BlackFin Tech Weekly - October 27th, 2025
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 five fintech deals in Europe, raising a total of €2.6b, including three transactions in the UK, one in Spain, and one in Germany.
Congratulations to the three largest rounds announced last week:
REVOLUT, a UK-based neobank offering mobile banking, card payments, remittances, and FX, has raised €2.6 billion in a venture round (investors undisclosed).
FINSTER AI, a UK-based platform automating investment-research workflows for asset managers and banks, has raised €13 million in a round from Fintech Collective, Peak XV, and Hoxton Ventures.
SATURN, a UK-based regtech platform automating operations, compliance, and insights by unifying back-office and offline data, has raised €13 million in a round led by Singular, with participation from Shapers, Y Combinator, and Zeno Ventures.
Let’s dive in!
REVOLUT, headquartered in the UK, is a neobank offering mobile banking, card payments, remittances, and FX. The company is finalizing a €2.6 billion venture round at a ~€64 billion valuation (mix of primary and secondary; investors undisclosed). The funds will support expansion into ~30 new markets, pursuit of banking licenses or acquisitions, and scaling toward 100M users.
FINSTER AI, headquartered in the UK, offers an enterprise-grade AI platform that automates investment research workflows for asset managers and banks. The company has raised €13 million with investors including Fintech Collective, Peak XV, and Hoxton Ventures. The funds will support product development and commercial expansion.
SATURN, headquartered in the UK, offers a regtech platform that automates operations, compliance, and insights by unifying data from back-office tools and offline files into a single source of truth. The company has raised €13 million led by Singular, with participation from Shapers, Y Combinator, and Zeno Ventures. The funds will be used to accelerate product development and commercial expansion.
In addition to this week’s fundraising activity, here is the European M&A activity for the week:
TrueLayer, a UK-based open banking platform enabling instant payments and financial data connectivity across Europe, has announced the acquisition of Zimpler, a Sweden-based provider of account-to-account payment and payout solutions for merchants. The transaction expands TrueLayer’s European footprint and strengthens its capabilities in direct bank payments, supporting merchants with faster, lower-cost payout infrastructure. The combined entity aims to accelerate adoption of open banking payments across regulated markets.
Allica Bank, a UK-based business bank offering deposits, lending, and current accounts tailored for SMEs, has announced the acquisition of Kriya, a UK-based fintech platform providing payments, credit, and working-capital solutions for businesses. The deal enhances Allica’s SME offering by integrating Kriya’s embedded finance technology, enabling seamless access to credit and invoice financing. Kriya’s team will join Allica to develop end-to-end financial products for small and medium enterprises.
And finally, we bring you four news stories that caught our eye last week:
BNP Paribas shares fell more than 10 per cent to their lowest since April after a US jury found the bank liable for over 20 million dollars in damages to three Sudanese refugees for providing services that enabled abuses by Omar al Bashir’s regime. The ruling could pressure BNP to settle with thousands in a related class action, although the bank said extrapolations are wrong, vowed to appeal and stressed the decision applies only to the three plaintiffs. The awards were 7.3 million, 6.7 million and 6.75 million dollars. The case concerns its Swiss division and follows BNP’s 2014 nine billion dollar penalty for sanctions violations. Analysts warned the shares may lag until liabilities are clearer, noting more than 20,000 potential claimants and a capital path with little room for error. Other French banks weakened as S&P cut France’s rating. The bank denies wrongdoing and will appeal.
Lloyds Banking Group reported a 40 per cent fall in third quarter profit to 1.2 billion pounds after taking an 800 million pound charge for car finance mis selling, beating analyst expectations of around 1 billion pounds. Group provisions tied to Black Horse motor lending now total 1.95 billion pounds. The bank said the Financial Conduct Authority’s proposed redress framework risks unclear and overly broad calculations of harm and may conflict with Supreme Court guidance. Revenue rose to 4.6 billion pounds on stronger mortgage, card and unsecured lending. Underlying impairments were 176 million pounds, with weakness centred in retail customers. Shares rose 1.3 per cent in midday trading and are about 55 per cent higher this year, valuing Lloyds above 50 billion pounds. Management is pushing income less tied to interest rates, taking full control of Schroders Personal Wealth and targeting cost cuts.
Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey said alarm bells are ringing over private credit after the collapses of First Brands and Tricolor, warning of a return to practices seen before the financial crisis. Testifying to the House of Lords, he noted increased slicing, dicing and tranching of loans that can obscure underlying risks and questioned why some securities recently received top credit ratings. Bailey said it remains an open question whether the failures are isolated events, but the parallels justify closer scrutiny. Private credit has grown rapidly as banks retreated, with high leverage and weak underwriting a concern. The Bank is considering a system wide exploratory scenario next year to test resilience across private credit, banks, insurers and pensions. Deputy governor Sarah Breeden highlighted vulnerabilities of opacity, leverage and interconnections while acknowledging uncertainty about macro significance.
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol proposed tougher rules for counting power related emissions that would make it harder for heavy electricity users such as Amazon and Meta to claim progress toward one hundred per cent renewable energy. The update would require companies to match clean electricity purchases to consumption at roughly the same time and within the same market, replacing widespread reliance on cheap certificates bought far away or at mismatched hours. Energy analysts expect a price signal, with higher certificate costs during low renewable output and potentially higher expenses for portfolios. Only a few companies including Google and AstraZeneca support hourly local matching, while coalitions backed by Meta, Amazon and General Motors argue for flexibility and recognition of avoided emissions. The overhaul matters because carbon accounts influence levies, investor targets and marketing.
Have a great start into the week!
Sources of the fundraising reports
*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.