BlackFin Tech Weekly — February 17th, 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 8 fintech deals in Europe, raising a total of €95 million in equity, 4 deals in the UK, as well as 1 deal in Switzerland, Germany, Sweden and Spain each.
Congratulations to ETFbook, a BlackFin portfolio company, and the top 2 fund raising companies:
ETFbook, an ETF data and analytics platform, has raised €4m in Series A from BlackFin Capital Partners.
Libeen, a rent-to-buy startup, has raised €25m from Andbank, with participation from existing investor Cusp Capital and several angels.
Proximity, a digital investor communications platform, has received €24m in financing from existing investors, including BNP Paribas, BNY, Citi, Clearstream, Computershare, JPMorgan and State Street.
Let’s dive in
ETFbook, an ETF data and analytics platform, has raised €4m in Series A from BlackFin Capital Partners. ETFbook provides a comprehensive data and analytics platform accessible through a user-friendly web application and robust APIs. Headquartered in Zurich with a presence in key European financial hubs including London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and Dublin, ETFbook has demonstrated strong growth since its launch in mid-2020, now engaging with a diverse client base of 35+ leading institutional clients. The recent funding round will fuel ETFbook’s further expansion as the company will seek to attract top talents across the organization from product development, through data science, all the way to sales and marketing. This will serve to enhance platform capabilities, notably drawing on the latest AI advancement, expand data coverage and ignite faster growth, especially as ETFbook prepares for a US market entry already later this year.
Libeen, a rent-to-buy “smarthousing” startup, has raised €25m from Andbank through Andbank Group companies MyInvestor and Actyus, with participation from existing investor Cusp Capital and several angels. Libeen is a real estate startup offering a "smart housing" model—a flexible rent-to-own solution designed to make homeownership more accessible and affordable for millennials. With a small down payment, tenants can apply their monthly rent toward purchasing a home, essentially converting their rent into a mortgage over time. The funding will allow Libeen to scale nationwide, integrate AI-driven technology, and acquire key assets in Spain's major cities.
Proximity, a digital investor communications platform, has received €24m in financing from existing investors, including BNP Paribas, BNY, Citi, Clearstream, Computershare, JPMorgan and State Street. Proximity was initially developed within Citi before being spun off as an independent company in 2020. It offers proxy voting, shareholder disclosure, and investor communication services to a growing network of fund managers and custodians. The funding follows Proximity 's launch of new voting and investor communication products, enabling global real-time vote execution with up-to-market deadline voting and golden source meeting information.
In addition to this week’s fundraising activity, here is the European M&A activity of the week:
Thirdfort, a leader in client due diligence (CDD) solutions, has announced the acquisition of Homeppl's rental check platform, a UK-based company specializing in rental fraud detection technology. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Homeppl has transformed the rental market by empowering letting agents, Build-to-Rent (BTR) developments, and homeowners with industry-leading risk assessment tools. This acquisition aims to enhance Thirdfort's due diligence suite by integrating Homeppl's pioneering technology, providing a unified platform that simplifies and strengthens CDD across legal, property, and accounting sectors. Following the acquisition, the Homeppl brand will transition under Thirdfort's rental check offering, while the remaining Homeppl business will rebrand as Fraud Finder, focusing on scaling its AI-driven document fraud analysis solutions across multiple industries.
Beltone Holding, a financial services firm listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange, has signed a SPA to acquire Baobab, a leading financial services provider in Africa, securing a majority stake in the company. The transaction involved the purchase of shares from Apis Partners, a UK-based asset manager, along with other selling shareholders. Baobab operates across seven African markets, providing financial services to millions of underserved individuals and SMEs. The acquisition aligns with Beltone Holding’s strategy to expand its footprint in high-growth financial services sectors, leveraging Baobab’s established presence and expertise in digital lending and microfinance. Following the acquisition, Beltone Holding plans to accelerate Baobab’s growth by enhancing its product offerings, expanding its market reach, and further investing in technology to drive financial inclusion across Africa.
And finally, we bring you 4 news stories that caught our eye last week:
Deel, a payroll and human resources startup founded by MIT alumni Alex Bouaziz and Shuo Wang, is preparing for a potential IPO as early as next year, according to CNBC. A $300 million secondary share sale last year brought in General Catalyst and a sovereign wealth fund, which is reported to be Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company. The deal nudged Deel’s valuation from $12 billion to $12.6 billion.
Plaid, a company that connects bank accounts to financial applications, is working with Goldman Sachs on a deal to allow early-stage investors and employees to sell existing shares, which will raise between $300m and $400m. The tender offer will likely value the company lower than its previous financing round. Plaid raised a $425 million series D at a post money valuation of $13.4 billion in April 2021 in a deal led by Altimeter Capital. But since then, higher interest rates have led to lower valuations for many fintechs.
Tabby, the Middle East’s most valuable fintech company, raised $160m in what it says could be its final funding round before a potential IPO within 18 months. As a result of the raise, the company is now valued at $3.3 billion. The Riyadh-headquartered fintech, which now supports 40,000+ brands and merchants—including Amazon, Adidas, IKEA, Samsung, and Noon—says expanding its product line has helped grow its user base to 15 million customers across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait, a 50% increase since October 2023.
The UK fintech sector is experiencing rapid growth, with several companies nearing 'unicorn' status—privately held startups valued at over $1 billion (£780 million). The list of companies include Tandem, Atom, ClearBank, Curve and Tide. While the US leads in unicorn and emerging unicorn tallies across all sectors, the UK holds a respectable fourth place after the US, China, and India.
Have a great start into the week!
Sources of the fundraising reports