The UK's Open Banking initiative officially launched on January 13, 2018, requiring major banks to share customer data via APIs with authorized third-party providers. Banks including Barclays, HSBC, and RBS began enabling API access. This regulatory milestone laid the groundwork for embedded finance and BaaS innovation across the UK.
Entities: Barclays · HSBC · Royal Bank of Scotland
Accenture launched the sixth cohort of its FinTech Innovation Lab London on January 2, 2018, pairing 20 shortlisted fintech startups—including a dedicated RegTech stream—with executives from over 32 major financial institutions. Sponsor banks included Citi, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMC, Lloyds, Morgan Stanley, Santander, UBS, and others. The program focuses on solutions for PSD2, GDPR, MiFID II compliance, fraud detection, and blockchain security.
Entities: Accenture · Citi · Goldman Sachs · HSBC · JPMorgan Chase · Lloyds Banking Group · Morgan Stanley · Santander · UBS · Credit Suisse · RBS · Nationwide · Societe Generale · Intesa Sanpaolo · AIB · Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Indian fintech NiYO Solutions raised $13.2 million for its digital platform enabling employee benefits, claims, and credit access via employer-bank partnerships. The platform facilitates financial advisory services by connecting employers with banking partners. This investment highlights embedded finance growth in India's B2B2C segment.
Visa partnered with NovoPayment to enable digital financial services such as mass disbursements and collections via a cloud-based platform for banks across Latin America. The partnership leverages NovoPayment's API-driven platform to help banks deliver embedded payment and account services to corporate clients. This represents an early embedded finance play in the LATAM region.
Volante Technologies collaborated with BNY Mellon on payments technology innovation, including real-time payments processing via the VolPay Hub and tokenized payments with Zelle. The partnership demonstrates how infrastructure providers enable banks to offer modern payment rails. This collaboration supports BNY Mellon's ability to provide embedded payment capabilities to its clients.
Paris-based Spendesk raised €8M in a Series A led by Index Ventures to expand its business spending platform across Europe. The round follows a €2M seed in 2017. Spendesk provides companies with a platform for managing purchases and expenses.
New York-based MoneyLion raised $42M in a Series B led by Edison Partners for its personal finance app offering loans and financial tools. The company had issued over 250,000 loans at the time, bringing total funding to $67M. The round supports technology expansion and lending growth.
BankMobile, a fintech-focused digital bank, announced plans to spin off and merge with Flagship Community Bank, a community bank acting as a sponsor bank. The deal was scheduled to close in mid-2018. This merger exemplifies the sponsor bank model where fintechs partner with chartered banks to access banking licenses and deposit insurance.
Indian lending marketplace Paisabazaar raised $31.58 million to scale its platform connecting consumers with bank lending products via mobile and internet channels. The platform serves segments underserved by traditional banks. The investment underscores growing demand for digital lending infrastructure in India.
Brazil-based EBANX secured $30M from FTV Capital to grow its cross-border payment processing platform in Latin America. The funding supports expansion into new markets like Ecuador and Uruguay and deeper integrations with partners such as Google Pay. EBANX enables international merchants to accept local Latin American payment methods.
Global payments fintech Payvision partnered with Dutch bank ING to provide cross-border e-commerce payment processing. The deal emphasized complementary strengths, combining Payvision's payments technology with ING's banking infrastructure and regulatory reach. This was an early example of the bank-fintech collaboration trend that accelerated throughout 2018.