Payment Expert’s Fintech Unwrapped delivers the latest and developing news that has shaped the sector over the course of the week.
This week, the UK fintech sector continued to see investment fail to hit the heights of the 2021 boom as funding dropped by 43% y-o-y.
Also this week, Revolut is looking to expand its investment services, Paymentology raised new capital to modernise issuer processing, bunq files for banking licence in its latest Americas country, and Adyen lent its services for a new unified embedded finance solution.
Early-stage UK fintech’s take investment priority
UK fintech funding continued to suffer in the first quarter of 2026 after raising just $741m, a 43% year-on-year decrease from $895m in 2025.
The number of funding rounds dipped from 61 in the same period last year to 41 in the last quarter, as well as the total number of acquisitions falling 27% to 22, compared to 30 last year, with the most prominent UK company acquisition being BVNK, bought for $1.8bn by Mastercard in March.
Allica Bank’s $334m funding round was a major contributor to UK fintech funding in Q1 as it announced intentions for a regulatory roadmap, becoming the only company to achieve unicorn status in the quarter.
Within Tracxn’s report, it highlighted that investors are focusing on early-stage funding. With the UK’s fintech sector becoming increasingly bloated, investors are backing infant startups.
London was once again the primary UK hub for investment, accounting for 97% of all funding. Belfast was second with $12m invested and Cambridge third with $8m invested.
Revolut to expand investment options for wealthy clients
Revolut received regulatory clearance from the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to expand its investment products and services.
Bloomberg reported on 14 May the UK digital bank is seeking to capture the wealthy customer segment by offering competitive prices on stock options, as well as offering private wealth services.
Revolut currently offers over 4,000 stocks and ETFs, as well as stocks and shares ISAs for UK customers. The company also enables crypto custody along with commodities, such as gold.
The digital bank already has authorisation from the FCA to hold and control client funds, with more than 1.2 million trading clients by the end of 2025.
Revolut is reportedly seeking to adopt AI within its expanded investment offerings, but is not clarified to what extent.
Paymentology raises $175m to accelerate issuer processing
Global issuer-processor Paymentology raised $175m in its latest funding round on 12 May to deliver on the demand for modern processing on a global scale.
The funding round was co-led by Apis Partners and Aspirity Partners. Paymentology will use the additional capital to continue on building out its team and product development by expanding into stablecoins, tokenisation and AI-driven services.
One of the primary areas Paymentology is seeking to address with the investment is to accelerate the quality of the end-user payment experience. The company stated it will use cloud-native platforms for issuer processing for clients in 68 countries.
Jeff Parker, CEO at Paymentology, said: “The future of finance is already here, but legacy infrastructure continues to hold back innovation. At Paymentology, we see a significant opportunity to remove that friction and enable our clients to move at the pace the market demands.
“We’ve built an issuing platform designed for growth, helping digital banks, fintechs and financial institutions launch, scale and expand their card programmes with confidence. By combining global capability with the flexibility to adapt locally, we enable our clients to compete more effectively with speed, control and efficiency, in an increasingly dynamic landscape.”
Mexico added to bunq’s global expansion
European neobank bunq filed for a Mexico banking license on 13 May, becoming the latest market the company is seeking to expand into.
Filing its application to the Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores (CNBV), bunq is aiming to address friction for Mexicans who have limited access to local banking options.
A full banking license would enable bunq to offer multi-currency accounts and deposits under the guidance of the country’s Protection of Bank Savings.
Ali Niknam, Founder and CEO of bunq, said: “Our users are global citizens, so they need a bank that is safe, secure and easy to use, wherever they are. It’s been great working with CNBV and Banxico on how we can make life easy for those who call Mexico home.”
The Mexico license application follows the recent application for a US de novo license, and the approval of its US broker-dealer license.
Adyen and SAP aim to remove payment integration friction
Adyen struck a partnership with SAP on 13 May to support the launch of SAP Unified Payments, an embedded finance solution to remove structural frictions.
Adyen integrated its financial technology platform to the Unified Payment service with a single global payment stack. Connected to SAP Commerce Cloud, the solution is designed to remove friction for local banks and e-commerce companies seeking a more streamlined integration process for payment methods.
The embedded finance solution also leverages AI to trace transactions for potential fraud. The solution is also scalable for multiple companies and financial institutions across the globe.
Roelant Prins, Chief Commercial Officer at Adyen, said: “By moving away from fragmented vendor management and adopting a single platform, businesses finally gain a clear view of their data. This isn’t just about processing a transaction, it’s about eliminating operational complexity, reducing fraud, and ensuring that reconciling a cross-border payment is as automated as a local transaction.”
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