The future of finance doesn’t announce itself—it arrives quietly, embedded in the tools builders choose, the platforms founders trust, and the questions practitioners dare to ask.
This edition of B2B FinTech @Scale brings together three forces shaping that future.
First, our analyst Samarth Shekhar turns a sharp eye on the deals that matter—three companies redefining how capital moves, how revenue is managed, and how investment advice scales—each backed by investors placing serious bets on what comes next. Then, Frank Schwab takes us deeper into the architecture of the emerging Machine Economy, where the firm itself is being rewritten from the inside out.
We also sit down with the founders of Deduction, who are confronting one of the most practical crises in American finance: a shrinking CPA workforce, and a growing need for expert tax guidance at scale. And as always, we close with the deals and funds making waves—the capital flows that signal where the smartest money believes the next decade will be built.
Read slowly. Think carefully. This one is worth your time.
A Q&A with Deduction on Solving the CPA Shortage with AI and Human Expertise
In this edition of B2B FinTech @Scale, we speak with the team behind Deduction, a US-based tax platform redefining how individuals and sole proprietors access professional tax services. Founded by Sai Dhanak and Jonathan Kieliszak, Deduction combines AI-driven efficiency with CPA-backed expertise to deliver a white-glove tax experience—without the traditional price tag or friction.
In this Q&A, the team shares how they’re addressing the growing CPA shortage, why consumer trust in AI is accelerating, and how the future of tax filing will balance automation with human oversight.
1. Tell us about yourself / your co-founder(s).
Deduction was founded by Sai Dhanak and Jonathan Kieliszak. Jonathan comes from a family of CPAs and has deep expertise in tax compliance and advisory. Sai’s background is in scaling technology companies, where he experienced firsthand the challenges of tax planning and compliance. Together, they set out to democratize access to professional tax services by combining AI with CPA expertise. Our tax team is led by Casey Epton, CPA, who ensures our tax guidance meets the highest standards.
Read more from the interview: Deduction on Building a White-Glove Tax Experience at Scale
Deal Highlights
Fascinating backstory of the co-founders, bringing scalable, financial advice from Brazil to the US- where advised relationships are expected to grow ca. 30%- from 53M in 2024 to over 67M by 2034, while advisor count is expected to decline by 0.2% as per McKinsey. Their “democratization via software” play, combining low-friction brokerage integration with SEC-regulated, AI-driven advice, can make them the default advice layer across platforms. However, they will need to build and maintain user trust in AI-driven financial decisions, and fend off similar moves from incumbents (brokerages, robo-advisors).
Astor, an SEC-registered AI-native investment advisory platform, has closed a $5m seed funding round to expand access to personalised financial guidance for everyday American investors. The round was led by Monashees, with contributions from Y Combinator, Goodwater Capital, Gilgamesh Ventures, 468 Capital, Valutia, Sunshine Lake, and individual investors from Stripe and OpenAI. The platform was founded by Bruno Koba and Daniel Tulha, who both grew up in Brazil, where being matched with a financial adviser upon opening a brokerage account is standard practice regardless of wealth. Upon relocating to the United States, the pair discovered that the vast majority of Americans manage their investments without any professional guidance… Koba previously served as a FinTech investor at Monashees and as a data scientist at Nubank, where he developed machine learning models to extend credit access at scale.
While players like Wamo (banking-first) and Round (workflow-first) – which announced recent rounds – plan to expand into adjacent layers, Seapoint starts with everything—banking, payroll, expenses, reporting, and treasury—built into a single AI-native platform from day one. Their bet is that startups don’t need / want a fragmented stack and will happily move to a single “financial home” that aggregates data, automates workflows and executes decisions. One to watch!
Seapoint, an AI-native financial operations platform designed for European startups, has closed a €7.5m seed round, bringing its total funding raised to €10m in little over a year. The round was led by London-based FinTech venture capital firm 13books, with backing from more than 40 angel investors alongside additional venture capital participants. Notable backers include Claire Hughes Johnson, former COO of Stripe; Laurence Krieger, formerly UK CEO of Tide and COO of Revolut; Intercom co-founder Des Traynor; and Luke Mackey, CEO of Kota. Existing investors Frontline Ventures and Tapestry VC also participated.
Zenskar aims to own the “revenue layer” of the finance stack—helping modern B2B companies with complex, usage-based revenue models to bill, recognize, and collect money. While they will likely come up against established billing and finance systems like Zuora, Chargebee, Stripe etc., this is easily a $15-20B market and Zenskar could have a wedge with its handling of multi-entity structures, contract amendments, and hybrid pricing.
Zenskar, an AI-native billing and revenue automation platform built to deliver zero-touch finance for complex B2B businesses, has closed a $15m Series A funding round….The raise was led by Susquehanna Venture Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Shine Capital, and Rho, with additional backing from Rocketship, J-Ventures, Future Back Ventures by Bain & Company, and Converge…Zenskar was founded to address the revenue automation challenges faced by modern B2B companies with complex pricing arrangements. Rather than layering AI onto existing legacy systems, the platform was architected from scratch to handle usage-based tiers, prepaid credits, contract amendments, minimum commitments, customer hierarchies, multi-entity structures, and multi-currency operations.
