France-based investment firm BlackFin Capital Partners closed a €180m ($210m) financial technology fund on Wednesday with backing from limited partners including insurance firms Securex and Macif.
The corporates joined the final close of BlackFin Tech 1 alongside financial services firms BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole and Banque Populaire et Caisse d’Epargne, German state-owned development bank KfW and undisclosed family offices.
Insurance companies Vaudoise Assurances, Groupama, Sogecap, Natixis Assurances and Swiss Life contributed to the fund’s $117m first close July 2017 along with French state-owned investment bank BPIfrance’s MultiCap Croissance fund and unnamed financial institutions and family offices.
Founded in 2009, BlackFin had previously launched two buyout funds focused on financial services providers, and had initially targeted a $175m final close for BlackFin Tech 1, its first venture capital vehicle.
The fund will back financial, insurance and regulation technology developers at seed to series C stage, with a focus on business-to-business products. It will target startups based across Europe, investing out of offices in the cities of Paris, Brussels and Frankfurt.
BlackFin Tech 1 is being led by investment directors Maxime Mandin – who focuses on France, Germany and Benelux – and Julien Creuzé as well as investment manager Gabrielle Thomas and associate Romain Grimal. Two more members will join the team in the coming weeks.
The fund’s first portfolio company is Friss, a Netherlands-based developer of fraud detection technology for insurance providers. Friss raised $17.6m in a December 2017 series A round co-led by BlackFin Tech 1 and VC fund Aquiline Technology Growth.