Currensea, Zeed, BKN301 and pfs

This week’s handy Friday funding round-up of European fintech start-ups, featuring Currensea, Zeed, BKN301 and pfs.

London-based fintech Currensea has raised £1.35 million from over 350 investors on crowdfunding platform Seedrs.

The capital takes the firm’s total funding to date to £6.5 million. Currensea says it will use the money to make senior hires and acquire new customers.

Founded in 2018, Currensea aims to help customers save money when travelling.

It offers “the UK’s first” direct debit travel card and claims to save “at least 85% on every transaction” by reducing fees and charges levied by high-street banks.

Fintech start-up Zeed has secured £205,000 in pre-seed funding led by SFC Capital.

Zeed bags £205,000 pre-seed funding

Based in London, Zeed is an investment platform that uses short-form videos to break down financial concepts and empower Gen Z investors across Europe.

It says the funding will be put towards developing its product, expanding its team and producing exclusive content.

Zeed aims to use verified in-house video content to break down financial concepts for retail investors to build their confidence when making investment decisions. It plans to launch its app later this month.

“In the near future, Zeed’s platform will also allow users to invest directly in UK and US equities in a TikTok-style feed,” the firm says.

Salman Hussain, co-founder and CEO of Zeed, says: “One of the biggest barriers faced by Gen Z investors is developing the knowledge and confidence to decide what to invest in.

“We produce TikTok-style short-form content to make that part of the journey effortless and engaging, working with financial institutions and verified content creators.”

San Marino-based BKN301, a fintech firm specialising in digital payments and banking-as-a-service (BaaS), has bagged €15 million in Series A funding, just months after closing its seed round.

The funding round has brought the company to a valuation of €63 million.

BKN301 says the raised capital will further the development of the open banking platform’s technological infrastructure and sustains its growth among fast-growing markets such as Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

The round was led by the Swiss fund Abalone Group with participation from Azimut Digitech Fund, CRIF and GNB Swiss Investments AG, among others.

The firm offers a BaaS and digital e-money platform, enabling third parties to offer financial, payment and token issuance services.

Pfs, a provider of software and technological risk lifecycle management solutions, has received an undisclosed sum from AnaCap Financial Partners.

AnaCap invests in pfs

Headquartered in Madrid with operations in Spain, Portugal and Mexico, pfs provides software and technology solutions for financial services businesses across lending activity, covering processes from origination to collection.

Pfs also provides data efficiency solutions deployed within banks to optimise credit risk.

The funding will be used to grow the company and expand into new markets.

Pfs claims to have doubled its revenue size in the last three years, with a client base across 26 countries.