We start the year with a focused look at where capital, conviction, and infrastructure are aligning across financial services.
In this week’s Deal Highlights, Samarth Shekhar analyses a set of companies tackling large, structurally underserved markets — from private credit and fixed income to capital markets infrastructure. These raises point to a clear trend: institutions are backing platforms that bring transparency, efficiency, and scale to the core plumbing of finance.
Alongside the analysis, our Q&A features Michael Dowling, Founder and CEO of Narrative Banking, who shares a sharp perspective on how AI is redefining the guidance relationship between banks and small businesses — and why reclaiming that role is becoming mission-critical.
We also spotlight a new wave of companies that have successfully secured funding to scale bold ideas, modernize legacy systems, and unlock underserved markets. Together, these stories offer both insight and inspiration for the year ahead.
Michael Dowling from Narrative Banking on Reclaiming Financial Guidance in AI’s Age
In a landscape where artificial intelligence is rapidly redefining how financial institutions interact with their customers, few founders combine deep academic rigor with real-world fintech execution as convincingly as Michael Dowling.
In this Q&A, the CEO and Founder of Narrative Banking shares how his team is rebuilding the guidance relationship between banks and small businesses — and why reclaiming that role is becoming mission-critical for the future of SME finance.
1. Tell us about yourself / your co-founder(s).
Michael Dowling is steeped in research, as a former fintech professor turned founder. In his research career he built the AI models for modern fintech. Yulia Plaksina pioneered AI financial coaching at a Fortune 100 after her startup was acquired by them.
Read more from the interview: Narrative Banking on Reclaiming Financial Guidance in AI’s Age
This week’s deal highlights
by @Samarth Shekhar
Happy new year! We are back catching up with deal highlights from the last couple of weeks.
We have two startups addressing the booming private credit / non-bank lending market – expected to grow from $1.6 trillion in AUM at year-end to $2.7 trillion by 2029 as per Preqin.
AI-powered credit intelligence platform AIR has raised $6.1 million in a seed funding round co-led by Work-Bench Ventures and Lerer Hippeau.
Built by industry veterans from Moody’s, DataRobot, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley, AIR is working to replace the century-old, legacy credit ratings with an autonomous, AI-powered system that evaluates every company’s financial health, whether it’s public or private, every day.
Transparency Analytics (“the Company”), a financial benchmarking business focused on private credit, today announced that it has completed its second funding round, led by Deciens Capital. Allianz Life Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America; Mouro Capital; FJ Labs; SUM Ventures; and Core Innovation Capital also participated in the round. Financial terms of the private transaction were not disclosed.
Transparency Analytics’ quantitative-based model delivers fully transparent ratings for corporate credit. In addition, its real-time indicative ratings portal enables the generation of rapid feedback on a company’s credit worthiness.
IMTC, an investment platform in another massive market underserved by technology – the SMA municipal fixed income assets space is estimated at $1.2T.
IMTC, a leading fixed income technology partner to the buy-side, announced the closing of a $12 million Series A funding round led by Nyca Partners, a venture capital firm focused on fintech innovation.
Lord, Abbett & Co. LLC (“Lord Abbett”), an independent, privately held investment management firm, and an IMTC client, joined the round as a strategic investor – its first equity stake in a fintech partner. IMTC’s highly efficient end-to-end investment platform will empower Lord Abbett to build and rebalance fixed income client portfolios at a significant scale.
As the fixed income SMA market experiences unprecedented growth, firms are increasingly turning to IMTC to power efficient, scalable, and tailored investment solutions that streamline workflow, reducing the time it takes to optimize bond portfolios by more than 95%.
We like United Fintech’s approach, bringing a roll-up thinking to build out a neutral platform giving banks, brokers, asset managers, and hedge funds a single procurement and integration path to multiple fintech solutions focused on capital markets/ regtech/ market infrastructure.
Barclays invests in United Fintech, becoming the fifth global bank investor and joins the board
LONDON / COPENHAGEN, Dec. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — United Fintech, the industry-neutral fintech infrastructure and ecosystem for financial institutions, asset managers & wealth managers has secured a strategic investment from Barclays, further strengthening its shareholder base of leading global banks, including BNP Paribas, Citi and Danske Bank and most recently Standard Chartered, which have all joined in just the past two years.
Read on for more on the founders and investors in the news last week. If you are building or backing “what’s next in finance” and want to spread the word with our network of 20K+, reach out to Samarth Shekhar or Frank Schwab.
