This is a strategic bet on European payments sovereignty because CDP Venture Capital is backing TrueLayer to scale account-to-account payment rails across the continent.
Italy’s CDP Venture Capital has invested $27 million (about ~EUR 25m) in UK open-banking and payments company TrueLayer, in a funding round the company is positioning as support for its European expansion. The investment was described as backing the group’s build-out of European payment rails.
Why CDP is leaning in
The angle is not just fintech growth capital. TrueLayer has been explicit about the policy and infrastructure framing: it argues that roughly two-thirds of European card payments are processed by non-European networks, rising above 90% in some member states. In that context, Pay by Bank is pitched as a way to reduce reliance on a small number of global card schemes and to strengthen Europe’s control over core payment infrastructure.
TrueLayer’s product story is straightforward. It positions Pay by Bank as an instant, non-card account-to-account payment method built on open-banking APIs enabled under PSD2. It also argues that greater payment-method diversity improves resilience when one system experiences disruption.
Italy link is more than symbolism
TrueLayer was founded by two Italians, and it is expanding its Milan engineering hub, tying the round directly to Italy’s strategic interest in payments infrastructure. For CDP Venture Capital, backing a company with an existing Italian footprint reduces the “foreign champion” optics and turns the investment into a practical capability build.
Growth is there, but so is the reset
Operationally, TrueLayer can point to meaningful momentum. 2024 revenue rose to £20.3 million from £12.4 million, and the company processed 188 million transactions during 2024, an 84% increase year-on-year. That usage growth supports the case that account-to-account payments are moving from concept to habit.
The financing backdrop is less forgiving. TrueLayer raised this round after its valuation reportedly fell by about 30% to roughly $700 million, underscoring a broader re-pricing in fintech where investors have shifted emphasis toward profitability and capital efficiency. UK fintech funding has only partially recovered from the post-rate-rise downturn, with a sharper focus on sustainable unit economics.
TrueLayer is also still loss-making. It reported a 2024 pre-tax loss of £38.6 million, improved from £55.6 million in 2023, and cut headcount from 346 to 259 as it moved toward profitability.
What to watch next
The strategic logic works if TrueLayer can convert transaction growth into defensible economics. Pay by Bank can lower acceptance costs versus cards in some use cases, but scaling a pan-European payment method means winning merchants, navigating fragmented bank integrations, and meeting reliability expectations that are closer to utilities than to typical SaaS.
Execution risk is therefore twofold: (1) proving that Pay by Bank can become a repeatable checkout choice across markets, and (2) doing so while keeping burn under control after a valuation reset.
For CDP Venture Capital, the attraction is clear: if Europe wants more autonomy in payments infrastructure, it needs credible rails builders. This funding is a signal that public-backed capital is prepared to underwrite that build-out, provided companies like TrueLayer can show a credible path to profitability alongside growth.