Welcome to this week’s edition.
Finance is being rewritten — not in boardrooms, but in code, in capital flows, and in the quiet conviction of founders who see the gaps everyone else has learned to live with.
This week, we bring you three companies that have earned a closer look from our analyst Samarth Shekhar: a Brazilian insurtech threading broker relationships through WhatsApp, an AI co-pilot giving financial advisers their time back, and a cloud-native operating system reshaping how wealth firms actually run. Samarth unpacks what each one signals about where the industry is heading.
Frank Schwab turns his attention to PSD3 — and makes the case that banks treating it as a compliance checkbox are missing the point entirely. This is a structural shift with direct consequences for the P&L.
Our Q&A this week goes deep with Pavlina Pavlova, co-founder of ChainComply, who built a platform to solve a problem she lived firsthand: how do you prove legitimate crypto wealth to a bank that wasn’t built to understand it?
And in funding, a remarkable week — from a €1M pre-seed in Prague to a $160M Series D in New York, the capital keeps finding its way to the builders. We’ve rounded up every round worth knowing about.
We hope these stories ignite your curiosity, spark new conversations, and remind you why the future of finance remains one of the most exciting frontiers of human progress. Dive in.
A Q&A with ChainComply’s Pavlina Pavlova on Building Audit‑Ready Crypto Compliance
In the ever-evolving intersection of cryptocurrency and traditional finance, where innovation meets regulation, ChainComply emerges as a beacon for seamless compliance.
Founded by Pavlina Pavlova, a globetrotting blockchain enthusiast with deep roots in banking, fintech, and crypto across six continents and twenty countries, alongside co-founder Łukasz Łukaszewski, an entrepreneurial force who previously launched the first prime P2P lending platform in Central and Eastern Europe, and CTO Nikolay Stanev, the team draws from personal frustrations as crypto investors navigating rigid banking systems.
What began as a quest to demystify crypto’s source of wealth for banks has blossomed into a cutting-edge platform that’s already empowering institutions worldwide. Dive into this exclusive Q&A with Pavlina to uncover how ChainComply is revolutionizing compliance, making crypto accessible and auditable at scale—it’s a story of vision, grit, and the future of finance you won’t want to miss.
1- Tell us about yourself and your co-founder(s).
We’re a team with backgrounds in banking, fintech, and crypto infrastructure, focused on building practical compliance tools that enable regulated, scalable growth.
I come from a background spanning banking, fintech, and crypto infrastructure. The idea for ChainComply started with my own experience as a crypto investor who also needed to live a very traditional life – buying property, renovating, getting married – situations where crypto-related funds have to re-enter the regulated financial system.
I saw firsthand how difficult it was to explain a legitimate crypto source of wealth to banks. Together with my co-founders, who shared similar experiences across banking and fintech, it became clear that this gap wasn’t just personal but systemic. Building ChainComply was a natural response: creating infrastructure that allows banks to work with crypto safely, confidently, and at scale.
Read more from the interview: Building Audit‑Ready Crypto Compliance
Deal Highlights
Interesting to see the “WhatsApp as Software” model applied to the LatAm market – especially Brazil, where insurance distribution is broker-heavy, low on software, and high on manual workflows. With WhatsApp at over 90% penetration in Brazil, a solution like Segura fits well. In comparison, Europe and the US have higher concentration of larger brokers (especially in commercial insurance), relatively good penetration of software, email and CRMs, though brokers are still far from digital.
a16z co-leads Segura’s $8M round to use WhatsApp for insurance distribution…“We started Segura because we believed two things. First: brokers will matter more in the AI era, not less. Insurance is a trust business, and trust doesn’t scale through bots — it scales through people. Second: for carriers and brokers to thrive in that world, they need a different kind of infrastructure connecting them,” say the founders to Tech Funding News… Brokers can run customer journeys directly through WhatsApp, which is where most of their client communication already happens. Segura’s inclusion in the WhatsApp AI Startups Hub, which the company says makes it the only insurance firm currently in the programme, validates that channel choice.
With advisors the main bottleneck for scaling financial advice to individuals, emerging approaches range from advisor augmentation / co-pilot (a la Marloo, Jump, Zocks etc.) – which should see easier and faster adoption at least in the near term – to advice intelligence (e.g. Astor, Autonomous Technologies etc.) powered by AI, which is likely the future for all but the (U)HNWI.
Marloo raises $10m seed led by Blackbird Ventures… Marloo is building software designed to help advisers reduce administrative workloads and improve productivity. Its platform automates tasks including meeting note-taking, documentation and compliance processes, allowing advisers to spend more time with clients and focus on advice delivery.
