BlackRock backs ex-Barclays CEO’s fintech

London-based fintech 10x Future Technologies has secured $187 million in an oversubscribed Series C funding round co-led by funds managed by BlackRock and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments).

The financing was also supported by existing investors JPMorgan Chase, Nationwide, Ping An and Australian bank Westpac.

10x Future Technologies, which was founded by former Barclays chief executive Antony Jenkins, intends to use the proceeds from the fundraising to enter new markets, including the US, and to develop its cloud native ‘10x SuperCore’ platform.

Jenkins, who is founder, chair and CEO of 10x Future Technologies, said: “With our microservices architecture and API-first design, our platform has been purposefully designed to enable the world’s largest banks to transform their customer experience and economics.

“Our vision is to reliably support more than one billion of their customers within the next 10 years.”

Head of innovation capital at BlackRock, William Abecassis, said: “We have been impressed with 10x’s strategy and ambition to play a key role at the heart of transformations taking place in financial services, driven by technology innovation, consumer expectations and regulatory reform. We are excited to be investing in the business as it scales into new markets.”

Leon Pedersen, managing director and head of thematic investing at CPP Investments, said that the company is “well placed to change how big banks are built and deliver for their customers”.

“10x presents an attractive opportunity for a long-term investor like CPP Investments as we believe they will benefit from their exposure to the structural growth trend of financial institutions investing in digital initiatives and renewing core technology infrastructure, allowing banks to introduce new offerings and products much faster than using legacy platforms,” added Pedersen.