Welcome to this week’s edition. In a financial landscape moving at breakneck speed, true leadership is no longer just about accelerating technology—it is about mastering the infrastructure that supports it. As artificial intelligence and ecosystem banking redraw the boundaries of our industry, the standard for success has shifted from reactive compliance to proactive, embedded trust.
In this issue, we sit down for an exclusive Q&A with Carl Strempel from Qala to discuss how they are shifting data governance “left,” embedding compliance directly where data is born to unlock the safe adoption of AI. Complementing this vision, our resident expert Frank Schwab challenges the traditional view of APIs, revealing why they are no longer just technical plumbing, but the strategic gateways to the future of banking.
We also bring you exclusive scaling insights from Samarth Shekhar, highlighting three trailblazing B2B fintechs unlocking massive, underserved market segments. Finally, we celebrate a powerhouse roster of innovators who have successfully secured fresh venture capital—pioneers whose momentum guides our market perspective and inspires our collective journey toward what’s next in finance.
Grab a coffee, dive in, and let’s explore the frontiers of financial evolution together.
A Q&A with Carl Strempel from Qala on Building Real-Time Data Governance for the AI Era
In the fast-evolving world of AI adoption, where innovation races ahead but regulation struggles to keep pace, true leaders don’t just build technology—they embed trust from the very first line of code. That’s the vision behind Qala AG, founded by David Scott Turner, Carl Strempel, and Bruno Soares, a team with a strong track record of building secure, compliant infrastructure in highly regulated environments.
After scaling and exiting their previous venture, Imburse Payments—an enterprise payments platform used by global insurers—to a US-listed Insurtech in 2023, they spotted a critical gap: data compliance, governance, and risk management remain largely siloed, reactive, and built for manual, human use. Controls are typically applied only after data has been created or ingested, rather than being proactively embedded and enforced at the point of origin. They believe governance can no longer sit at the edges; it needs to be embedded directly where data is created and used. They founded Qala to make that shift possible. In this candid Q&A, Carl Strempel shares how the team is turning that belief into reality.
1. Tell us about yourself / your co-founder(s).
As a team we have worked together for many years building technology in highly regulated industries. Before founding Qala AG, we built and scaled Imburse Payments together, an enterprise payments platform used by global insurers. After exiting the company to a US-listed Insurtech in 2023, we continued to lead critical areas across product, engineering, and AI initiatives until leaving to start Qala AG.
Our team has a complementary combination of product, engineering, and compliance expertise, shaped by years working with highly regulated data in the financial services and insurance sectors. Operating in those environments gave us first-hand insight into the complexity of managing strict data security requirements, regulatory frameworks, and evolving compliance obligations.
Over time we became increasingly frustrated by how much data governance and compliance still relied on manual processes, spreadsheets, and institutional knowledge, particularly when teams needed to evidence how data was handled across modern software systems. We realised that for many stakeholders, internal software systems were a black box, making data security and governance difficult to verify in practice and something that was becoming a real bottleneck for the safe adoption of agentic solutions.
These experiences led us to found Qala. The company was created to shift governance and security left to where data and software are actually built and operated. We enable organisations to embed governance directly into their systems, providing real-time data visibility and ensuring compliance happens continuously rather than retrospectively.
Read more from the interview: Rethinking Compliance and Data Visibility in the Age of AI
B2B FinTech @Scale – Deal Highlights
Samarth Shekhar highlights startups that can help scale financial services by unlocking new customer segments or product offerings via B2B partnerships.
Exponent $10M Seed/Series A, co-led by Era and Chailease
The Scaling Opportunity: Exponent addresses ca. 730,000+ US franchisees, that are underserved by traditional finance—by combining growth lending, a franchise-focused corporate card, and AI accounting into a single platform. Banks and franchise networks have the opportunity to white-label their infrastructure to offer financial tools to their franchisee networks, unlocking an underserved $400B+ SMB segment without building that capability in-house.
Outmarket AI $17M Series A, led by Permanent Capital Ventures
The Scaling Opportunity: Outmarket AI automates the insurance industry’s most painful workflows—policy comparison, gap detection, proposal generation—turning hours of manual work into minutes and reducing errors & omissions by 65%. The platform integrates directly into the agency management systems (AMS) that 250+ brokerages already rely on, enabling them to handle significantly higher deal volume and cross-sell more complex products without scaling headcount. Banks entering commercial insurance could white-label Outmarket’s workflows to their SMB customers. Insurance networks and larger agency groups can embed it into their franchisee operations to standardize quality and accelerate growth—essentially giving community brokers enterprise-grade capabilities overnight.
