BlackFin Capital Partners is staking a claim to be the largest independent fintech fund in Europe, after completing a €180-million final closing with participation from top-tier banks and insurance houses.
Institutional investors joining the pool include Bpifrance, Vaudoise Assurances Group, Groupama, Sogecap , Natixis Assurances, Swiss Life, German public bank KfW, Belgian insurer Securex, BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, and Banque Populaire et Caisse d’Epargne.
The oversubscribed fund has already made its first investment, leading a €15m Series A round in Friss, a Dutch fraud prevention company operating in the insurance sector.
BlackFin's four founding partners were behind the launch of online bank Fortuneo in 2000, which was sold to Crédit Mutuel Arkéa in 2006 in one of the landmark pre-financial crisis Internet exits.
Laurent Bouyoux, managing partner of BlackFin Capital Partners, says: “As entrepreneurs and founders of Fortuneo we feel particularly connected to entrepreneurs seizing fintech opportunities. We are proud to reach €180m for this fund dedicated to earlier-stage investments with explosive growth. The size of the fund allows us to support the most ambitious entrepreneurs, all over Europe, through successive financing rounds”