There’s a quiet revolution underway in financial services — and this week’s edition puts you right at the center of it.
From the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies grappling with rogue AI tools, to the settlement rails being laid for a world where autonomous agents transact on your behalf, the pace of change has never felt more urgent — or more full of possibility.
This week, we bring you a candid conversation with Neil Cohen, VP of Marketing at Portal26, on what it really takes to govern AI at enterprise scale — and why security alone is no longer enough to win.
Our analyst Samarth Shekhar spotlights three B2B FinTech companies rewriting the rules of financial infrastructure, from global payroll to digital asset liquidity. Frank Schwab makes the case that the coding bottleneck that held banks hostage for decades is finally, definitively, over.
And in our funding roundup, we track the capital flowing into the companies building the financial stack of tomorrow — from stablecoin infrastructure to AI-native banking, compliance automation to small business finance.
The signal is clear: the future of finance is being built right now. Let’s get into it.
A Q&A with Portal 26’s Neil Cohen on Turning AI Governance into Competitive Advantage
In the fast-moving world of enterprise technology, true visionaries are those who recognize shifting tides long before the crowd does. Founded in 2019 as pioneers in advanced data security, Arti Raman (CEO), Pakshi Rajan (Chief Product/AI Officer), and Karthick Mariappan (VP of Engineering) executed a decisive, visionary pivot in 2022—well before GenAI became a global boardroom obsession. Recognizing the imminent friction between rapid AI adoption and corporate vulnerability, this powerhouse founding team channeled their deep security expertise from giants like Symantec, Verizon, and DataRobot to build Portal 26, the industry’s most mature AI Adoption Management Platform.
Today, as organizations rush to deploy autonomous agents and large language models, Portal 26 stands as the essential bridge between defense and offense—helping Fortune 500 companies and highly regulated financial institutions secure their data while accelerating real ROI.
In this candid Q&A, Neil Cohen, VP of Marketing at Portal 26, shares powerful insights on visibility, governance, ROI realization, and the exploding opportunities—and risks—of agentic AI.
1-Tell us about yourself / your co-founder(s).
Our co-founders, CEO Arti Raman, Chief Product/AI Officer Pakshi Rajan, VP of Engineering, Karthick Mariappan, have deep leadership experience in security, AI/Machine learning and product development with companies like Symantec, Data Robot, Verizon and Yahoo. They had all worked together previously before starting the company together in 2019. They are in my opinion visionaries who understood the challenges of AI user consumption before anyone else. As the author of this Q & A, I came to the company as a consultant to assist with marketing, and now serve as VP of Marketing – my previous background is as marketing executive with companies from Fortune 500 to startups. The opportunity to be part of this amazing time in history first hand was too compelling not to join this team and company. Fun fact – all the members of the team have run a marathon.
Read more from the interview: Portal 26 on Securing and Scaling Enterprise AI Adoption
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.
RemotePass ($17.4M Series B) captures payroll, payment, and embedded fintech revenue from the global employment segment—100M+ contractors, freelancers, and distributed teams that traditional banks have ignored. This could be a significant revenue opportunity for banking partners through payroll processing fees, payment disbursements, and financial services embedded into the payroll flow.
Checker ($8M Series A, $3B TPV): Checker scales directly with bank adoption of digital assets and stablecoins. The $3B transaction volume in year one proves institutional demand exists today—banks are asking for this infrastructure. Each major bank integrating Checker multiplies TPV and fees. However, Checker’s scaling is contingent on banks committing to digital asset strategies. If regulatory uncertainty continues, scaling stalls.
AEON ($8M Pre-seed): AEON is building the settlement layer for the agentic economy—autonomous AI agents that execute financial transactions (treasuries, rebalancing, settlements) on behalf of customers. This is an entirely new product category that doesn’t exist at scale today, but banks that integrate AEON could offer autonomous financial products, capturing new revenue from customers willing to pay for AI-native financial management.
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 Death of the Coding Bottleneck: Why Legacy SaaS is Shaking.
by Frank Schwab
Coding is no longer a bottleneck. It’s a force multiplier.
For decades, banks were held hostage by two things:
- The scarcity of high-end engineering talent.
- The slow, rigid release cycles of “Big Tech” vendors.
That era is over.
