BlackFin Tech Weekly - April 7th, 202
Every Week, we publish a short digest which sums up last week’s Fintech activity
Hello FinTech Friends,
Welcome to another week of fintech insights. Let’s explore the news and trends shaping the industry!
Over the last week, there were six fintech deals in Europe, totaling €290m in disclosed funding, including two transactions in France, one in the UK, one in Germany, one in Belgium and one in Spain.
Congratulations to the three largest rounds announced last week:
9fin, a UK-based AI-powered debt market intelligence platform, has raised €147.5m in a Series C round led by HarbourVest
Keyrock, a Belgium-based digital assets investment firm, has secured €86.7m a Series C funding round led by SC Ventures
Midas, a Germany-based on-chain investment platform for tokenized assets, has raised €43.4m in a Series A round led by RRE Ventures and Creandum
Let’s dive!
9fin, a UK-based fintech providing AI-powered data and analytics for debt capital markets, raised €147.5m in a Series C round led by HarbourVest, with participation from CPP Investments, Highland Europe, Spark Capital, Redalpine, and Seedcamp. The round values the company at €1.1bn. 9fin offers a platform combining proprietary data, real-time analytics, and AI-driven workflows to help credit professionals analyze complex debt markets, replacing fragmented systems and manual processes. The funding will support further AI integration into core credit workflows, expansion of its proprietary data platform, and international growth, particularly in the US, as 9fin aims to become the central intelligence layer for global debt markets.
Keyrock, a Belgium-based digital assets investment firm providing market making, asset management, and trading services, secured €86.7m in a Series C funding round at a €951m valuation led by SC Ventures, with continued participation from Ripple. The company offers a broad suite of services bridging traditional finance and digital assets, including market making, OTC trading, and asset management for institutional clients. The funding will support balance sheet strengthening, product innovation, and potential acquisitions, as Keyrock aims to expand its global presence and reinforce its position in the evolving tokenized economy.
Midas, a Germany-based on-chain investment platform focused on tokenised real-world assets, raised €43.4m in a Series A round led by RRE Ventures and Creandum, with participation from Framework Ventures, HV Capital, Ledger Cathay Capital, North Island Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Franklin Templeton, GSR, and other investors. The company provides infrastructure for issuing and managing tokenized investment products, enabling instant liquidity for yield and fund-backed assets through its mTokens platform. The funding will support product expansion, liquidity development, and deeper integration across DeFi ecosystems, as Midas aims to address liquidity constraints and accelerate adoption of tokenized assets.
In addition to this week’s fundraising activity, here is the European M&A activity for the week:
AccessPay, a UK-based provider of bank integration and payment automation solutions, has secured a majority investment from Accel-KKR, a US-based private equity firm focused on enterprise software. The transaction will support AccessPay’s next phase of growth, enabling the company to scale its platform for enterprise clients, expand product capabilities, and pursue strategic acquisitions. By combining AccessPay’s cloud-based bank connectivity and finance automation solutions with Accel-KKR’s software investment expertise, the deal aims to strengthen its position in the office of the CFO, addressing increasing demand for automation, cash visibility, and fraud reduction in finance operations.
And finally, we bring you four news stories that caught our eye last week:
Monzo is shutting down its US operations to focus on the UK and Europe, ceasing new customer onboarding and making approximately 50 employees redundant. Current US customers will be able to use their accounts until June. The move marks the first major pivot under newly appointed CEO Diana Layfield, following Monzo‘s acquisition of a full European banking licence from the European Central Bank in December 2025. Monzo first soft-launched in the US in 2019 and withdrew its initial US banking licence application in 2021 after regulators signalled it was unlikely to be approved. The neobank now plans to focus on European expansion and building its 15 million-strong UK customer base.
UK-based fintechs VibePay and SmartLayer have both shut down. VibePay, an account-to-account payments specialist founded in 2019, entered liquidation after investors pulled funding, making around 10 employees redundant. The closure follows a failed acquisition by Banked and the departure of CEO Luke Massie in December. Separately, SmartLayer, which developed HomeScore in partnership with Lloyds Banking Group to aggregate smart meter data and property information for mortgage processes, has also ceased operations after three years. Founder Tahir Farooqui cited the intensity of the effort, including 15 months of co-design with Lloyds‘ Data and AI team.
PayPal is losing market share as consumers increasingly choose payment options from Apple, Google and others over clicking the PayPal button at checkout. The San José-based fintech’s branded checkout growth slowed to just 1% in Q4, while the company reported adjusted profit of $1.23 per share on revenue of $8.68bn, missing Wall Street expectations. In February, PayPal let go of its CEO, citing a “pace of change and execution” that didn’t meet board expectations after two years. The company attributed the slowdown partly to the “K-shaped economy,” where middle- and lower-income customers, a significant portion of PayPal‘s user base, are pulling back on spending. Since January, PayPal‘s stock has fallen by more than 20%.
Credibur, a Berlin-based fintech providing automated infrastructure for monitoring and managing structured credit portfolios, reports that its platform now supports clients with a total of €2 billion in debt facility volume, six months after emerging from stealth with a $2.2m pre-seed round led by Redstone. The company’s API- and AI-driven platform connects to originators, servicers, and payment systems to reconcile portfolio data with cash flows on an ongoing basis, replacing manual workflows with automated data processes. Credibur works with lenders, originators, and fund managers across Europe, the UK, and the US, supporting a range of non-bank lending and structured credit strategies.
Have a great start into the week!
*The information presented in this publication comes from publicly available sources. While the management company uses strict data selection criteria and focuses on the reliability of its sources, it cannot be held responsible for any inaccuracies, omissions, or errors in the data provided. This publication is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an investment recommendation