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.
The Rise of the Model-Agnostic Robot: Why the Firm Itself Is Being Rewritten
by Frank Schwab
It is Tuesday, April 28, 2026, and the pace of the Machine Economy is moving from fast to exponential. For years, autonomy was limited by one core constraint: intelligence was expensive, centralized, and difficult to scale. AI could reason, but it could not efficiently choose how to think, how to pay, or how to execute economic activity.
That is now changing.
We are entering a world where agents can increasingly select their own intelligence, settle their own payments, and manage physical execution. This is not simply better AI—it is the beginning of a new operating system for the firm itself.
Read more: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7454767649923764224/
VENTURE FINANCING
Astor raises $5m seed to democratise investment advice
Astor, an SEC-registered AI-native investment advisory platform, has closed a $5m seed funding round to expand access to personalised financial guidance for everyday American investors.
The round was led by Monashees, with contributions from Y Combinator, Goodwater Capital, Gilgamesh Ventures, 468 Capital, Valutia, Sunshine Lake, and individual investors from Stripe and OpenAI.
Since going live, the platform has drawn thousands of users and seen more than $200m in brokerage accounts linked to the service. The capital raised will be directed towards strengthening Astor’s product, engineering, and growth functions, as well as broadening its service offerings.
https://fintech.global/2026/04/24/astor-raises-5m-seed-to-democratise-investment-advice/
Seapoint raises €7.5m seed to build founder finance hub
Seapoint, an AI-native financial operations platform designed for European startups, has closed a €7.5m seed round, bringing its total funding raised to €10m in little over a year.
The round was led by London-based FinTech venture capital firm 13books, with backing from more than 40 angel investors alongside additional venture capital participants. Notable backers include Claire Hughes Johnson, former COO of Stripe; Laurence Krieger, formerly UK CEO of Tide and COO of Revolut; Intercom co-founder Des Traynor; and Luke Mackey, CEO of Kota. Existing investors Frontline Ventures and Tapestry VC also participated.
As part of the deal, 13books’ Michael McFadgen will take a seat on Seapoint’s board.
Alongside the funding announcement, Seapoint has opened its platform to self-service sign-ups for founders across the UK and Ireland, removing the waitlist for the first time.
https://fintech.global/2026/04/21/seapoint-raises-e7-5m-seed-to-build-founder-finance-hub
Zenskar raises $15m Series A for agentic B2B finance
Zenskar, an AI-native billing and revenue automation platform built to deliver zero-touch finance for complex B2B businesses, has closed a $15m Series A funding round.
The raise was led by Susquehanna Venture Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Shine Capital, and Rho, with additional backing from Rocketship, J-Ventures, Future Back Ventures by Bain & Company, and Converge.
The capital will be directed towards expanding Zenskar’s agentic capabilities, including the further development of its Agents Marketplace — a growing library of AI agents that finance teams can build, tailor, chain together, and deploy across the entire order-to-cash cycle without requiring any engineering resource.
The platform also features a Slack agent and model context protocol (MCP) that connects with leading AI tools, enabling teams to delegate tasks, review exceptions, and approve actions from within their existing workflows.
https://fintech.global/2026/04/20/zenskar-raises-15m-series-a-for-agentic-b2b-finance/
Rilian bags $17.5m to scale AI-native cyber platform
Rilian, an AI-native cybersecurity and defence systems integration company, has closed a $17.5m seed and seed extension funding round to expand its agentic AI capabilities across government and critical infrastructure markets.
The round was led by 8VC, First In, and Tamarack Global, with 8090 Industries, Liquid 2 Ventures, Perot Jain, and Protego Ventures also contributing. Capital from the raise will be directed towards Rilian’s expansion across the United States, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, and other Allied nations, covering go-to-market activity, engineering recruitment, and research and development in agentic AI-powered cyber and defence solutions for both commercial and nation-scale environments.
https://fintech.global/2026/04/24/rilian-bags-17-5m-to-scale-ai-native-cyber-platform/
Monk raises $25m Series A to automate receivables
Monk, an AI-native accounts receivable platform, has closed a $25m Series A funding round, bringing its total capital raised to $29m.
The round was co-led by Footwork and Acrew Capital, with continued backing from existing investor BTV. The latest raise follows a $4m seed round led by BTV in spring 2025.
Monk intends to deploy the new capital towards research and development as it looks to build out further products within the accounts receivable space.
The company targets a widespread industry challenge: trillions of dollars are tied up in accounts receivable annually, with much of it managed via email by teams manually chasing payments, reconciling deposits and fielding queries.
https://fintech.global/2026/04/22/monk-raises-25m-series-a-to-automate-receivables/
Cloudsmith lands $72m to govern AI-generated software
Cloudsmith, a cloud-native universal artifact management platform serving some of the world’s largest enterprises, has closed a $72m Series C funding round co-led by TCV and Insight Partners, alongside contributions from other existing investors.
