BlackFin Tech Weekly — November 4th, 2025
Every week, we publish a short digest summarizing 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 seven fintech deals in Europe, raising a total of €72 million, including two transactions in the UK, one in France, one in Sweden, one in Italy, one in Switzerland, and one in Denmark.
Congratulations to the three largest rounds announced last week:
Formalize, a Denmark-based Regtech platform centralizing and automating regulatory compliance, has raised €30 million in a Series B round led by BlackFin Tech.
Bron, a UK-based SaaS crypto wallet provider, has raised €13 million in a Venture Round led by LocalGlobe.
Faktus, a France-based Neobank for the construction sector, has raised €9 million in a Venture round backed by Lakestar.
Let’s dive in!
Formalize (a BlackFin Tech portfolio company!), based in Denmark, provides a platform that centralizes and automates regulatory compliance for financial institutions. The company has raised €30 million in a Series B round led by BlackFin Tech, with participation from Acton Capital, West Hill Capital, and CIBC Innovation Banking. The new funds will be used to expand the platform’s product suite and accelerate growth in Europe.
Bron, based in the United Kingdom, develops a non-custodial multi-chain crypto wallet offering seedless recovery, swaps, staking, and secure professional tools. The startup has secured €13 million in a venture round backed by LocalGlobe, Fasanara Digital, and GSR. The capital will support product development and international expansion.
Faktus, a France-based neobank for the construction sector, has raised €9 million in a venture round led by Lakestar and Foundamental. The company plans to use the proceeds to enhance its digital banking offering and grow its presence within the French construction ecosystem.
In addition to this week’s fundraising activity, here is the European M&A activity for the week:
Mastercard, a U.S.-based global payments network, is reportedly in late-stage talks to acquire Zero Hash, a U.K.-linked provider of API-based infrastructure for crypto and stablecoin payments (custody/settlement, tokenization), for roughly €1.7 billion. The deal would bolster Mastercard’s stablecoin rails by combining its network scale with Zero Hash’s regulated B2B stack. The transaction remains pending.
Cerberus Capital Management, a U.S.-based global alternative investment firm specializing in private equity, credit, and distressed assets, has acquired BROCC Finance, a Sweden-based peer-to-peer lending and consumer finance platform. The deal supports BROCC’s growth and Cerberus’s strategic expansion into European NPL asset management; the transaction closed following Swedish FSA approval.
And finally, we bring you four news stories that caught our eye last week:
Sam Altman and a small inner team at OpenAI structured up to $1.5 trillion worth of chip and infrastructure deals with Nvidia, Oracle, AMD, and Broadcom largely without external bankers or lawyers. Instead, Altman relied on Greg Brockman, CFO Sarah Friar, and Peter Hoeschele to design unconventional multiyear agreements that prioritised technical execution over financial precision. These deals often tied suppliers, investors, and customers through circular arrangements and milestone linked payments. While Wall Street rewarded partners with rising valuations, analysts questioned the opacity of terms. Altman’s direct approach aimed to accelerate chip supply and reduce adversarial negotiations. The partnerships with minimal advisory input underline OpenAI’s push to rapidly scale AI infrastructure, culminating in major projects such as Oracle’s $300 billion Texas data centre collaboration.
Barclays’ US Consumer Bank will acquire Delaware based fintech Best Egg for $800 million, marking a major step to diversify and expand its US consumer operations. The purchase, expected to close in Q2 2026 pending regulatory approval, complements Barclays’ co-branded credit card lending model by adding a strong personal loan franchise. Founded in 2013, Best Egg has issued more than $40 billion in loans and is forecast to originate $7 billion in 2025. The acquisition provides Barclays greater flexibility in deploying lending capacity and capital following its planned sale of American Airlines credit card receivables. Best Egg recently secured $500 million and $1 billion facilities for personal and vehicle loans respectively and partnered with Column Bank to boost lending. CEO Denny Nealon said the deal marks a “significant step forward” in Barclays’ long-term US growth strategy, enhancing its reach in unsecured consumer credit and digital lending innovation
Morgan Stanley has agreed to buy EquityZen, a trading platform for private company stakes, in a move to deepen its exposure to unlisted firms amid surging valuations for groups like OpenAI and SpaceX. The deal reflects Wall Street’s appetite for access to fast-growing private companies staying off market longer. Morgan Stanley, which manages around $6 trillion in assets, said the acquisition will offer clients expanded private investment opportunities and liquidity options for employees and early investors. It is the first purchase under CEO Ted Pick, who succeeded James Gorman in 2024 and continues the strategy of expanding money management pioneered through E*Trade and Eaton Vance. Founded in 2013, EquityZen has over 800,000 users and has facilitated trades in more than 450 private companies. The transaction follows rival Forge Global’s exploration of a sale after a sharp valuation decline
KR1, a crypto staking and digital asset investment firm based in the Isle of Man, plans to move its listing from the Aquis Exchange to the London Stock Exchange’s main market, the first such move in years as UK regulators soften their stance on crypto. Co-founder Keld van Schreven called the shift a “starter gun” for digital assets on the LSE and said it would widen institutional access. Valued at £56 million, KR1 has invested in over 100 crypto projects and earns income from staking assets on blockchains such as Ethereum and Polkadot. The company has added auditors and expanded its board to meet LSE requirements. The FCA has recently become more open to digital assets, allowing crypto ETPs and planning a dedicated regulatory framework for 2026. KR1 expects its uplisting to finalize next month, signalling London’s growing willingness to host crypto native companies as the industry gains legitimacy and mainstream visibility
Have a great start to the week!
Sources of the fundraising reports
Disclaimer: 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.
The Oracle Texas data center deal being structured without traditional investment bankers or lawyers highlights how desperate the AI infrastructure race has become. While Altman's direct approach may have accelerated negotiations, the circular financing and milestone linked payments create significant execution risk for Oracle if OpenAI's revenue projections dont materialize. The fact that analysts are already questioning the opacity of these $300 billion commitments suggests the market understands this is more about securing strategic positioning than traditional ROI analysis. Oracle's willingness to bypass conventional due diligence processs for the sake of speed shows how much they need to compete with AWS and Azure, but it also means shareholders are essentially betting on OpenAI's ability to monetize at unprecedented scale.