FUNDING ROUNDS
Sporta closes Crowdcube round
Sporta, the emerging AI-native bank designed to serve the sport, leisure and wellbeing sectors, has closed its latest Crowdcube campaign with £122,923 raised from community investors.
The crowdfunding element forms part of Sporta’s second seed round and was designed to give individuals, clubs and early supporters – many of whom engaged during Sporta’smarket-research phase – the opportunity to invest at levels that were previously inaccessible.
Sporta’s leadership emphasises that this raise is about establishing trust and community ownership at a formative point in the company’s journey toward full regulatory approval.
This fundraising is part of the wider journey to become the leading bank that powers sport, leisure and wellbeing. Sporta is the world’s first AI-native challenger bank built for the UK sports ecosystem, a £100B economy with 43 million participants but no dedicated financial infrastructure.
https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/108313/sporta-closes-crowdcube-round
Transparency Analytics Completes Second Funding Round Led by Deciens Capital
Group Including Allianz Life Ventures and Mouro Capital
Positions Company to Lead Next Generation of Private Credit Ratings and Financial Benchmarking
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Transparency Analytics (“the Company”), a financial benchmarking business focused on private credit, today announced that it has completed its second funding round, led by Deciens Capital. Allianz Life Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America; Mouro Capital; FJ Labs; SUM Ventures; and Core Innovation Capital also participated in the round. Financial terms of the private transaction were not disclosed.
Transparency Analytics’ quantitative-based model delivers fully transparent ratings for corporate credit. In addition, its real-time indicative ratings portal enables the generation of rapid feedback on a company’s credit worthiness.
Barclays invests in United Fintech, becoming the fifth global bank investor and joins the board
LONDON / COPENHAGEN, Dec. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — United Fintech, the industry-neutral fintech infrastructure and ecosystem for financial institutions, asset managers & wealth managers has secured a strategic investment from Barclays, further strengthening its shareholder base of leading global banks, including BNP Paribas, Citi and Danske Bank and most recently Standard Chartered, which have all joined in just the past two years.
This investment marks another key milestone in United Fintech’s growth journey. In 2025 alone, the company completed two acquisitions to increase the portfolio to seven fintechs, as it continues to expand its international footprint with 11 offices worldwide and more than 200 employees. Through this partnership, Barclays joins the United Fintech Board of Directors, reinforcing the growing collaboration between established global financial institutions and innovative fintech platforms.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/barclays-invests-united-fintech-becoming-102400165.html
Vizmark Secures $430K Pre-Seed Funding Round to Automate Portfolio Operations for Private Market Investors
December 2025 – Today, Vizmark announces both our launch and our $430k Pre-Seed funding round. This foundational capital will support our mission of making portfolio operations painless for emerging and mid-sized private market investors.
Vizmark is an AI-driven portfolio visibility platform that ingests and manages financial, operational, valuation, transaction and value creation data. Our highly automated system-of-record empowers investors to securely embed AI into core portfolio operations, underwriting and investor relations workflows via isolated, private models.
The pre-seed funding will accelerate our AI and agentic roadmap and fuel new platform capabilities, further catalyzing initial customer traction. Vizmark is proud to share that we will enter 2026 monitoring several billion dollars of assets under management.
https://www.vizmark.io/insights/vizmark-funding-announcement
Bon Credit Raises $3.5M In Funding
Bon Credit, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an AI platform focused on Generation Z credit and debt management, raised $3.5M in funding.
The round was led by VenturesLab with participation from Hustle Fund, Outside VC, MBA Ventures, Sequoia Scout Fund, Accel Partners Scout Fund and other Silicon Valley executives.
The company intends to use the funds to accelerate its product and service development offerings.
Co-founded by Samder Singh Khangarot and Darwin Tu, Bon Credit uses personalized AI to allow consumers to interact with credit, debt and personal finance. Through AI-driven conversations and personalized guidance, it puts credit and debt management on autopilot and empowers consumers – particularly members of GenZ – to enhance their financial literacy and achieve financial freedom over time.
https://www.finsmes.com/2025/12/bon-credit-raises-3-5m-in-funding.html
Tuhk Raises US$6M in Seed Funding
Tuhk, a Toronto, Canada-based fintech startup developing a data collaboration platform, raised US$6M in Seed funding.
