Blackfin Capital, a France-based private equity firm, has held the €180m final close for its debut FinTech fund, surpassing its initial €150m target.
The vehicle, BlackFin Tech I, received contributions from a range of backer types, with institution investors including Bpifrance, Vaudoise Assurances Group, Groupama, Sogecap, Natixis Assurances and Swiss Life.
Banking groups Crédit Agricole, Banque Populaire et Caisse d’Epargne, and BNP Paribas made commitments, as well as the family offices of KfW, insurer Securex and MACIF.
A €100m first close was held for the fund last year, and initially had a final close target of €150m.
The firm pulled in €220m for its debut buyout fund in 2011, and almost doubled that total with a €400m second flagship fund last year.
Founded in 2009, Blackfin focuses on financial services across Europe, with its core focus being on France, Germany, the Benelux region and Switzerland. However, the firm also invests in the UK, Spain, Portugal, Italy and the Nordics.
Its FinTech division is an independent venture capital division, which will back companies across the entire FinTech, InsurTech and RegTech space. Some of the key areas of interest are retail banking, payments, investment banking, insurance, back office optimisation and regulatory compliance.
Investments will be between €1m and €10m across all stages, with Blackfin also supplying ‘significant follow-up capacity’. A ‘major part of the fund’ will be deployed to B2B companies, as this is where Blackfin’s expertise and network can add the most value.
Its current portfolio, which spans the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, and France, includes, wealth management service NewAccess, and regulatory and tax report automation software AMFINE.
The firm has already tapped this new fund for a leading investment into the €15m Series A of European fraud detection software for insurance companies FRISS. The platform uses AI technology and big data to asses the risk level of consumers when underwriting new insurance policies.
BlackFin Capital Partners managing partner Laurent Bouyoux said, “As entrepreneurs and founders of Fortuneo we feel particularly connected to entrepreneurs seizing FinTech opportunities. We are proud to reach €180m for this Fund dedicated to earlier-stage investments with explosive growth.
“The size of the fund allows us to support the most ambitious entrepreneurs, all over Europe, through successive financing rounds.”
Earlier in the year, Blackfin sold its stake in Finanzen to Eli Global for an undisclosed amount. The company offers an online B2B marketplace for retail customer leads in the finance and insurance sector.
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