The latest AI models are doing something revolutionary: They aren’t just helping juniors; they are turning good programmers into elite, high-velocity architects. When coding efficiency jumps by 40% or more, the strategic “Make or Buy” equation flips upside down.
Read more here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/frankschwab_fintech-bankingstrategy-ai-activity-7452593305952862208-TabX
FUNDING ROUNDS
Guzco Raised €1 Million to Fight Payment Fraud
Dutch company Guzco, specializing in fraud detection and claims management in e-commerce, has raised one million euros in growth capital in a pre-seed investment round.
Last summer, professional hockey player Boris Burkhardt and Stein van Maasakker launched Guzco to help e-commerce companies automate disputed payment claims using AI.
“My package never arrived”, four words that cost the e-commerce industry billions every year. Whether it’s legitimate delivery complaints, chargebacks, Klarna disputes, or outright friendly fraud, the problem of disputed transactions and false claims has become one of the most persistent and costly challenges facing online retailers today. And it’s only getting worse.
This is a massive, fast-growing issue, and Guzco, the company tackling it, is setting its sights on a staggering $132 billion opportunity.
https://www.connectingthedotsinfin.tech/guzco-raised-eur1-million-to-fight-payment-fraud/
Aryze Closes €3m Pre-Series A as Stablecoin Issuers Move to Integrated Infrastructure
Danish fintech Aryze raises €3m Pre-Series A to scale its Stablecoin infrastructure for licensed issuers of stablecoins and tokenised real-world assets (RWA).
Stablecoin issuers don’t ask for innovation. They ask for issuance and the rails that move fiat in and out, on the same stack rather than separate vendors stitched together.”
— Bertram Seitz, CEO, Aryze
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK, May 19, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Aryze, a Danish fintech company providing stablecoin tech infrastructure as a service, has closed a €3 million Pre-Series A round. The capital funds the continued development of Aryze’s Stablecoin infrastructure. The stack combines stablecoin issuance and bank-to-bank fiat on- and off-ramps for licensed issuers of stablecoins and tokenised real-world assets (RWA).
Benji Announces $6.25 Million in New Funding to Expand Infrastructure for Loyalty Partnerships
Seed round led by Preface Ventures and Atinc backs the “Plaid for loyalty” as airlines, hospitality, retail, and consumer brands race to grow mutual customer bases
CHICAGO & NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Benji, the universal API for loyalty partnerships, today announced a $6.25 million seed funding round led by Preface Ventures and Atinc, with participation from Great North Ventures, M25, and Hyde Park Venture Partners. Benji’s growing network includes JetBlue’s loyalty program as well as those of several other leading brands such as Cook Unity, 1800-Flowers and Chip City, with a total of more than 50 million active members combined. The funding will support expansion of the company’s engineering and go-to-market teams in Chicago and New York as Benji continues building integrations across its loyalty partnership network.
AEON Raises $8M Led by YZi Labs to Build the Settlement Layer for Agentic Economy
HONG KONG, May 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — AEON, the settlement layer built for the agentic economy, today announced it has successfully closed an $8 million pre-seed funding round. The round was led by YZi Labs, with participation from a robust group of leading investors, including IDG Capital, HashKey Capital, Stanford Blockchain Builders Fund, Oak Grove Ventures, SevenX Ventures, Alchemy Ventures, Draper Dragon, Contribution Capital, and Uphonest Capital.
The funding will accelerate AEON’s mission to build the financial backbone required for a new economic paradigm, where AI reshapes production relations across the internet and becomes an active participant in global commerce. AEON is building the settlement layer that this new paradigm demands, powering the agentic economy at scale, and bridging Agent-to-Agent (A2A) interactions with real-world merchant settlement.
Checker Raises $8M from Galaxy Ventures, Al Mada Ventures and Framework Ventures to Unify Fragmented Digital Asset Markets for Institutions
Over the last 12 months, the platform’s initial product enabling global stablecoin liquidity has scaled from $0 to $3B in total processing volume (TPV) with institutional clients including Rail, Braza Bank, and more
NEW YORK, May 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Checker, a global network that enables financial institutions to plug into stablecoins and digital asset liquidity, cross-border payments, treasury, and credit via a single API, announced today that it has raised $8M in funding from Galaxy Ventures, Al Mada Ventures, and Framework Ventures. Additional participants include strategic financial institutions, such as Bitso and Airtm in Latin America, DFS Lab in Africa, and Onigiri Capital, SNZ Capital and Velocity in Asia. Additional investors include fintech operators from Stripe, Tala, Flutterwave, Mesh, ComplyAdvantage, Superstate, and more.