The round was led by FINTOP, with participation from Lloyds Banking Group and Capital One Ventures.
The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and its development efforts.
Led by CEO Andre Edelbrock, Tuhk is a provider of a real-time data collaboration platform that improves fraud prevention and payments efficiency for merchants, banks, and service providers worldwide, turning siloed data into a unified intelligence network, enabling proactive threat detection, elevated transaction approvals, and seamless resolutions.
FinSMEs
08/12/2025
https://www.finsmes.com/2025/12/tuhk-raises-us6m-in-seed-funding.html
AIR raises $6.1m to modernise private credit ratings with AI
AI-powered credit intelligence platform AIR has raised $6.1 million in a seed funding round co-led by Work-Bench Ventures and Lerer Hippeau.
Built by industry veterans from Moody’s, DataRobot, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley, AIR is working to replace the century-old, legacy credit ratings with an autonomous, AI-powered system that evaluates every company’s financial health, whether it’s public or private, every day.
Private credit now exceeds $2 trillion globally. Yet, the startup argues, for more than 100 years, credit ratings have been shaped by antiquated methodologies and static statistical models, making the process subjective, backward-looking, and slow to react.
IMTC Closes $12 Million Series A Led by Nyca Partners, with Strategic Investment from Lord Abbett
Investment affirms IMTC’s ability to optimize fixed income portfolios at scale
NEW YORK, Dec. 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — IMTC, a leading fixed income technology partner to the buy-side, announced the closing of a $12 million Series A funding round led by NycaPartners, a venture capital firm focused on fintech innovation.
Lord, Abbett & Co. LLC (“Lord Abbett”), an independent, privately held investment management firm, and an IMTC client, joined the round as a strategic investor – its first equity stake in a fintech partner. IMTC’s highly efficient end-to-end investment platform will empower Lord Abbett to build and rebalance fixed income client portfolios at a significant scale.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/imtc-closes-12-million-series-140000640.html
Thread Raises $30.5 Million to Continue Building the Future of Embedded Banking
New funding round will support further development of pioneering “digital branch” model
NASHVILLE, Tenn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Thread Bancorp, Inc. (“Thread” or the “Company”), the parent company of Thread Bank (the “Bank”), a wholly-owned subsidiary, today announced it has closed a $30.5 million funding round, consisting of a $27.6 million initial raise and a $2.9 million extension. Portage Ventures led the round, with additional participation from RockmontPartners and other strategic investors.
This investment supports the continued growth and development of Thread’s burgeoning Embedded Banking strategy, which has transformed the Company since its founding in 2021 from a traditional community institution to a tech-forward community banking leader with a nationwide customer base. Thread’s customer-centric model aims to provide embedded “digital branches” through leading small business and consumer brands and vertical SaaS companies.
UK start-up CapRelease bags $36m to drive international expansion
The round includes $33.3 million in senior debt from Californian credit firm Partners for Growth and $2.7 million in equity led by an unnamed global family office.
CapRelease, a London-based embedded working capital funding platform, has raised $36 million in a combined debt and equity funding round to fuel its domestic and international expansion efforts.
The funding round includes $33.3 million in senior debt provided by Californian private credit firm Partners for Growth, alongside $2.7 million in equity led by an unnamed global family office. According to CapRelease, the family office specialises in fintech investments and holds stakes in various UK neobanks.
Informed.IQ Secures $63 Million From Invictus Growth Partners To Advance AI-Powered Fraud Prevention And Loan Verification
Informed.IQ, the leader in AI-powered loan verification and fraud prevention, today announced a $63 million growth equity investment from Invictus Growth Partners (“Invictus”). Trusted by the nation’s largest banks, Informed.IQ delivers category-defining agentic AI that verifies loans and stops fraud. The company has proven its platform at scale and serves seven of the top ten U.S. auto lenders. Informed.IQ has supported more than $350 billion in loan originations with industry-leading accuracy and speed, shortening loan closing timelines from days to minutes. The new funding accelerates Informed.IQ’s expansion in auto finance, and supports its strategic entry into mortgage, consumer lending, tenant screening, and government benefit administration.
Octane Raises $100M in Series F Funding Round
Equity Financing to Drive Continued Growth, Innovation, and Market Expansion
NEW YORK, Dec. 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Octane® (Octane Lending, Inc.®), the fintech revolutionizing the buying experience, announced it has closed its Series F funding round of $100 million in equity capital. The raise includes new equity capital to be used for growth initiatives as well as amounts to be used for secondary share transfers.