The raise, which comes just one year after Cloudsmith’s Series B, will be directed towards accelerating product development and expanding the company’s go-to-market capabilities. TCV led the previous round and has returned to co-lead alongside Insight Partners for this latest raise, reflecting continued investor conviction in Cloudsmith’s leadership, product and market position.
The investment arrives as enterprises increasingly move away from legacy tools in favour of cloud-native infrastructure capable of keeping pace with AI-driven software development.
https://fintech.global/2026/04/23/cloudsmith-lands-72m-to-govern-ai-generated-software/
Slash Financial hits unicorn status with $100m Series C
Slash Financial, a San Francisco-based business banking platform, has reached unicorn status after closing a $100m Series C funding round that values the company at $1.4bn.
The round was led by Ribbit Capital, with new investor Khosla Ventures and returning backer Goodwater Capital, which led Slash’s Series B just 16 months prior, co-leading the raise. New Enterprise Associates and Y Combinator also participated, each investing in Slash for a fourth consecutive time.
The latest round brings total capital raised by the company to over $160m.
The fundraise arrives on the back of considerable momentum for the company. Slash surpassed $250m in annualised revenue in 2025, having grown from $10m to that figure in just 24 months.
https://fintech.global/2026/04/17/slash-financial-hits-unicorn-status-with-100m-series-c/
K1x secures $175m to digitise private market tax data
K1x, an AI-native platform for private markets tax data, has closed a $175m growth investment led by Sumeru Equity Partners, with participation from existing backer Edison Partners.
Sumeru will take a majority stake in the business as part of the transaction. Edison Partners, which has now invested in K1x three times since 2022, also contributed to the round.
The capital injection arrives as private markets continue to attract a broader investor base beyond traditional institutions, creating a surge in the volume and complexity of tax reporting obligations. The industry is estimated to bear an annual burden of $27bn in tax reporting costs. Growth in pass-through structures such as LLCs and S corporations has heightened demand for Schedule K-1 creation and reporting, revealing significant gaps in existing infrastructure.
https://fintech.global/2026/04/21/k1x-secures-175m-to-digitise-private-market-tax-data/
HQLAx secures Series C-1 from Broadridge and Digital Asset
HQLAx, a digital collateral mobility solutions provider, has secured strategic minority investments from Broadridge Financial Solutions and Digital Asset in a Series C-1 funding round.
The capital will be deployed to advance HQLAx’s technology platform, deepen collaboration with Broadridge’s Distributed Ledger Repo (DLR) platform, and fund a planned migration to the Canton Network. The initiatives are intended to support regulated market use cases across the global securities finance and repo industry by combining complementary capabilities from all three firms.
As part of the deal, representatives from both Broadridge and Digital Asset will take seats on the HQLAx board of directors. The planned board appointments and the Canton Network migration remain subject to regulatory approval from the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF).
https://fintech.global/2026/04/21/hqlax-secures-series-c-1-from-broadridge-and-digital-asset/
Openly secures growth funding and expands Allianz Re partnership
Openly, a tech-enabled homeowners insurance provider, has secured a growth investment round led by existing investors Eden Global Partners, Advance Venture Partners and Gradient, with strategic participation from Allianz X.
The company has also expanded its long-term reinsurance partnership with Allianz Re as it looks to accelerate its growth across the US homeowners insurance market.
The combined investment and reinsurance support are intended to strengthen Openly’s balance sheet and enable further expansion, as independent agents increasingly seek technology-driven carriers with strong underwriting capabilities.
Founded in 2017, Openly focuses exclusively on the independent agent channel, offering a platform designed to deliver fast quoting and tailored homeowners insurance coverage.
The company said the funding will support expansion into additional states, deepen agent partnerships and broaden its product offering.
https://fintech.global/2026/04/24/openly-secures-growth-funding-and-expands-allianz-re-partnership/
FUNDS
Accel Raises $5B Fund for AI and Global Startups
Key Takeaways
- Accel has raised $5 billion, primarily through its $4 billion Leaders Fund V, to maintain its position as a primary backer of late-stage global startups.
- The raise was fueled by explosive returns from Anthropic (valued near $800B) and Cursor (approaching $50B), proving that AI valuations are still scaling vertically.
- Accel intends to write fewer but larger cheques, averaging $200 million per investment across just 20 to 25 companies
Accel has closed a $5 billion fund. The new funds announced this week will be used to make high-conviction bets on AI and late-stage companies around the world, opening a new page for the firm that made early investments in Facebook, Spotify, and Slack.
https://ventureburn.com/accel-raises-5b-fund/
Every edition of B2B FinTech @Scale is built on a single conviction: that the most consequential shifts in financial services rarely make front-page news—they happen in a funding round, a product decision, an insight shared between practitioners who are paying close attention.
If something in these pages sparked a question, challenged an assumption, or opened a new line of thinking, that is precisely the point. We write for those who are building what’s next, backing what’s next, or simply refusing to be surprised by it.
Until next week—stay curious, stay close to the signal, and keep building.
If you are shaping the future of finance and want to reach a community of 20,000+ who care deeply about it, connect with Samarth Shekhar or Frank Schwab. We’d love to hear what you’re working on.