Adfin €18M Series A, led by Index Ventures
The Scaling Opportunity: Adfin helps UK SMBs reduce late invoice payments from 63% industry-wide to just 9% through agentic finance—automating credit control workflows like late-fee calculations and payment reminders while keeping humans in control. Banks and accounting software providers can embed Adfin’s infrastructure into their SMB platforms, adding cash-flow optimization as a stickier feature. This transforms money movement from a cost center (admin) into a competitive advantage, enabling financial institutions to deepen SMB customer relationships.
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.
APIs are no longer technical plumbing.
by Frank Schwab
They are the strategic gateways through which banking enters the age of ecosystems, embedded finance, and open innovation.
They connect banks to customers, fintechs, platforms, merchants, devices, and entirely new digital value chains.
The scale is becoming impossible to ignore: open banking API calls are expected to rise from 102 billion in 2023 to 580 billion by 2027.
Read more here: APIs are no longer technical plumbing.
VENTURE FINANCING
TwoWay raises €1.5m pre-seed, brings real-time intelligence to fragmented trading desks
Paris-based fintech TwoWay, led by industry leaders Chirine BenZaied-Bourgerie, David Boclé, and Guillaume Spay, aims to tackle the volume of unstructured broker communication that dominates front-office flows across institutional trading.
Announced today, TwoWay has raised €1.5 million in pre-seed funding in a round led by VC firm welovefounders and with participation from Tenity, Plug and Play, SuperCapital, Unorthodox Partners, to name a few. This raise marks an early validation of the fintech firm’s ambition to modernise how market intelligence is captured, structured, and acted upon across trading desks.
A problem hidden in plain sight
For decades, industry experts have predicted that voice trading was on its way out due to its inefficiencies. However, despite investment having been driven into electronic trading technology, a significant portion of financial markets, particularly across fixed income, derivatives, and complex, high-value trades, still rely on voice and chat.
Boundary Labs Raises $2M to Launch Institutional Stablecoin USBD
Boundary Labs has secured $2 million in new funding led by Galaxy Ventures to develop and launch USBD, a new institutional-grade stablecoin designed to provide enhanced transparency through daily onchain reserve updates. The announcement adds to the growing wave of innovation in the stablecoin sector as investors and financial institutions continue to explore blockchain-based alternatives to traditional payment and settlement systems.
The funding round highlights increasing investor confidence in infrastructure-focused stablecoin projects, particularly those targeting institutional use cases such as corporate treasury management, cross-border payments, and digital asset settlement. The development has also drawn attention across the broader crypto industry, with discussions emerging on platforms and communities following updates linked to the official X account associated with CoinMarketCap.
https://www.mexc.com/news/1084532
Exponent Raises $10M in Funding
Exponent, a New York-based financing and expense management platform for franchise operators, has raised $10 million in combined Seed and Series A funding.
Investors
The $7.7 million Series A round was co-led by Era and Chailease, with participation from K8 Fund, Kyle Kuzma, Haza Foods, and Chunara Group.
Era is a New York-based multi-strategy investment management firm founded in 2022 that focuses on early-stage venture investments and opportunistic credit. The firm primarily targets technology and innovative companies.
Chailease is a financial services company focused on leasing, financing, and investment solutions across Asia and international markets. Originally established as China Leasing Company Limited, Chailease has expanded across Taiwan, China, ASEAN markets, the United States, and Europe, serving primarily small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Exponent Use of Funds
The company plans to use the funding to expand its lending capabilities, secure additional credit facilities, and launch AI-driven accounting tools.
About Exponent
Led by CEO Sohel Roopani, Exponent provides financing and expense management solutions tailored for franchise operators. The platform combines growth lending, a franchise-focused corporate charge card, and an AI-powered accounting suite designed to give operators real-time financial visibility and improved access to capital. By building financial tools around franchise unit economics, Exponent aims to modernize financial infrastructure for one of the largest sectors of small businesses in the U.S.
https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/exponent-raises-10m-in-funding
Onramp Raises $12.5M Series A to Scale Multi-Institution Bitcoin Custody Platform
Onramp has raised $12.5 million in a Series A round led by Early Riders, valuing the bitcoin financial services firm at $135 million as it pushes to scale a custody model designed to meet institutional standards.
