Hello Evangeline,

Last week, I spied that Monzo had recruited finance veteran Fields Wicker-Miurin to its board as an independent non-executive director (INED). 

Wicker-Miurin is currently on the board at London’s Aquis stock exchange and was previously chief financial officer at the London Stock Exchange — experience that looks like it could come in handy if and when the neobank realises its IPO ambitions. She’s also held dozens of NED positions elsewhere from the UK government to insurance giant Prudential and French bank BNP Paribas. 

It got me thinking about how a company might structure its board for an eventual public listing. 

Ariel White-Tsimikalis, a partner at law firm Goodwin Procter, says that while there is no “one-size fits all” model for a board — the appropriate size and structure can vary depending on the business needs —  board composition is indeed “a key aspect of a company’s IPO readiness preparation”. 

She says that companies should aim for a balanced board of executive and “independent” NEDs, and seek out directors with experience in the transition from the private to public markets. 

She says that directors “well-versed in the public company financial and non-financial reporting regime where a particular company will list” are particularly valuable. 

Another thing that should be taken into account is diversity in both skills and background, says White-Tsimikalis. Both regulators and investors are now advocating for public company experience across a spread of industries and for diversity in both gender and ethnicity. 

Interestingly, six out of ten of its board members are women, per Companies House analysis. Neobank Monzo has a gender pay gap smaller than the national average, according to a Sifted analysis of the UK government's latest gender pay gap filings.

More on that below. Plus, keep reading for details on a16z’s London-based crypto startup accelerator, a secret fundraise from two former Revolut employees and the lowdown on ClearBank’s annual results.

— Tom Matsuda, fintech reporter

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A16z’s European crypto crew

At the tail end of last month, famed American venture capital firm — and active investor in crypto — Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) kicked off the third iteration of its Crypto Startup Accelerator. 

For the first time, it’s being hosted in London (home to a16z’s first international office) and will run for 10 weeks, culminating in a demo day. 

All companies taking part in the accelerator are required to move to London for the duration of the programme. Jason Rosenthal, the partner running the accelerator, believes the UK can become “a centre for web3 innovation” — a feeling shared by fellow partner Sriram Krishnan, who heads up the VC’s UK operations. 

“We have seen a strong showing from UK and European founders in the past, but now bringing the Crypto Startup Accelerator cohort to London most likely helps in attracting the best within the UK and across Europe,” says Rosenthal.

A16z isn’t the only American crypto fund that takes the same view. A couple of weeks ago, I spoke to David Pakman, managing director of blockchain investment firm CoinFund, who described the UK as “very open minded” towards crypto. 

“Compared to meeting with US regulators, it’s night and day,” he says, citing how the US Securities and Exchange Commission regulated the industry through legal action. “We’re welcomed here, our capital is welcomed here.” 

Europe and UK-based founders are building 12 out of the 25 companies taking part in the latest crypto accelerator cohort, working on web3 gaming, infrastructure, consumer-focused crypto projects and decentralised finance (DeFi), a blockchain-powered financial system that aims to do away with intermediaries. 

Find all 12 listed here.

🏦 ​​N26 users in Germany are finally able to trade stocks and ETFs within the app. The neobank began to roll out the feature — which allows customers to buy and sell shares in European and US assets —  at the beginning of the year to customers in Austria too. 

💸 Two former Revolut staffers have raised £2.5m in funding from VCs Lightspeed and Cocoa for their stealth startup, Condukt. Other investors in the round include Tiny VC and Atomico partner and former Revolut exec Don Hoang, according to UK Companies House filings. 

• Its website suggests they’re working on KYB — or know your business: the process of verifying the identity, ownership and activities of a company to ensure compliance before onboarding it as a customer. 

📈 UK-based fintech ClearBank hit profitability for the first time in its latest annual results covering the end of the financial year of 2023. The company posted pre-tax profits of £18.4m compared to a loss of £7.1m in its previous 2022 report. 

• ClearBank, which operates as a clearing bank for fintechs along with offering embedded banking services, appears to be one of the benefactors from the current high interest rate environment. Customer deposits more than doubled from just under £3bn in 2022 to £6.1bn in the last financial year as its clients sought to cash in on their capital in high interest-earning accounts. 
• The company says that its model, where client funds are held at the Bank of England, has allowed its customers to draw higher returns. 

🛍️ After introducing late fees last year, BNPL lender Klarna is turning over fewer UK customers to debt collectors. The share of UK orders using its pay-in-three service that were handed over was 0.84% in the second quarter of last year, down from 1.95% two years earlier, according to Bloomberg. 

• The practice has previously landed the Swedish company in hot water; the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority’s managing director last year told the British parliament that vulnerable consumers may have limited understanding of the consequences of taking on this kind of debt.
• In October, the financial watchdog also found that frequent BNPL users are more likely to be in financial difficulties.

Some of the UK’s most prominent fintechs have gender pay gaps higher than the national average, my colleague Kai Nicol-Schwarz reports.

While payments startup Teya scored close to gender pay parity with women earning 97p for every £1 earned by male colleagues, other fintechs failed to score above the national median amount of 92.3p, according to the government’s latest pay gap data.

• Starling was close to the national average with a gender pay gap of 90.8p.
• Ten fintechs including financial super-app Revolut, cloud banking platform Thought Machine and payments processor Checkout.com all have workplaces where for every pound earned by men female colleagues earn less than 90p. 
• Allica Bank, which topped a recent Sifted list of the 100 fastest-growing startups in the UK and Ireland by revenue, was the worst-performing of the best-funded fintechs. 

The EU wasted €60m on a pointless fintech fad — but the Belgians won’t let it die. (Politico)

London-based Bumper, a buy now, pay later fintech for car repairs and services, raised £2m in Series B extension funding from investors including Suzuki Global Ventures and Marubeni Ventures.

London-based Coadjute, a blockchain-based platform used by estate agents, conveyancers, mortgage lenders, buyers and sellers to track transactions, raised £10m in funding from investors including Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide, NatWest and Rightmove.

Paris-based Iceberg Data Lab, which provides financial institutions with environmental data and analytics tools to assess the biodiversity impact of their investments, raised $10m in Series A funding. Beringea led the round and was joined by investors including MAIF Avenir and AXA Investment Managers.

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A review of European tech in Q1

On April 23, Sifted’s head of research Jonathan Sinclair will present the key takeaways and data points from Q1, followed by a pitch from the highest scoring early-stage startups we scouted over the past three months.