This is a strategic infrastructure bet because Italy’s state-backed investor is explicitly backing European-controlled payment rails, not just another fintech growth round.
TrueLayer has announced a $27 million investment led by CDP Venture Capital, the venture arm of Italy’s state-backed Cassa Depositi e Prestiti group. The round equates to ~EUR 25m. The company said the financing will support expansion of its Pay by Bank network, an account-to-account payments model built on open banking.
Why CDP is leaning in
CDP Venture Capital’s involvement matters beyond the cheque size. The announcement framed Italy’s backing as support for payment rails built in Europe, pointing to rising sensitivity around who controls core payments infrastructure. For investors and operators, that reads as a deliberate push to reduce reliance on incumbent card networks and non-European platforms by accelerating viable alternatives.
TrueLayer already operates an open-banking Pay by Bank network used across 22 countries, placing it in the middle of the European payments stack. That footprint helps explain why a public-backed EU investor would sponsor a UK-headquartered platform: the asset is pan-European by design.
A UK fintech with an Italian operating centre
TrueLayer was founded in London in 2016 by Italian founders Francesco Simoneschi and Luca Martinetti. Operationally, Italy is not peripheral. Around 70 employees, roughly one-quarter of the workforce, are based in Italy, with Milan described as a core engineering hub. That localisation helps CDP tell a domestic value-creation story while backing a company with international distribution.
What the funding is meant to do
The company has positioned the investment as fuel for scaling its Pay by Bank network. Account-to-account payments via open banking are increasingly pitched as a route to lower costs and improve payment acceptance economics for merchants, particularly in use cases where cards are expensive or where instant settlement and reduced chargeback exposure are attractive.
TrueLayer’s role is to provide the network layer that makes those payments workable across banks and jurisdictions. Execution will hinge on continuing to build connectivity, reliability, and merchant adoption across markets where user experience can be uneven.
Reading the cross-border signal carefully
The deal also highlights post-Brexit capital moving from an EU public investor into a UK fintech focused on European payment infrastructure. It is a notable data point for cross-border alignment in payments and fintech.
However, the available reporting does not support broader claims that this marks a general “normalisation” of EU-UK fintech investment flows or a blanket regulatory-confidence signal. It is best understood as a specific strategic investment in an infrastructure asset CDP considers important.
Key risks to watch
- Network adoption and retention: Pay by Bank scales with merchant and PSP uptake. If conversion rates or consumer UX lag in key markets, growth can be lumpy.
- Operational complexity: Supporting 22 countries increases regulatory, bank-connectivity, and service-level requirements.
- Competitive pressure: Open-banking payment initiation is a crowded arena, with differentiation often coming down to reliability, coverage, and commercial distribution.
For TrueLayer, the upside is clear: state-backed capital with an explicit mandate to strengthen European payment rails can be a powerful partner when the product is, effectively, infrastructure.