BlackFin Tech Weekly — January 26th, 2026
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. And what a week it was: it’s when the EU fintech scene decided to come out of the winter slumber with a big roar!
Over the last week, there were sixteen fintech deals in Europe, raising a total of €601.2 million, including four transactions in the UK, three in Germany, three in France, two in Italy, two in the Netherlands, and one each in Denmark and the Czech Republic.
Congratulations to the three largest rounds announced last week:
Mews, a Czech-founded, Amsterdam-headquartered hospitality fintech providing a cloud-based operating system for hotel operations, bookings, and payments, has raised €256m in a Series D round led by EQT Growth.
Pennylane, a France-based digital accounting and financial operating system serving SMEs and accounting firms across Europe, has raised €175m in a Series E round led by TCV and Blackstone Growth.
Stream, a UK-based earned wage access fintech providing salary advances and financial wellbeing solutions for employees, has raised €77m in a Series D round led by Sofina.
This week is also special for BlackFin as we announced two new deals. Allow us to give them a bit of a spotlight since we’re quite proud to be partnering with both teams that have proven quite efficient at executing and scaling in the recent past:
BlackFin Capital Partners co-led the €15m Series A round of Embankment, a Copenhagen-based fintech providing software and services to alternative investment funds across Europe. Alongside Smedvig Ventures, the funding will support platform development and geographic expansion, starting with Luxembourg, as Embankment continues to scale its solution used by more than 250 funds representing over €30bn in AUM.
BlackFin Capital Partners led the €10m Series A round of Sinpex, a Munich-based regtech providing an AI-powered KYB automation platform for regulated financial institutions across Europe. Alongside ACE Ventures and TX Ventures, the funding will support product development and pan-European expansion, as Sinpex continues to scale its compliance solution trusted by clients including IKB Deutsche Industriebank, KfW, Bybit, or OTTO Payments.
And now let’s dive into the three biggest fintech deals of the week!
Mews, headquartered in Amsterdam and originally founded in the Czech Republic, provides a cloud-based hospitality operating system that helps hotels manage core workflows such as operations, reservations, check-in/out, and embedded payments. The company has raised €256m in a Series D round led by EQT Growth, with participation from Atomico and HarbourVest Partners, alongside existing investors Kinnevik, Battery Ventures, and Tiger Global. The proceeds will be used to deepen investments in AI- and agent-driven automation, accelerate Mews Payments and its broader fintech infrastructure, and support continued expansion across North America, Europe, and new markets
Pennylane, headquartered in Paris, is a digital accounting and financial operating system designed for SMEs and accounting firms, combining real-time accounting, financial management, and embedded fintech services. The company has raised €175m in a Series E round led by TCV and Blackstone Growth, with participation from Sequoia Capital, DST Global, CapitalG, and Meritech Capital. The funding will be used to accelerate AI investments, strengthen its electronic invoicing infrastructure ahead of the 2026 regulatory rollout, and support pan-European expansion, with the ambition to become the leading financial OS in Europe.
Stream, headquartered in London, provides an earned wage access platform allowing employees to access part of their salary before payday, with a strong focus on financial wellbeing for frontline and essential workers. The company has raised €77m in a Series D round led by Sofina, with participation from Better Society Capital, British Business Bank, Northzone, Balderton Capital, QED Investors, Smash Capital, and Latitude. The funding will be used to scale salary advance solutions across large employers (including the NHS) expand responsible credit and savings features, and strengthen its position as a mission-driven fintech focused on fair financial services.
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In addition to this week’s fundraising activity, here is the European M&A activity for the week:
JPMorgan Chase, a US-based global banking group, has acquired WealthOS, a UK-based pensions and wealth-management technology platform, for an undisclosed sum. The deal is intended to strengthen JPMorgan’s retirement and pensions proposition for its UK personal investing clients by leveraging WealthOS’ software capabilities to enhance product functionality and delivery. WealthOS, founded in 2019, operates teams in the UK and Sri Lanka, with staff expected to join JPMorgan as part of the transaction.
ClearScore Group, a UK-based digital financial marketplace serving over 25 million users globally, has announced the acquisition of Acre Platforms, a London-based mortgage and protection technology provider for brokers. The deal strengthens ClearScore’s expansion into mortgages, building on its unsecured credit franchise and its 2025 acquisition of Aro Finance. Acre’s CRM and workflow platform will power ClearScore’s home-lending proposition, enabling the routing of mortgage demand from ClearScore’s user base into Acre’s broker ecosystem, while enriching the platform with property, mortgage and affordability data. The transaction supports ClearScore’s ambition to scale its mortgage offering across its international markets.
AdvanThink, a France-based fintech providing AI-powered fraud detection and financial crime prevention solutions, has announced the acquisition of Heptalytics, a Paris-based regtech company specializing in AML and CFT detection. Founded in 2023, Heptalytics has developed an AI-driven analytics engine leveraging deep learning models to identify suspicious activity across transactions, accounts, and customer behaviour. The acquisition strengthens AdvanThink’s compliance and investigative capabilities by complementing its real-time fraud monitoring platform with advanced AML/CFT intelligence, supporting the group’s strategy to bridge fraud and compliance operations. The deal is also expected to accelerate AdvanThink’s expansion in France and internationally, as financial institutions face increasing regulatory scrutiny and demand for integrated financial crime solutions.
Payoneer, the US financial technology company, has acquired Boundless, a Dublin-based Employer of Record (EOR) platform that helps companies employ and pay workers globally while maintaining compliance with local regulations. Boundless was founded in 2019 by Dee Coakley and Emily Castles and enables businesses to handle cross-border payroll, taxes, benefits, and compliance. The company employs 23 people and works with organisations in 35 countries. The acquisition expands Payoneer’s European footprint and builds on its 2024 acquisition of Skuad, now rebranded as Payoneer Workforce Management. Financial terms were not disclosed.
And finally, we bring you one story that caught our eye last week:
Revolut has abandoned plans to acquire a US lender and will instead apply for an American banking licence through the OCC, betting on the Trump administration’s deregulatory approach for faster approval. The UK fintech concluded a takeover could be tricky, including potential requirements to maintain bricks-and-mortar branches if acquiring a community bank. In 2025, there were 14 de novo charter applications to the OCC, many from fintechs, with the regulator approving five licences in December including for Circle and Ripple.
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.
Regarding the topic of the article, thanks for this clear summary of European fintechs strong start to the year; it really highlights the regions increasing innovation. What does this mean for the future of digital finance accessibility across Europe?