The Austin-based company told Bitcoin Magazine it now holds more than $1 billion in assets under custody and has recorded zero security incidents since its founding in 2023. The new capital will support expansion of Onramp Finance, its recently launched platform that combines bitcoin custody, brokerage, and cash management, while funding new partnerships across banks, registered investment advisors, and fintech firms.
At the center of the strategy is Onramp’s Multi-Institution Custody (MIC) model, which distributes key control across several regulated custodians rather than relying on a single entity or placing full responsibility on clients.
https://www.mexc.com/news/1094103
Turnkey raises $12.5 million in round backed by Circle Ventures and Sequoia Capital
The new capital will primarily fund the development and public launch of Turnkey Verifiable Cloud, a secure computing product for digital assets.
Turnkey has raised $12.5 million in a strategic investment round backed by Archetype, Circle Ventures and existing investors, bringing its total funding to more than $65 million.
Bain Capital Crypto, Lightspeed Faction, Galaxy Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Variant also participated. The raise follows Turnkey’s $30 million Series B, led by Bain Capital Crypto last year, and its $15 million Series A, led by Lightspeed Faction and Galaxy Ventures in 2024.
Turnkey builds wallet and key-management infrastructure for crypto applications. The company said the new capital will support development of Turnkey Verifiable Cloud, a secure computing product for digital assets and sensitive workloads, ahead of its public launch.
Stablecoin yield infrastructure project raises $13.5M in round led by Sky Ecosystem
Osero is coming with three products: Earn, App, and Foundry.
Osero, a stablecoin yield infrastructure project incubated by Stablewatch and Soter Labs, raised $13.5 million in a round led by the Sky Ecosystem and co-led by Plasma.
The round included angel investors representing USDT0, Maple, Accountable, Four Pillars, RedStone, The Rollup and Kairos Research, according to an announcement.
Stablecoins have grown to more than $300 billion, according to DeFiLlama data. Most yield from the assets backing those stablecoins still goes to issuers like Circle and Tether, leaving holders with no direct return and fintech firms with limited ways to offer stablecoin savings products without managing assets themselves.
French BTC treasury firm Capital B raises $18 million from Adam Back, others
Capital B, a France-based bitcoin treasury company, announced Monday that it has raised 15.2 million euros ($17.8 million) to accelerate its bitcoin accumulation strategy.
According to its press release, the company raised the funds through a private placement of 23 million ABSA shares, with four share subscription warrants attached to each share, priced at 0.66 euros per share.
“In the event that all warrants issued in connection with this transaction were to be exercised, this would result in an additional capital increase of €99.1 million ($116.6 million) through the issuance of 92,155,376 additional ordinary shares,” the company said.
The firm plans to use the net proceeds, estimated at 14.4 million euros ($17 million), to strengthen its bitcoin treasury. It stated that the funds, together with ongoing operations, could support the acquisition of 182 BTC, bringing Capital B’s total to 3,125 BTC.
https://www.theblock.co/post/400677/btc-treasury-capital-b-raise-adam-back
Outmarket AI Raises $17M Series A to Power the Intelligence Era of Insurance
SAN FRANCISCO, May 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Outmarket AI, the leading AI platform purpose-built for insurance, today announced it has raised $17 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Permanent Capital Ventures, with participation from SignalFire, Fika Ventures, TTV Capital, and Dash Fund. The round also includes strategic investments from leading independent agency networks, prominent agency owners, and senior industry executives, signaling broad institutional confidence in Outmarket’s vision for the future of insurance. This investment brings Outmarket’s total funding to $21.7 million.
The capital will fuel the next phase of Outmarket’s platform expansion, including the development of new AI-driven workflows designed to tackle the most complex, high-stakes processes across commercial, benefits, personal lines, and specialty insurance. Outmarket’s platform connects directly to agency management systems, transforming fragmented brokerage data into an intelligence layer that powers every workflow.
(Adfin) Announcing our Series A: Raising $18 million to help the world build better businesses
Today we’re proud to announce we’ve closed our Series A, bringing the total invested in Adfin to over $30M in less than two years. Our long-time supporters Index Ventures have tripled down by leading the round, along with existing investors Visionaries Club. We’re also delighted to welcome Stéphane Kurgan, one of Europe’s best operators, and Andrey Khusid, founder of Miro as new investors.
While we started with helping businesses get paid on time, we are now setting our sights beyond this. We want businesses using Adfin to automate their entire finance process: money that moves itself, with teams free to focus on what actually requires judgement. We firmly believe the future of money movement is exceptional payments infrastructure plus AI: automating the tedious, manual tasks, while keeping humans in control. The Series A gives us the resources to get there.
https://adfin.com/post/series-a
Fifth Dimension Raises $26M Series A
Real assets firms have been drowning in data and starving for insight. With $26M in new funding and trillions in assets already on the platform, Fifth Dimension is closing that gap for the firms that move now.
