IBS Journal August 2016
47
“We’ve leveraged the most modern technology to build one of the leanest banks in the world. This significantly sets us apart from competitors and allows us to offer our users the optimal mobile banking experience in Europe. The licence will enable us to bring additional innovative products to market, starting in the next few weeks,” says CEO Markus Gunter. “Our core technology is based on modular microservices designed for real-time processing and automation. This infrastructure remains highly scalable, secure and cost efficient.”
N26 has acquired around 200,000 customers across eight European markets since its January 2015 launch. It also recently raised $40 million in a Series B financing round led by Horizons Ventures, who was joined by Battery Ventures and Robert Gentz, David Schneider, and Rubin Ritter. Existing investors Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures, Earlybird Ventures, and Redalpine Ventures were also involved. The challenger bank has now pulled in more than $53 million in funding.
£700 MILLION…MasterCard has sealed its takeover of VocaLink, valued at £700 million. Under the terms of the deal, VocaLink’s shareholders will retain a 7.6% ownership of the firm for at least three years.
MasterCard originally approached VocaLink just a few days after the company – controlled by 17 banks in the UK – had faced criticism that its ownership structure was “hampering competition and the speed of innovation.” It operates BACS and Faster Payments services in the country, as well as controlling a network of LINK ATMs. It had been in talks with Italian payments group Sia before the move by MasterCard.
$2.65 BILLION…PayPal and Visa have called a truce after years of going head to head over the future of
digital payments. They have inked a strategic agreement which looks to create an improved and more seamless payment experience for Visa cardholders and greater choice in how consumers pay with the PayPal and Venmo wallets.
Many users of PayPal and its subsidiary Venmo link directly to their bank accounts, bypassing credit cards. Under the agreement, PayPal will stop encouraging customers to do this and share more data with the card network, and in return Visa will provide it “long-term Visa fee certainty” and other “economic incentives”. PayPal will also get to tap into the physical world, gaining access to Visa’s tokenization services, starting in the US, for in-store PayPal transactions.
The announcement came as both companies reported solid earnings. PayPal’s revenue for the second quarter reached $2.65 billion, up 15% from the same quarter a year ago. Visa, meanwhile, reported $3.6 billion in revenues for its fiscal third quarter, up 3% from the previous year.
$1.3 BILLION…Venture capital houses such as Index Ventures, Octopus Ventures, Balderton Capital and Hoxton Ventures are among those still backing the UK’s tech sector, following the country’s vote to leave the EU.
According to Pitchbook research, sourced by London & Partners, the Mayor of London’s promotional company, in the first six months of 2016 British companies attracted $1.3 billion in VC funding, matching the total raised in the same period in 2015. According to London & Partners research, 253 VC houses now have a presence in the capital, with a number of firms using it as a strategic base to invest in European technology startups. Investment into London and UK-based technology companies remains strong since the Brexit vote, with British firms attracting $200 million of VC funding across 42 deals.
www.ibsintelligence.com
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