01
Onboarding and KYC automation
Identity verification, corporate KYB, ultimate beneficial ownership resolution, sanctions and PEP screening, perpetual KYC. Judged on false-positive rates and auditability, not on demo speed.
Strategy 03 · Growth equity
Technology supporting the fintech sector
We back the companies regulated finance buys from — not the ones competing for consumer attention. Compliance automation, monitoring, ledgers, wallets, treasury tooling: the unglamorous layer that every licensed institution needs and few build well.
Our diligence question is the one a buyer asks: would our own regulated brands run production on this?
- Segments
- RegTech, onboarding, monitoring and risk, core infrastructure, treasury and reconciliation
- Business model
- B2B software and infrastructure with recurring contracts and institutional customers
- Position
- Minority growth positions with information rights and governance protections
- Structure
- Closed-ended AIF or compartment, long horizon, professional investors only
Where we look
Four segments we can assess as a customer
02
Transaction monitoring and risk intelligence
Real-time monitoring, fraud prevention, behavioural risk scoring and case management. The test is whether a compliance officer can explain a decision to a supervisor.
03
Core ledger and wallet infrastructure
Accounting ledgers, wallet and account infrastructure, card and payout orchestration, safeguarding-aware architecture for e-money and payment institutions.
04
Treasury, reconciliation and reporting
Cash and liquidity management, automated reconciliation, regulatory and financial reporting — the back-office layer that decides whether a licensed firm scales or stalls.
Diligence
The five questions that decide it
Selling into regulated institutions is a specific sport: long procurement, security reviews, audit expectations and a buyer who cannot switch easily once committed. Both the risk and the moat come from that.
- 01
Would a regulated buyer pass this through a security and compliance review?
Data residency, access control, certification, incident history, outsourcing documentation. Failures here are commercial, not theoretical.
- 02
Is the revenue contracted or hoped for?
Signed contracts, term, renewal history, concentration, and the gap between pipeline and paid production usage.
- 03
Does the product survive a regulatory change?
Whether a rule change is an existential threat or a product roadmap item — and whether the team can tell the difference.
- 04
Is the technology owned or assembled?
Intellectual property ownership, dependency on single vendors or models, and how much of the value is genuinely the company’s own.
- 05
Who buys this company, and why?
A credible acquirer set — institutions, platforms or strategic consolidators — identified at entry rather than assumed at exit.
Why founders take our call
A shareholder who is also your customer’s peer
BLK Group runs regulated payment, e-money and digital-asset businesses. That gives a portfolio company access to the perspective it usually only gets after losing a procurement cycle.
Buyer-side reality checks
What a compliance officer will object to, what a security questionnaire will surface, and which features are decisive versus decorative.
Reference environments
Where commercially sensible and on arm’s-length terms, group entities can evaluate a product in a real regulated setting.
Payments and settlement access
Introductions to licensed group entities for payment rails or settlement, contracted directly with those entities under their own terms.
Conflicts handled openly
Any transaction between a fund’s portfolio company and a group entity is subject to the fund’s conflicts of interest policy and disclosed to investors.
Questions about the fintech strategy
What kind of fintech companies do you invest in?
B2B technology companies selling infrastructure, compliance and risk software into regulated institutions — not consumer fintech brands. Typically onboarding and KYC automation, monitoring and risk intelligence, ledger and wallet infrastructure, and treasury or reconciliation tooling.
What is the advantage of a strategic investor here?
Regulated buyers are slow and specific. An investor that operates regulated payment, e-money and digital-asset businesses can evaluate a product the way a buyer would, and flag what would block procurement or a compliance review before it costs a year.
Do you take control positions?
The strategy is oriented to minority growth positions with clear information rights and governance protections. Position size, rights and concentration limits are defined in the fund’s investment policy before capital is committed.
Risk note: private technology investments are illiquid, long-term and high-risk. Companies can fail, valuations are estimates until a transaction occurs, further funding rounds can dilute existing holders, and the entire amount invested can be lost. Nothing on this page is an offer or a recommendation; fund-specific terms and risk factors are set out only in the relevant fund’s documents.