The intelligence gap is closing for firms that move now.
Fifth Dimension has raised $26M in a Series A led by HV Capital, with participation from Prudence, Mercia, MMC and AFG, and continued support from Speedinvest, Seedcamp and Anthemis. Total funding now exceeds $40M. The round accelerates expansion across the US and Asia Pacific, including a new Singapore office, and deepens the platform’s agentic AI capabilities for real assets investment decisions.
https://www.fifthdimensionai.com/news/fifth-dimension-raises-series-a
Embat secures €30 million Series B
Treasury management fintech Embat has raised €30 million from AI-focused investement fund Cathay Innovation with support from existing investors.
Founded by Antonio Berga and Carlos Serrano – former J.P. Morgan executives with an extensive track record in corporate and investment banking – alongside Tomás Gil – former CTO of Fintonic – Embat integrates with over 15,000 banks and major ERPs, eliminating data fragmentation. Its key difference is TellMe, an agentic AI treasury analyst capable of detecting cash flow patterns, automating complex reconciliations, and suggesting strategic decisions to optimise liquidity.
The firm has raised over €50 million since its inception in 2021. Its team of 150 people and AI technology enables 400 corporate clients across Europe to automate up to 80% of manual treasury tasks.
https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/47735/embat-secures-30-million-series-b
Elliptic secures $120m in One Peak-led Series D fundraise
The fundraise, made at a valuation of $670 million, saw participation from Deutsche Bank, the British Business Bank, Nasdaq Ventures, JP Morgan, AlbionVC, and Evolution Equity.
Elliptic, a digital asset surveillance regtech, has bagged $120 million in Series D funding at a valuation of $670 million.
The round was led by One Peak and saw support from Deutsche Bank, the British Business Bank, and Nasdaq Ventures. Repeat investors JP Morgan, AlbionVC, and Evolution Equity also participated in the fundraise.
Founded in 2013, Elliptic helps financial institutions detect and prevent cryptocurrency-related financial crime through its real-time analytics of over 65 blockchains, as well as its crypto compliance and stablecoin risk management solutions.
The latest funding expands Elliptic’s balance sheet, which last saw an influx in late 2025, when HSBC invested an undisclosed figure to support the regtech’s expansion plans.
https://www.fintechfutures.com/venture-capital-funding/elliptic-secures-120m-series-d-fundraise
Paymentology Raises $175 Million co-led by Apis Partners and Aspirity Partners to Support Next Phase of Growth
London, 12th May 2026 – Paymentology, the leading global issuer-processor, today announced a $175 million investment co-led by Apis Partners (”Apis”), a private equity firm specialising in financial infrastructure and services, and Aspirity Partners (“Aspirity”), a pan-European Private Equity firm focused on Financial Technology & Services and Enterprise Technology & Connectivity Services.
The investment will support Paymentology’s continued global expansion, product development and strengthening of its team, as the company builds on strong demand for modern issuer processing on a global scale.
The transaction brings together two investors with deep experience in the payments industry and a shared focus on advancing payments infrastructure, united by the view that issuer processing represents one of the most significant opportunities in the sector
VENTURE FUNDS
Restive Ventures raises $45 million for AI-native fintech fund
Restive Ventures, the early-stage venture firm, announced the close of its third fund, Restive Fund III, with $45 million in committed capital, reinforcing its conviction in a new category of AI-native financial services companies reshaping the global financial system.
Financial services is poised to be one of the markets most transformed by large language models. AI-native startups are not simply improving legacy fintech systems but are building entirely new products, workflows, and outcomes across payments, commerce, and financial operations. These companies are reaching scale faster, with less capital, while addressing a broader set of problems than ever before. Fund III takes advantage of these shifts. Restive continues to focus on writing the first check into ambitious founders at the earliest stages, maintaining a concentrated, high-conviction strategy designed for performance in an AI-driven market.
This week’s founders, investors, and operators remind us that the next era of financial services will be defined by those willing to rethink how data flows, how institutions collaborate, and how technology empowers both businesses and people at scale.
Thank you for reading and being part of this growing community exploring what’s next in finance. We’ll be back next week with more conversations, analysis, and signals shaping the future of the industry.
Until then — keep building, questioning, and innovating.