In the first half of 2024, fintech — one of Europe’s historically best-funded startup sectors — played second fiddle to climate tech when it came to total capital raised. H1 saw fintech startups land €8.8bn in funding across equity and debt compared to the €21.3bn that went to climate tech startups in Europe.
While it may have been relegated to second place, that’s not to say that investors aren’t still interested. The first six months of the year have seen some headline-grabbing funding rounds including neobank Monzo’s $610m fundraise and card reader maker SumUp’s €1.5bn debt round led by Goldman Sachs.
But which funds are getting involved in the most fintech deals right now? Below are the most active investors in Europe in H1, according to Sifted data. Deal count reflects publicly announced funding rounds into European fintech startups and those submitted to Sifted. The Sifted Intelligence team has also contacted each investor to verify their deal count.
SFC Capital
HQ: London, UK
Fund focus: SFC Capital only backs startups eligible for SEIS and EIS funding — a UK government scheme which aims to incentivise support to early-stage UK companies by offering them income tax relief. SFC is a generalist investor and typically writes tickets between £100k-£500k.
H1 deal count: 11
Notable deals:
- Checkboard, a London-based payments and verification platform.
- Kaldi, an app that offers cashback and investment services.
Citi
HQ: Palo Alto California, US
Fund focus: Citi is the fourth largest bank in the US and invests in startups through its venture arm Citi Ventures.
H1 deal count: 6
Notable deals:
- Colendi, a banking-as-a-service company based in Turkey.
- PPPro, a fintech helping international businesses adopt localised payment methods.
Northzone
HQ: London, UK
Fund focus: Northzone is a European VC firm focused on early stage tech companies.
H1 deal count: 6
Notable deals:
- Finom, a business banking startup for SMEs and freelancers.
- Wagestream, a fintech that enables employees of its corporate clients to receive early salary payments.
Octopus Ventures
HQ: London, UK
Fund focus: Octopus Venture is a multi-stage VC firm that invests across health, fintech, deeptech and B2B software.
H1 deal count: 6
Notable deals:
- Vitesse PSP, a treasury and payment management platform for insurance companies.
- Swippr, a fintech providing payments services for the airline industry.
Antler
HQ: Singapore
Fund focus: Antler invests in a wide range of companies, from B2B and healthtech to property tech and consumer.
H1 deal count: 6
Notable deals:
- Tango Agreements, a fintech automating contract and payment workflows for small and medium professional services businesses.
- Evaluator, a Norwegian insurance management platform.
Seedcamp
HQ: London, UK
Fund focus: Seedcamp is VC firm focused on European startups at seed stage.
H1 deal count: 5
Notable deals:
- Mimo, a payments fintech offering credit services to SMEs.
- Light, a Dannish company focused on automating the CFO stack.
Cypher Capital
HQ: Dubai, UAE
Fund focus: Cypher Capital is a crypto-focused venture capital investing in blockchain and digital-asset-related companies.
H1 deal count: 5
Notable deals:
- Kelp DAO, a protocol providing staking services. Staking is a process where you lock up crypto to support the blockchain’s operations in return for rewards.
- Bitscrunch, a blockchain data platform for developers.
Fuel Ventures
HQ: London, UK
Fund focus: Fuel is a pre-seed and seed investor, backing startups across B2B SaaS, marketplaces and fintech. It raised a £100m fund in July last year and writes cheques between £2m-5m.
H1 deal count: 4
Notable deals:
- Eleos, an insurtech offering income protection services.
- Ekko, a fintech selling its clients the ability to build sustainable banking services.
Kima Ventures
HQ: Paris, France
Fund focus: Kima was founded to invest French billionaire Xavier Niel’s private wealth, and describes itself as a business angel rather than a VC fund. It backs up to 100 startups a year with €150k tickets in all sectors.
H1 deal count: 4
Notable deals:
- Usual Labs, a company building infrastructure for stablecoins.
- Keyring, a startup helping institutions access decentralised finance.
Heartcore Capital
HQ: Copenhagen, Denmark
Fund focus: Danish VC firm Heartcore is a Danish VC firm known for investments in the consumer sector — it’s previously invested in travel startup GetYourGuide and open banking platform Tink. In December, the firm also raised a €15m fund to back web3 protocols and companies.
H1 deal count: 4
Notable deals:
- Majority, a fintech providing banking services for migrants.
- CarbonPool, an insurance fintech which pays out claims in carbon credits.
Y Combinator
HQ: Mountainview, California, US
Fund focus: The storied San Francisco-based accelerator has also been a big backer of European startups over the years. YC is a generalist investor writing cheques across a variety of sectors including AI, deeptech and fintech. YC invests in two startup batches per year.
H1 deal count: 4
Notable deals:
- Lago, a Paris-based billing fintech.
- Nsave, a Swiss fintech enabling people from unstable countries to open off-shore bank accounts.
NatWest
HQ: London, UK
Fund focus: NatWest is one of the “Big Four” UK banks. Along with providing personal and business banking, mortgages and loans, the bank has also made strategic investments in fintech startups including an acquisition of pensions company Cushon last year.
H1 deal count: 4
Notable deals:
- Access Pay, an automated payments fintech.
- Coadjute, a data platform for property investors.
Earlybird Venture Capital
HQ: Berlin, Germany
Fund focus: Earlybird Ventures is a Berlin-based VC fund founded in 1997 that invests in European startups. The VC firm has four dedicated teams for Western Europe, Eastern Europe, healthtech and deeptech.
H1 deal count: 4
Notable deals:
- FintechOS, a product management platform for financial services providers.
- Midas, a wealthtech platform allowing people in Turkey to invest in US and Turkish equities.
Laser Digital
HQ: Zurich, Switzerland
Fund focus: Backed by Japanese investment bank Nomura, Laser Digital is an investment firm that allocates capital to startups in the digital asset space.
H1 deal count: 4
Notable deals:
- ClearToken, a London-based cryptocurrency clearing house.
- BonusBlock, a crypto marketplace focused on maximising engagement with blockchain projects.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/europe-fintech-active-investors/
