BlackFin Tech Weekly — February 03rd, 2025
Every Monday, 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 13 fintech deals in Europe, raising a total of €311 million, with 5 deals in the UK, 3 deals in France, 2 deals in Italy and 1 deal each in Ireland, Germany and Spain.
Congratulations to the top 3 fund raising companies:
TravelPerk, a business travel and expense management platform, has just raised €185m in a Series E round, led by Atomico alongside EQT Growth, and with participation from Noteus Partners and existing investors, including Kinnevik and General Catalyst.
Swan, a banking-as-a-service-platform that just raised a Series B €42m, led by Eight Roads and with participation from existing investors Lakestar, Accel, Creandum, Hexa, and BPI France.
Formance, the open source financial infrastructure provider, has raised a €19m Series A round; PayPal Ventures and Portage Ventures co-led the round, with additional backing from Axeleo Capital, Y Combinator and Hoxton Ventures.
Let’s dive in
TravelPerk, a business travel and expense management platform, has just raised €185m in a Series E round, led by Atomico alongside EQT Growth, and with participation from Noteus Partners and existing investors, including Kinnevik and General Catalyst. TravelPerk, founded in 2015, is a Barcelona-based travel management company providing an all-in-one platform for business travel booking, management, and expense reporting. The company has recently partnered with Lufthansa Group and, next to their funding round, acquired AI-driven expense, invoice and card payment processing company Yokoy last week to integrate travel and expense management into a single platform. The funding will go towards TravelPerk’s US expansion and investments into product and AI.
Swan, a banking-as-a-service-platform, just raised a Series B €42m, led by Eight Roads with participation from existing investors Lakestar, Accel, Creandum, Hexa, and BPI France. Founded in 2019, the fintech provides a Banking-as-a-Service platform, allowing businesses to embed banking features like accounts, cards, and payments into their products. Swan processes around €7 billion euros across Europe, and has 100+ partners. The company plans to leverage its recent investment to drive product innovation, expand its European footprint, and accelerate customer growth.
Formance, the open source financial infrastructure provider, has raised a €19m Series A round; PayPal Ventures and Portage Ventures co-led the round, with additional backing from Axeleo Capital, Y Combinator and Hoxton Ventures. Founded in 2021, the startup offers a suite of APIs designed to help developers create financial flows and money movement products. Its services include a programmable ledger, connectivity, financial flow management, and reconciliation tools. Notable clients include the digital banking platform Getmomo, as well as embedded finance provider Liberis, and the Shariah-compliant digital investment platform Wahed. With the funding, Formance plans to further expand across Europe and the US, and to develop into “a full-scale platform for building and managing sophisticated financial features”.
In addition to this week’s fundraising activity, here is the European M&A activity of the week:
TravelPerk, a Barcelona-based business travel platform, has acquired Yokoy, a Swiss company specializing in AI-powered expense, invoice, and card payment processing. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. This acquisition aims to create a leading integrated travel and expense management platform, enhancing TravelPerk's offerings by incorporating Yokoy's advanced spend management capabilities. The acquisition of Yokoy and the Series E funding come on the back of another year of strong growth for TravelPerk. The company has achieved a unique combination of growth and profitability at scale, with annualized booking volumes exceeding $2.5 billion, annualized revenue surpassing $200 million, and a growth rate of over 50% per year for the past two years.
Namirial, an Italian fintech company specializing in digital transaction management, has acquired Digital Technologies, an Italy-based software firm known for its expertise in document workflow automation and electronic invoicing. The details of the transaction have not been disclosed. This marks Namirial’s sixth acquisition in the European digital transaction management sector. By integrating Digital Technologies’ specialized software, Namirial aims to enhance its automation capabilities and expand its e-invoicing services across international markets. Digital Technologies, headquartered in Trezzano sul Naviglio, Italy, serves large multinational clients with its highly automated and regulation-compliant electronic invoicing platforms. This acquisition further strengthens Namirial’s position as a leader in the digital transaction management industry.
And finally, we bring you 4 news stories that caught our eye last week:
Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) announced the launch of its financial services brand, Truth.Fi, causing its stock to rise over 11%, alongside a $250 million investment through Charles Schwab into ETFs, SMAs, Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies. This move follows Donald Trump's election and growing political support for crypto, aligning with his vision to make the U.S. a global crypto leader. Truth.Fi services will launch in 2025 pending regulatory approvals, while TMTG continues expanding into streaming.
Visa will be the first partner for Elon Musk’s X Money, a payments service scheduled to launch later this year, offering features like Visa debit card connections and instant bank transfers. The service aims to compete with Venmo, Cash App, and Zelle while allowing creators to store and manage earnings directly on X. CEO Linda Yaccarino called the Visa partnership a step toward making X an "everything app" under Elon Musk's vision.
Wise has officially launched its money transfer services in Mexico as its second location in Latin America, enabling Mexican nationals to send money abroad transparently, quickly, and affordably through its app and website. Mexico, Latin America's second-largest economy, is set to send over USD 27.9 billion in global remittances this year, highlighting its key role in regional trade and finance and strategic appeal to Wise. This expansion follows the company’s strong growth in Brazil and reinforces its commitment to scaling across the Americas with innovative, low-cost financial services.
Kraken has launched Kraken Pay, a crypto payments service allowing users to send over 300 fiat and digital currencies globally for free and in seconds. The service also enables asset conversion, such as exchanging Bitcoin for Swiss francs. Users receive a unique @Kraktag for easy transfers without needing bank details, and funds are sent via a paylink that can be shared through messaging apps.
Have a great start into the week!
Sources of the fundraising reports