The capital builds on Octane’s strong originations growth and enables the Company to further accelerate market penetration and deepen its product offering, positioning the Company even more favorably for long-term success. The Series F raise attracted a mix of returning and new investors; Valar Ventures led the round with participation from Upper90, Huntington Bank, Camping World and Good Sam, Holler-Classic, and others.
RedotPay raises $107 million Series B to expand stablecoin payments platform
Quick Take
▪ RedotPay says it has facilitated over $10 billion in annualized payment volume and now generates more than $150 million in annualized revenue while operating profitably.
RedotPay, a Hong Kong-based fintech focused on stablecoin-based payments, has raised $107 million in a Series B funding round, as the company reports growing transaction volumes and user adoption.
The round was led by consumer-focused venture firm Goodwater Capital, with participation from Pantera Capital, Blockchain Capital and Circle Ventures, alongside existing backers including HSG (formerly Sequoia Capital China), RedotPay said Tuesday.
https://www.theblock.co/post/382729/redotpay-series-b-stablecoin-payments
Plata raises up to $500 million as it readies Mexico bank
Dec 15 (Reuters) – Mexican financial technology company Plata said on Monday it has raised up to $500 million in a financing deal arranged by Nomura Securities International, as it moves toward becoming a full-fledged bank.
The licensed digital financial platform, which received authorization for a banking license in December 2024, is now in the final stages before starting operations.
In October, the company closed a $250 million equity round led by Kora Management, with participation from Moore Capital Management and Audeo Ventures, which doubled its valuation to $3.1 billion.
Plata’s investor base spans the U.S., Europe, Japan and Latin America, reflecting growing international interest in Mexico’s financial technology sector, it said.
https://www.reuters.com/technology/plata-raises-up-500-million-it-readies-mexico-bank-2025-12-15
i80 Group and Brim Partner to Offer Funding-as-a-Service with $300MM Credit Facility
i80 Group, a leading investment firm focused on providing structured credit to the financial services sector, closed a $300 million credit facility with Brim Financial (“Brim”), one of the leading payments, credit card and financial technology platforms.
The facility will provide a compelling funding solution for enterprises, fintechs, credit unions, and banks that are choosing Brim’s technology platform to modernize their payments products.
“Brim is reshaping the payments and credit card landscape with a modern platform that provides turnkey, cutting edge technology for banks and credit unions,” said Peter Frank, Managing Director at i80 Group. “We are excited to partner with Brim’s leadership team to provide asset-based capital to Brim’s customers. This facility underscores i80’s commitment to backing financial services companies that are scaling and building durable, long-term businesses.”
VENTURE FUNDS
Accion announces $61.6M fund for early-stage fintech startups
Accion has announced the close of a $61.6 million fund that will invest in early-stage fintech companies in Africa and globally.
Accion has announced the close of a $61.6 million fund that will invest in early-stage fintech companies meeting the needs of financially underserved people in Africa and globally.
This is the second fund from Accion Venture Lab (now rebranded to Accion Ventures) and builds on a decade-long investment strategy focused on delivering social and financial objectives through early-stage venture capital investments.
The latest fund will make up to 30 new fintech investments, including in African companies.
Viola Ventures raises $250 million for two new funds to invest in Israeli startups
JERUSALEM, Dec 15 (Reuters) – Israeli venture capital firm Viola Ventures said on Monday it had raised $250 million in capital for two new funds to back the “next generation of Israeli startups”.
About $100 million will go to Viola’s Conviction Fund I, which has already been fully deployed in follow-on investments in its portfolio.
The remainder will be allocated to the Viola Ventures 7 Early Stage Investment Fund, which will invest in seed and other early-stage rounds in startups focused on areas such as vertical AI, enterprise AI, financial technologies, AI infrastructure, cyber, quantum and defence technologies.
The new fund will launch in the first half of 2026, as Viola is still making investments from its Ventures 6 fund.
As investment flows continue to follow platforms that combine deep domain expertise with practical AI execution, this week’s highlights reinforce a clear theme: the future of financial services is being built at the intersection of trust, intelligence, and scale.
From founders rethinking credit ratings and portfolio operations to banks backing infrastructure-first fintech models, these moves point to a sector in active transformation. We’ll continue to track the capital, conversations, and companies shaping what comes next.
Until next week.