On the institutional side, Performativ is rebuilding the infrastructure powering the wealth firms themselves. Deutsche Börse’s investment is a strong signal that incumbents expect modernization—not disintermediation. Looking at the retail and institutional sides in combination, the market is moving from product distribution to continuous financial decision-making. Whereas incumbent wealthtech players are “systems of record”, players like Performativ aim to become systems of intelligence and execution – the layer that decides what happens next.
Deutsche Börse Group invests in wealthtech Performativ…Founded in 2020, Performativ offers a single cloud-native platform that consolidates portfolio management, performance and attribution analysis, risk analytics, compliance, reporting, multi-custodian data aggregation, and trading into one unified operating system…Embedded AI agents automate the manual workflows that the firm says have defined inefficiency across the industry for decades. The technology is used by a broad range of European wealth and asset managers as well as private banks.
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.
PSD3: What we know, what we don’t, and what comes next.
by Frank Schwab
Exactly 1 week ago I joined BioCatch’s webinar “PSD3: What we know, what we don’t, and what comes next”. Here my key takeaways:
PSD3 is not just PSD2 with a new label. PSD3 should not be treated as a compliance project.
It is a structural shift in how banks must think about fraud, liability, customer protection, reimbursement, and operational resilience.
The most important point for boards is the direct link to the P&L.
Once reimbursement obligations become sharper, scam losses are no longer only an operational fraud issue. They become a financial, legal, and reputational risk.
Read more: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/frankschwab_psd3-psr-payments-share-7455577283882315776-HyoP
FUNDING ROUNDS
Tapaya raises €1M pre-seed to power payments on any device
Tapaya secured funding to simplify in-person payments by enabling acceptance on any device, reducing reliance on hardware and streamlining integration for banks, fintechs, and software platforms.
Prague-based payments infrastructure startup Tapaya has raised €1 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Passion Capital, with co-lead participation from Depo Ventures and follow-on investment from BADideas.fund.
Founded in 2025 by Laura Ďorďová, Roman Kuchařík, and Petr Zahradník, Tapaya is developing infrastructure that enables banks, fintechs, and software platforms to integrate in-person payment acceptance directly into their applications. The company is already working on integrations in the Czech Republic and expanding partnerships across Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltics.
https://tech.eu/2026/04/28/tapaya-raises-eur1m-pre-seed-to-power-payments-on-any-device
a16z co-leads Segura’s $8M round to use WhatsApp for insurance distribution
Brazilian startup Segura has raised an $8 million in a seed round to build what it calls the operating layer between insurers and brokers across Latin America.
The round was co-led byAndreessen Horowitz and Kaszek, Latin America’s most active venture firm, with participation from Big_Bets. Angels include Assaf Wand, co-founder and CEO of Hippo Insurance; Marcelo Blay; Fersen Lambranho; Anderson Thees; and the Almeida Braga family of Icatu, as well as entrepreneurs from NG Cash, Brex, and Fanatic.
Segura was founded in 2024 by Luis Alberto “Bebeto” Nogueira, Lucca Buffara, and Pedro Nobrega to connect insurers and brokers through a single operating layer, covering quote structuring, policy management, renewals, submissions, and billing across multiple carriers.
MagicCube Raises $10M to Expand Payment Security, AI Trust Platform
MagicCube, a Santa Clara-based payments security software developer, raised $10 million in a second funding close, joined by UAE’s e& capital, alongside earlier backing from Verifone and existing investors. The investment supports its software-defined trust platform, which secures payments, digital identity, and AI services across devices. The partnership highlights the Gulf’s growing role in AI infrastructure and aims to deliver neutral, sovereign-grade security enabling global scalability across clouds, devices, and jurisdictions.
Santa Clara, Calif.-based MagicCube, which makes security software for payments, has raised $10 million in funding from United Arab Emirates’ e& capital and others, marking the second closing of the investment round.
At the first close, investors included New York’s Verifone, along with existing investors such as Santa Monica, Calif.’s Bold Capital Partners and San Francisco’s Mosaik Partners.
Marloo raises $10m seed led by Blackbird Ventures
Marloo, an AI platform for financial advisers, has raised $10 million in seed funding led by Blackbird Ventures, which also participated in the company’s earlier pre-seed round. The latest raise brings Marloo’s total funding to $12.7 million within a year.
Marloo is building software designed to help advisers reduce administrative workloads and improve productivity. Its platform automates tasks including meeting note-taking, documentation and compliance processes, allowing advisers to spend more time with clients and focus on advice delivery.
