Riga, Latvia — March 2026 — Blackcat, a European fintech, announces its rebrand and the launch of a new app. Behind the product is StarBridge — a Latvian financial infrastructure company founded in Riga by Dr. Olegs Cernisevs. The rebrand marks Blackcat’s transition from a card-centric product to a full multi-wallet fintech platform.
For the Baltic fintech community, this is a story of how engineering built in Latvia becomes the backbone of a European consumer product.
StarBridge: Engineering Excellence from the Baltic Region
StarBridge develops infrastructure for financial institutions — solutions in core banking, AML/KYC automation, and payment systems. The company combines over 20 years of hands-on engineering experience with applied research in digital operational resilience and compliance.
The company’s founder and CTO of Blackcat, Olegs Cernisevs, holds a Doctor of Science degree and is the author of research publications on risk modelling and financial system behaviour under load. He is also one of the founders of the Latvian Risk Management Association — the country’s first professional risk management association and a member of the European federation.
“My career has always been about bridging scientific theory and practice. With Blackcat, we proved that academic models can power live financial systems at scale.” — Olegs Cernisevs, founder of StarBridge and CTO of Blackcat
What Changed: From a Card Product to a Platform
Blackcat, previously known as Blackcatcard, has reimagined its product. The updated app is built around a multi-wallet architecture: users can create multiple independent wallets — in euro and in major cryptocurrencies — and use them for different purposes: daily expenses, subscriptions, online payments, or savings goals.
All within a single interface:
• Personal EUR IBAN with direct SEPA access
• A crypto service, integrated through an open-banking technology
• Credit-grade payment cards, accepted at hotels or car rentals
• A loyalty programme with a 4% p.a. reward and 0.5% cashback on card purchases
The fiat product is issued by Papaya Ltd., an Electronic Money Institution licensed by the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA), with direct SEPA participation.
Architecture Over Interface
The shift from “beautiful interfaces” to “resilient architectures” is the defining trend in European fintech right now. This is precisely the approach at the heart of StarBridge’s model: fintech designed with a high level of control and predictability — from risk models and compliance to operational processes and payment architecture.
For the Baltic market — home to a significant concentration of European fintech engineering talent — the Blackcat rebrand is a bright example of how Latvian technical expertise translates into a consumer product for the whole of Europe.
Blackcat is available on iOS and Android. More information at Blackcat.app
