The neobank is building up a complete range of financial services. Also: Xpeng launches electric sedan in Europe and trade in NFTs increased by 21,000 percent in 2021.
The cloud-based digital banking platform operates in Denmark, Sweden and Norway.
Screengrab Lunar
Good Morning! While you slept, work continued elsewhere in the digital scene.
The top topics:
Lunar, a Scandinavian digital banking platform, has announced a €70 million Series D funding round. According to “Techcrunch”, the Copenhagen-based cloud-based fintech is valued at two billion US dollars. Lunar is also launching a crypto trading platform and B2B payments for its small and medium business customers. The latest investment is an expansion of the Series-D, which had an initial deal of 210 million euros in July last year. The round — led by Heartland with participation from Kinnevik, Tencent and IDC Ventures — now closes at €280 million.
On Gründerszene you read today: Karl Moritz Hermann wants to develop a digital assistant with Saiga. The Berlin startup’s software books doctor’s appointments and takes care of dealing with the authorities. But in the past, several companies have already failed with this idea. [More at start-up scene]
And here are the other headlines of the night:
Xpeng has started taking pre-orders for its P5 electric sedan in four European countries. The Chinese Tesla rival is thus continuing its international expansion. The P5, which debuted in China nearly a year ago, can be reserved by customers in Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden through Xpeng's mobile app and website. Xpeng made inroads into Europe last year, with the company beginning deliveries of its flagship P7 sedan to Norway in August. [More at CNBC]
Trading in non-fungible tokens hit $17.6 billion last year. That's a 21,000 percent increase from 2020, according to Nonfungible.com's report. NFTs are now mainstream, and interest from celebrities and large corporations is increasing. Investors made a total profit of $5.4 billion from the sale of the tokens in 2021. [More at Axios and CNBC]
Rivian shares are down more than 14 percent after the close of business on Thursday. Earlier, the electric vehicle maker had warned of supply chain issues that would hamper production this year. Rivian said it expects to build 25,000 vehicles this year. The company would actually have the capacity to build around 50,000 vehicles. Rivian reported fourth-quarter revenue of $54 million, down from analysts' estimates of $64 million. [More at Bloomberg and The Information]
Stripe, the online payments service, has unveiled new features that allow crypto businesses to more easily convert currencies like the US dollar into cryptocurrencies. Stripe will also provide crypto companies with additional tools to prevent fraudulent financial activity. The company announced a number of high-profile partners who would begin using its applications, including FTX and FTX US, the crypto exchange's US subsidiary. [More at The Information and Techcrunch]
Amazon shares rose more than five percent on Thursday after the company announced plans to split its shares for the first time since 1999. It was the second best day of the year for Amazon. Stock splits don't change a company's fundamental prospects, but they lower the price of each share and potentially attract a broader crowd of investors. In the case of Amazon, a 95 percent reduction in its share price could make the company a contender for inclusion in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. [More at CNBC]
+Simple, a Paris-based insurtech, has announced growth financing totaling EUR 90 million. The round was led by KKR's Next Generation Technology Growth Fund II. The company has also acquired three new independent insurance intermediaries: Alians in France, Carl Rieck Assecuradeur in Germany and Marintec, an insurance agency in Italy. +Simple offers the self-employed a digital insurance broker that simplifies the conclusion of business insurance. [More at +Simple]
Our reading tip on Gründerszene: With Xempus, companies that offer old-age provision online and placements can be concluded digitally. Now the Munich Insurtech gets 63 million euros for it. [More at start-up scene]
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