The company also said its technology can identify opportunities that may otherwise be missed because of time pressures or disconnected data, using broader context across client relationships to surface relevant next steps over time.
https://ibsintelligence.com/ibsi-news/marloo-raises-10m-seed-led-by-blackbird-ventures
Deutsche Börse Group invests in wealthtech Performativ
Deutsche Börse Group has led a $14 million Series A funding round for Performativ, an AI-native operating system for wealth management.
The investment arm of Rabobank, former McKinsey senior partner Jacob Dahl, and existing investors including FinTech Collective and the Danish sovereign wealth fund, joined the round.
Founded in 2020, Performativ offers a single cloud-native platform that consolidates portfolio management, performance and attribution analysis, risk analytics, compliance, reporting, multi-custodian data aggregation, and trading into one unified operating system.
Embedded AI agents automate the manual workflows that the firm says have defined inefficiency across the industry for decades.
https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/47643/deutsche-brse-group-invests-in-wealthtech-performativ
Pmtbox raises $15m seed to unify commerce infrastructure
Pmtbox, an enterprise commerce platform designed to consolidate payments, risk, and data for merchants, has closed a $15m seed funding round — reported to be the largest seed raise in Utah over the past decade.
The round was led by Tandem Ventures, with contributions from Element Ventures, Cynosure Investment Partners, and Aaron Skonnard, founder and CEO of Pluralsight.
The capital will be directed towards scaling pmtbox’s engineering, risk, and enterprise functions, as well as speeding up go-to-market activity across sectors where commerce complexity is greatest.
Alongside the funding announcement, Tandem founding partner Alex Bean has joined the pmtbox board of directors, with Nick Thomas, founder of Finicity, coming on board as an independent director.
https://fintech.global/2026/05/01/pmtbox-raises-15m-seed-to-unify-commerce-infrastructure/
Solana Ventures leads $18 million round in Squads to scale its stablecoin platform Altitude
Quick Take
- Squads, known for its Solana-based multisig protocol, has raised $18 million in new funding to scale its stablecoin platform Altitude.
- Solana Ventures led the strategic funding round as Squads bets that “businesses are better off running on stablecoins than on banks.”
Squads, known for its Solana-based multisig protocol, has raised $18 million in a strategic funding round to expand its recently launched stablecoin platform Altitude.
Solana Ventures led the funding round, with Coinbase Ventures, Haun Ventures, L1D, and others participating, Squads said Wednesday. The round was raised in a single tranche and structured as a priced equity round, Stepan Simkin, co-founder and CEO of Squads, told The Block. He declined to disclose valuation or whether any investors took board or observer seats in this round.
https://www.theblock.co/post/399386/solana-ventures-squads-funding-stablecoin-altitude
Fence Raises $20M to Replace the Legacy Trust & Agency Industry for Asset-Backed Finance
The $15 trillion asset-backed finance market still runs on spreadsheets, PDFs, and email. Fence replaces this legacy system with real-time, software-driven infrastructure for verification, enforcement, and capital movement.
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Fence, the technology platform rebuilding the infrastructure of asset-backed finance, today announced $20 million in new funding, led by Galaxy Ventures. The round was oversubscribed and includes participation from seed investors ParaFi Capital and Crane Ventures Partners (FKA MassMutual Ventures), both of whom re-upped only some months after Fence’s seed round.
A $15 Trillion Industry Running on Spreadsheets, PDFs, and Emails
Fence is built to address the $15 trillion asset-backed finance market, which remains slow, opaque, and operationally inefficient despite a decade of technological transformation in lending itself.
Zamp raises $30m to build sales tax OS for accountants
Zamp, a sales tax compliance platform positioning itself as the operating system for sales tax, has raised a total of $30m to accelerate the development of its platform and expand its accounting firm partnerships.
The most recent funding round was led by Acrew Capital, with participation from Thomson Reuters Ventures and a number of Zamp’s accounting firm partners. They join earlier backers including Friends & Family Capital, 20Growth, Good Friends Venture Capital, and a range of other investors and operators.
The company intends to deploy the capital across three areas: scaling its accounting firm channel, developing new product capabilities powered by AI agents, and expanding internationally across the EU, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and more than 100 countries in total.
https://fintech.global/2026/04/30/zamp-raises-30m-to-build-sales-tax-os-for-accountants/
Blockworks Valued at $192M in Latest Fundraise, Bets on Rolling up Fragmented Data Industry
Blockworks has raised a Series A extension, co-led by ParaFi and Reciprocal Ventures, with participation from 20+ of our customers and a group of operators we deeply admire.
