 20,000 taxis in Scandinavia and 10,000 taxis in the UK. The two companies will leverage each other’s technologies so that consumers can easily use crypto payments at real-time transaction speeds, offering a convenient payment method not currently in use. The solution, which is planned to roll out in beta November 2021, will use the Hips Merchant Protocol (HMP) and Hips Merchant Gateway (HMP-gateway) over…

Norges Bank, the central bank of Norway, announced that it will test various technical solutions for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) over the next two years in line with the recommendations of an internal working group. The working group is of the opinion that the motivation for research into CBDCs has been strengthened. Many central banks are in the process of carrying out similar research, and several are already under way with technical testing. At the same time, payment technologies have evolved at a rapid pace, and cash usage has fallen further. The share of cash payments in Norway…

Norway is home to over 120 fintech companies with the vast majority of solutions available right now focusing on mobile payments and online banking, though other segments such as data and analytics, insurtech, data and analytics, and wealthtech, are also represented, data from TheFactor, a fintech and proptech incubator and accelerator, show. Several Norwegian fintechs have grown to notable size, attracting the interest of foreign investors and expanding overseas. To get a sense of Norway’s biggest, most successful fintech companies, we’ve compiled a list of six Norwegian fintechs that have recorded strong growth, made notable strides this past year, and…

Finland is home to more than 200 fintech companies, which have raised a combined EUR 450 million in funding, and generated EUR 1.3 billion in revenue in 2019, data from industry trade group Fintech Farm Helsinki show. These fintechs have grown tremendously over the past years, with several of them expanding overseas and reaching global recognition. To get a sense of Finland’s biggest, most successful fintech companies, we’ve compiled a list of nine Finnish fintechs that have demonstrated strong growth and which deserve to be followed very closely. For this list, we’ve selected independent, private Finnish fintech companies and excluded…

Returpack, a Swedish privately owned company that aims to increase recycling, has selected fintech startup Payer to develop a new IoT technology with the aim to create an easy digital payout experience for consumers. Payer was chosen to develop the core engine, a machine-to-consumer, digital payout solution directly to the consumers’ bank account that was built using Payer’s modular API payments platform. The digital solution is now being rolled out across Sweden. In the first roll-out phase are 57 machines, designed to receive bulk deposits. The solution works in a combination of the machine, the cloud and a mobile app.…

Finland-based mobile payments platform ePassi has launched a unique collaboration with Finnair where members of their frequent flyer program can now pay for services with Finnair Plus points at the former’s merchant sites around Finland. ePassi, operating in Finland and Sweden, currently has 1.5 million users and 35,000 merchant sites in the Nordic countries. Payments can be made using the ePassi mobile app at the checkout of the chosen site. The collaboration will be further expanded to include thousands of restaurants towards the summer of 2021. ePassi and Finnair expect the service to gain popularity among a vast group of…

Meniga, a provider of digital banking solutions founded in Iceland, announced that it has closed a €10 million strategic investment round. The round was led by institutional investors, Velocity Capital Fintech Ventures, and Frumtak Ventures. Other participants in the round include Industrifonden, the UK Government’s Future Fund, and existing customers UniCredit, Swedbank, Groupe BPCE, and Íslandsbanki. Meniga said that the funding will be used for continued investment in Meniga’s R&D activities, and in particular the development of innovative green banking products. Additionally, the new injection of investment will help strengthen Meniga’s sales and service teams. In 2020, Meniga said that…