Business

Stan Bharti: Prospecting for Potential

Published

5 years ago

January 18, 2021

Canadian businessman Stan Bharti has built a career in discovering, funding, and cultivating projects in the sectors of mining, agriculture, energy, finance, and technology. He is well known in the industry for his ability to acquire finance, restructure, and succeed with emerging high-potential startups and struggling companies alike. A professional engineer in both North America and Europe, Mr. Bharti has a blend of industry-specific technical expertise and a general aptitude for management, operations, and finance. Through this integrated approach, Mr. Bharti has reached great strides in his over 30 years in the industry, being a recognized financier in Canada responsible for listing over 50 companies in various stock markets all over the world. This breadth of experience has contributed even further to Mr. Bharti’s continuing success, who has invested and raised over US$10 billion in the last ten years.

Since 1995, Mr. Bharti has applied his unique managing and financing approach to Forbes & Manhattan Inc., an international merchant bank and finance house where he serves as founder and executive chairman. Initially based in Toronto, the company has grown to establish offices in London, New York, Moscow, and Los Angeles in order to handle its wide variety of projects from all over the world. Thus far, the company has had projects on six continents, with its current focus being the Americas, Africa, Europe, and countries of the former Soviet Union.

Today, Forbes & Manhattan is renowned for its ability to rapidly bring projects to success and currently handles over 20 companies in the sectors of natural resources, infrastructure, energy, and technology. A significant contributor to this success is Mr. Bharti’s adoption of his unique integrated technical approach to the company philosophy. To this end, the company employs over 1,000 professional staff, including the world’s finest engineers, geologists, software developers, investment bankers, and financiers. Through this highly varied and diverse international team, Mr. Bharti ensures that F&M is always equipped with the necessary technical expertise to handle all aspects of financing and management for their equally wide variety of clients.

Mr. Bharti not only works to cultivate the sustained success of his client companies but also that of the world at large. Social responsibility is a core element of Mr. Bharti’s personal and corporate philosophy. Mr. Bharti goes beyond just funding the world’s high-potential companies to achieve this goal, being a major contributor to charities around the globe. Since 2010, The Bharti Charitable Foundation has ensured that F&M gives back to its communities. Through this foundation, Mr. Bharti has financed advocacies that aim to maintain nature and wildlife and help children in some of the world’s poorest developing countries.

While Mr. Bharti has had over 30 years of experience in finding and cultivating potential in emerging companies, he has also used such talents in a different manner. In 2012, Mr. Bharti collaborated with Laurentian University of Greater Sudbury, Canada, to establish the Bharti School of Engineering. Through this school, Mr. Bharti hopes to help aspiring youth become engineers who will write their own success stories with the pen of sustainability and social responsibility.

Beyond this, Mr. Bharti continues his professional and charitable efforts through his membership in several charitable and business boards in North America and the United Kingdom, and he is also a member of the global leadership community Young Presidents Organization (YPO). Mainly spending time between Los Angeles and Toronto, Mr. Bharti has also learned to speak fluent Russian and conversational Finnish and Spanish due to his history of international work.

In June of 2018, Mr. Bharti was even awarded the status of Honorary Consul of Kazakhstan to Canada as recognition for his work in providing business opportunities in Kazakhstan.

On top of the heavy workload of managing his firm and his charity, Mr. Bharti works hard to ensure that he keeps a balance in spending time with his family, who also help him manage his foundation. You can find out more about Stan Bharti by visiting the website of his company, Forbes & Manhattan Inc., as well as that of his charity, the Bharti Charitable Foundation.

Business

Inside the $4.3B Quarter: What’s Fueling Black Banx’s Record Revenues

Published

4 days ago

January 16, 2026

Matthew Wiles

Every quarter brings fresh headlines in fintech, but few make the kind of impact achieved by Black Banx in Q2 2025. The Toronto-based global digital banking group, founded by Michael Gastauer, reported an extraordinary USD 4.3 billion in revenue and a record USD 1.6 billion in pre-tax profit, while improving its cost-to-income ratio to 63%.

These results not only highlight the company’s operational efficiency but also mark a pivotal moment in its journey from challenger to global leader. The big question is: what’s fueling such impressive financial performance?

Customer Growth as the Core Driver

One of the clearest engines of revenue growth is Black Banx’s expanding customer base. By Q2 2025, the platform had reached 84 million clients worldwide, up from 69 million at the end of 2024. This 15 million net gain in six months demonstrates both the attractiveness of its services and the scalability of its model.

Unlike traditional banks, which rely heavily on branch expansion, Black Banx leverages digital-first onboarding that allows customers to open accounts within minutes using just a smartphone. This approach is especially effective in regions underserved by legacy institutions, where access to affordable financial tools is in high demand.