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Blockworks, the leading crypto data platform, today announced the close of a Series A extension at a $192 million valuation. The round was co-led by ParaFi and Reciprocal Ventures, with additional investment from Coinbase Ventures, Advancit Capital, MoonPay Ventures, Firestreak, Modular, Moonrock, Auros, Flowdesk, EV3, Equilibrium, EVG, 6ixth Event, Sfermion, The Rollup, Milk Road, and more.
More than 20 founders and operators from Blockworks’ customer base participated personally in the round, including leaders from Solana, MegaETH, LayerZero, Pyth, EigenLayer, Canton, Zora, ZKsync, Ellipsis, Kraken, Pudgy Penguins, Jito, Arbitrum, Celestia, MFV, Squads, Berachain, Baxus, Dawn, Polygon, Katana, InfStones, Steakhouse, and more.
Versana raises $43m led by BNP Paribas to modernise loan markets
Versana, a digital infrastructure platform for the broadly syndicated loan and private credit markets, has closed a $43m capital raise led by BNP Paribas, with new strategic investments from Fitch Ventures, MassMutual Ventures, Motive Partners and Apollo.
Existing shareholders Bank of America, Barclays, Citi, Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, U.S. Bancorp and Wells Fargo also made follow-on investments in support of the company’s continued growth.
The latest financing brings Versana’s total capital raised to more than $125m across several funding rounds.
BNP Paribas, as lead investor, has taken a strategic stake in the platform to back Versana’s ongoing global expansion. Fitch Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Fitch Group, has come on board to help extend the platform’s reach into the pre-trade, credit decision-making process used by portfolio managers and credit analysts.
https://fintech.global/2026/04/30/versana-raises-43m-led-by-bnp-paribas-to-modernise-loan-markets
Exclusive: Goldman Sachs Leads $60M Series C For Personal Loan Fintech Kashable
Kashable, a fintech that provides access to “socially responsible” credit and financial wellness programs for employees as a voluntary benefit, has secured $60 million in a Series C funding round led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives’ Sustainable Investing.
Goldman Sachs Alternatives has committed up to $50 million to the round, including an initial $25 million investment and an additional $25 million to be funded in the coming months, subject to undisclosed conditions.
Existing backers Revolution and EJF Ventures also participated in the financing, which brings New York-based Kashable’s total equity and debt raised to more than $450 million since its 2013 inception. The company declined to reveal its valuation saying only it had tripled since its January 2024 Series B raise.
https://news.crunchbase.com/fintech/kashable-secures-60m-seriesc-goldman-sachs
Rogo Raises $160M Series D to Scale the Agentic Platform for Finance
The category leader in AI for 250+ global investment banks and investment firms raises new capital to deepen institutional partnerships, scale its agentic platform, and accelerate global expansion
NEW YORK, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Rogo, the AI platform purpose-built for finance, today announced it has raised $160 million in Series D funding led by Kleiner Perkins, with participation from Sequoia, Thrive Capital, Khosla Ventures, J.P. Morgan Growth Equity Partners, BoxGroup, Mantis VC, Jack Altman, Evantic and Positive Sum. The Series D brings Rogo’s total funding to more than $300 million and positions Rogo to accelerate the company’s global expansion, deepen its partnerships with the world’s leading financial institutions, and scale its AI agent, Felix.
VENTURE FUNDS
Illuminate Financial raises $135m for fintech fund
Illuminate Financial, the specialist venture capital firm focused on technology for financial services, today announced it has raised $135 million for its Early Growth Fund from investors including BNP Paribas, Citi, Deutsche Börse, HSBC, Jefferies, RBC, S&P Global, and TD Securities
The fund targets Series B+ Enterprise AI and Fintech companies at the critical inflection point between proven technology and institutional scale.
Few venture funds can offer portfolio companies direct relationships with the institutions that will ultimately buy, partner with, or scale their technology. Illuminate’s strategic investor base provides an unparalleled network of go-to-market relationships, industry expertise, and operational insight. Their involvement is a meaningful differentiator for Series B companies seeking to accelerate enterprise adoption.
https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/109633/illuminate-financial-raises-135m-for-fintech-fund
Northwestern Mutual Announces $150 Million Venture Capital Commitment to Accelerate Fintech Innovation
Northwestern Mutual is taking another significant step to drive innovation in the financial services industry, announcing a new $150 million investment to support promising startups across the fintech and insurtech landscape. Awarded through Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures (NMFV), the funds will expand the company’s total venture capital allocation to $350 million – deepening its commitment to elevating the experience for clients and the advisors who guide them.
“This renewed commitment reinforces our belief in the power of innovation, and the exciting startups helping to transform how Americans build financial security,” said Michael Sias, vice president – corporate development and venture, Northwestern Mutual. “The funds expand our ability to partner with high-growth companies, delivering technology, collaboration, and value to our more than five million clients and our nationwide network of trusted financial professionals.”
