BKN301, a fintech infrastructure provider, has raised a fresh fund of €32 million besides acquiring London-based financial analytics company Planky, which is a big step towards its vision of next-gen intelligent financial systems for banks and payment service providers. A total of €21 million Series B fund along with a credit facility made up of funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, was the principal source of the new capital, thereby demonstrating investor faith in tech-driven solutions that will form the backbone of digital finance.
The new capital round was announced against the backdrop of a European fintech investment trend that has gradually shifted from consumer-centric apps to infrastructure-level innovations that mainly deal with issues such as the modernisation of banking systems and the provision of real-time financial intelligence.
Money to support expansion plan over 18 months
BKN301 will be able to execute a bold 18-month growth plan with the newly acquired capital and the Planky purchase. The company intends to broaden the platform’s analytics capabilities, particularly emphasis will be on the use of real-time data for intelligence, automated decision-making and behavioural insights. Alongside, the company is planning to broaden the relationship with local financial institutions, which are looking for scalable, modular solutions for upgrading their legacy systems. Furthermore, the company will be looking at the possibility of further mergers and acquisitions to speed up product development and extend its international footprint.
Established in 2021 by Stiven Muccioli, Federico Zambelli Hosmer (ex-PayPal), and Luca Bertozzi, BKN301 is a London-based company with the branch offices in Milan, San Marino, Doha, and Tbilisi. The company is mainly engaged in the emerging markets of Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe––these are regions where digital transformation is rapidly progressing and where new banking infrastructure has the potential to solve the problem of the large underbanked populations.
Changing old banking systems without total replacement
BKN301 is a fintech architecture provider that offers a cloud-native platform built around three core components: an API Orchestrator, a Data Decoupling Layer, and a Business Logic Engine, which helps the company gain the edge over competitors. The modular system links different layers of financial technology, i.e., core banking, payments, and open banking, without the need for the institution to fully replace the existing ones.
The method used is in line with the industry-wide trend of gradually transforming instead of doing full-platform mergers that are both expensive and disruptive. BKN301 plans to give the solution fast implementation, lower operational risk, and scalability in the long run as traditional core banking upgrades are usually very time-consuming and costly.
By the acquisition, Planky will derive the benefits of a proprietary analytics mechanism that can do behavioural scoring, predictive modelling, and instant decision intelligence capability. Post-integration, the tech will be the driving force behind the AI-powered automation that banks, on the one hand, can use to create tailor-made experiences and, on the other hand, better fraud detection and faster credit decisions.
Planky’s strengths are perfectly in tune with the increasing demand for your intelligent systems that use real-time financial behavior and open banking data. The industry regulators moving towards more customer-friendly data transfer, in such a case, these capabilities become more and more important for the company’s competitive edge.
“This milestone points to a turning point for BKN301,” expressed founder and CEO Stiven Muccioli. “With the financing and Planky’s AI offerings, we are speeding up the journey to our next-gen fintech infrastructure vision that is an intelligent, open platform capable of achieving financial inclusion on a large scale in emerging markets. “
Muccioli further stated that the combination of scalable architecture and cutting-edge analytics would put them in the position to lead the next wave of financial innovation: “AI is revolutionizing the way financial services are done, and BKN301 is leading the pack – by blending intelligence, scalability, and regulatory readiness to enable our clients to innovate faster. “
Preparing for the new era of digital banking
As banks throughout Europe and emerging markets are heavily investing in digital transformation, BKN301’s unified strategy presents a viable alternative for those institutions which are in search of adaptability and quick RT in a rapidly changing financial environment. With the fresh fund and the planned upgrades in analytics, the company is better placed to be a major player in the intelligent banking infrastructure reshaping process globally.
The concerted effort is the largest milestone in the European fintech infrastructural landscape this year, hence, a strong testament to the mounting enterprise-level innovation momentum over consumer-only financial technology.