More customers don’t just mean higher transaction volumes—they generate a compounding effect where network size, brand trust, and service adoption reinforce one another.

Real-Time Payments and Cross-Border Solutions

A major contributor to Q2 revenues is the platform’s real-time payments infrastructure. Black Banx enables instant cross-border transfers across its 28 supported fiat currencies and multiple cryptocurrencies, helping both individuals and businesses bypass the traditional bottlenecks of international banking.

For freelancers, SMEs, and multinational clients, this means faster liquidity, reduced foreign exchange costs, and simplified global operations. The demand for real-time financial services is growing rapidly—Juniper Research projects global real-time payments turnover to hit USD 58 trillion by 2028—and Black Banx is strategically positioned to capture a significant share of this market.

Crypto Integration as a Revenue Stream

Another key revenue driver is crypto integration. While many traditional institutions remain hesitant, Black Banx embraced digital assets early and has built infrastructure to support Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the Lightning Network. In Q2 2025, 20% of all transactions on the platform were crypto-based, reflecting strong customer appetite for hybrid banking services that bridge fiat and digital assets.

Revenue comes not only from transaction fees but also from value-added services like crypto-to-fiat conversion, staking yields (4–12% APY), and blockchain-enabled payments. For customers in markets with unstable currencies, these services act as a financial lifeline, further expanding the platform’s relevance.

AI-Powered Efficiency and Risk Management

Record revenues would be less impressive if costs ballooned at the same rate. But Black Banx has proven adept at balancing growth with efficiency. Its cost-to-income ratio improved to 63% in Q2, down from 69% a year earlier, thanks to heavy reliance on AI-powered automation.

AI now drives fraud detection, compliance, and customer onboarding—areas where traditional banks often struggle with cost inefficiencies. By automating these processes, Black Banx can process millions of transactions securely while maintaining profitability at scale. This level of efficiency is rare in fintech, where high growth often comes at the expense of margins.

Regional Expansion and Untapped Markets

Geography also plays a role in fueling revenues. Much of the Q2 growth came from Africa, South Asia, and Latin America—regions where demand for mobile-first banking continues to soar. In 2024 alone, Black Banx reported a 32% increase in SME clients from the Middle East and Africa, signaling the strength of its positioning in underserved markets.

By extending services to populations previously excluded from formal banking—migrant workers, rural communities, and small businesses—Black Banx taps into vast pools of latent demand. The strategy proves that financial inclusion and profitability are not mutually exclusive but mutually reinforcing.

Diversified Revenue Streams

Another factor behind Q2’s record revenues is Black Banx’s diversified business model. Income is not tied to a single service but spread across multiple streams, including:

Transaction fees from cross-border transfers and payments.
Crypto trading and exchange services.
Premium account features for high-net-worth clients.
Corporate services for SMEs and international businesses.

This diversification insulates the company against volatility in any single segment, creating stable revenue growth even in shifting market conditions.

Michael Gastauer’s Strategic Blueprint

Behind these results is Michael Gastauer’s long-term strategy: scale aggressively but with efficiency, innovation, and inclusion at the core. His vision has always been to create a borderless financial ecosystem, and Q2 2025’s performance is evidence that this vision is not only achievable but sustainable.

By balancing mass-market accessibility with premium features, and by blending fiat with digital assets, Gastauer has positioned Black Banx as a category-defining player in global finance.

The Road Ahead: Toward 100 Million Clients

Looking forward, the company’s goal of reaching 100 million customers by the end of 2025 will likely be the next catalyst for revenue growth. More customers mean more transactions, more data insights, and more opportunities to refine and expand its service offering.

If current momentum holds, the USD 4.3 billion quarterly revenue milestone could be just the beginning of an even larger growth story. The challenge will be ensuring systems scale securely while maintaining trust in an environment where privacy and compliance are paramount.

A Record That Signals More to Come

Black Banx’s Q2 2025 performance—USD 4.3 billion in revenue, USD 1.6 billion in pre-tax profit, 84 million clients worldwide, and a lean 63% cost-to-income ratio—is more than a financial milestone. It is a signal of how the future of banking is being rewritten by platforms that are borderless, crypto-inclusive, and data-driven.

What fueled this record-breaking quarter is not one innovation but a combination of strategies—scalable onboarding, real-time payments, crypto integration, AI efficiency, and expansion into underserved regions. Together, they form a model that doesn’t just challenge traditional banking but actively builds the foundation for global dominance.

For Black Banx, the road ahead is clear: the $4.3 billion quarter is not an endpoint but a launchpad for even greater scale and profitability.