M&A
Huboo Acquires Sorted
Huboo, a Bristol, UK-based tech-enabled e-commerce fulfilment company, acquired Sorted Group Limited, a Manchester. UK-based delivery technology company.
The amount of the deal was not disclosed.
With the acquisition Huboo will support emerging, scaling and established brands, including large national and international retailers, with new logistics solutions.
The business plans to continue expanding its presence across the US, Asia and the Middle East as it scales globally.
Founded in 2010, Sorted Group Limited is a company which specializes in delivery management and courier optimisation technology, supporting major retailers worldwide.
Huboo is an e-commerce fulfilment provider supporting retail brands across the UK, Europe and internationally.
https://www.finsmes.com/2026/04/huboo-acquires-sorted.html
Aleph Alpha strikes $20bn merger deal with Canada’s Cohere
German investor Schwarz Digits to invest $600m in new transatlantic entity
Canadian AI startup Cohere has agreed to take over Germany’s Aleph Alpha in a deal valuing the combined group at around $20bn, banking on both country’s desire for “sovereign” AI systems independent of the US.
The tie-up, which has been endorsed by both German and Canadian governments, will create a transatlantic player focused on helping enterprise and public sector clients tighten control over their data and infrastructure, marking a direct challenge to US hyperscalers such as OpenAI and Google.
Cohere, which will retain its name and operate dual headquarters in Canada and Germany, has increasingly leaned into private deployments of large language models (LLMs).
https://sifted.eu/articles/aleph-alpha-strikes-20bn-merger-deal-with-canadas-cohere
Adyen to acquire loyalty platform Talon.One for €750m
Talon.One’s co-founders will reinvest a “meaningful portion” of their proceeds into Adyen shares when the deal closes in H2 2026.
Dutch paytech Adyen has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of the shares in Talon.One, a Berlin-based provider of customer loyalty software, for €750 million. The transaction, which remains subject to regulatory approvals and expected to close in H2 2026, will be financed via available Adyen cash resources.
Talon.One, founded in 2015 by CEO Christoph Gerber and COO Sebastian Haas, offers an API-based platform specialising in enterprise loyalty management, personalised promotions, offer execution, and AI-driven incentive optimisation. The company, whose technology is utilised by brands such as Bilt, Adidas, and Nordstrom, is projected to generate approximately €60 million in annual recurring revenue by the end of 2026.
https://www.fintechfutures.com/m-a/adyen-to-acquire-talon-one-for-750m
FUNDS
Passion Capital: $55 Million Raised For Fourth Seed Fund Passion IV Targeting AI, Fintech, And Enterprise Risk Startups
Passion Capital announced the close of its fourth seed fund, Passion IV, alongside two special-purpose vehicles, totaling $55 million in capital. The fund is fully backed by private investors and will continue the firm’s strategy of writing first checks to founders building in artificial intelligence, fintech, and enterprise risk across the UK and Europe.
The new fund has already been deployed into 13 companies, with the firm highlighting strong early traction across its initial portfolio. Passion Capital emphasized its continued commitment to disciplined fund sizing while maintaining a focused early-stage investment approach.
The announcement follows a strong period of performance for Passion’s broader portfolio. In 2025, the firm recorded multiple exits and liquidity events, including Ravelin, Tillo, and Xelix.
Kurma Partners closes €215 million Biofund IV to back European BioTech ventures from Paris
Kurma Partners, a French healthcare venture capital firm, announced the final closing of Biofund IV at €215 million to support the discovery and development of disruptive therapeutic solutions for severe or incurable diseases.
Building on the €160 million Biofund III, this fundraise has increased the new vehicle’s size by nearly 35%. Biofund IV is backed by three cornerstone investors – the Australian pharmaceutical company CSL, the European Investment Fund (EIF), and Bpifrance (which invests directly and through the Biotech Health Acceleration Fund, managed as part of the France 2030 initiative).
Thierry Laugel and Rémi Droller, Managing Partners at Kurma Partners, said: “This latest closing reflects our investors’ long-standing trust in the model we have built over the past fifteen years: an integrated ecosystem that bridges the gap between scientific discovery and venture capital financing.
Every edition of this newsletter is a small argument that finance, at its core, is a human project — one where the right infrastructure, the right insight, and the right moment of capital can change who gets access, who gets protected, and who gets to build.
The companies and ideas in these pages are making that argument with their work.
If something resonated — a deal, a perspective, a thread you want to pull further — we’d love to hear from you. And if you know someone building or backing what’s next in finance, pass this along. The conversation is always better with more voices in it.
Until next week.