Wealth management: Getquin raises €12m
The Berlin-based fintech company Getquin, co-founded by Raphael Steil from Luxembourg, has announced a €12m funding round led by State Street Investment Management and Portage, with participation from both new and existing investors.
Founded in Berlin, Getquin is developing a digital platform that enables retail investors to track, analyse and understand their entire portfolio across different brokers, asset classes and geographical regions. The company now aims to accelerate its transition from a wealth tracking tool to a more comprehensive digital wealth management solution.
This latest round of fundraising is intended, in particular, to enable the company to strengthen its capabilities in artificial intelligence, portfolio analysis and hybrid financial planning and advisory services.
https://en.paperjam.lu/article/wealth-management-getquin-raises-eu12m
SUI Group Co-Leads $15 Million Funding Round for AI Trading Lab Nof1, Makes Strategic Investment in Recursive Superintelligence
Investments Reflect Growing Link Between Sui’s Blockchain and Ecosystem, and Agentic Finance and Artificial Intelligence
WAYZATA, Minn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–SUI Group Holdings Limited (NASDAQ: SUIG) (“SUI Group” or the “Company”), today announced it has co-led with Karatage Opportunities a $15 million funding round for Nof1, a world-class AI research lab training frontier models focused on financial markets, SUI Group has also made a strategic investment in Recursive Superintelligence’s recent $650 million funding round, an AI research company building self-improving AI systems, valued at more than $4 billion.
Sui Group invested $3 million in each of Nof1 and Recursive Superintelligence. Both investments were made alongside Karatage, the London-based proprietary hedge fund specializing in digital assets and emerging technology. SUI Group and Karatage made their strategic investments directly into Nof1 and, separately, into Recursive Superintelligence via a structured deal with Twin Path ventures.
RemotePass Raises $17.4M Series B Led by EBRD Venture Capital as Global Employment and Fintech Converge
Profitable in 2025, the global HR, payroll, and spend platform is scaling across Europe and the US, with new investment in commercial expansion, AI, and embedded fintech.
LONDON, May 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — RemotePass, the global employment, payroll, and spend platform, has raised $17.4 million in Series B funding led by the EBRD Venture Capital (EBRD), with participation from 500 Global and existing investors Oraseya Capital, 212 VC, Access Bridge Ventures, and Khwarizmi Ventures. The round comes at a pivotal moment when global employment and fintech are converging – and customers are increasingly looking for a single platform that handles both.
Europe and the USA are already two of RemotePass’s fastest-growing markets, with companies turning to the platform to onboard, pay, and support workers across geographies where incumbents have limited reach or experience.
Eisen Raises $18.5 Million to Build the Compliance Operations Infrastructure Financial Services Has Been Missing
Series A led by MissionOG, with continued participation from seed investors Index Ventures and Cowboy Ventures, backs Eisen’s AI-enabled infrastructure for escheatment and account compliance across financial services
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Eisen, the AI-enabled compliance operations infrastructure for financial services, today announced $18.5 million in funding, including a $10 million Series A led by MissionOG and a previously unannounced $8.5 million seed round led by Index Ventures, with participation from Cowboy Ventures, First Round Capital, Homebrew, and Restive Ventures. The company will use the capital to expand its compliance coverage and grow the team serving fintechs, financial institutions, and digital asset companies.
In 2025, Eisen prevented more than 31% of at-risk assets from being lost to state custody. The company now monitors nearly $16 billion in balances across tens of millions of accounts at nearly 50 companies, including Adyen, Binance.US, BitGo, OKX, and PeoplesBank.
AI-Powered Wholesale Insurance Broker Novella Announces $21 Million Capital Raise to Expand Across the United States and Develop AI Agents to Create ‘Super Producers’
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Novella, the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered wholesale insurance broker, has announced it raised $21 million to recruit a team of brokers, continue developing its proprietary AI platform to help brokers become ‘super-producers’, and open a series of regional offices across the United States.
In 2026, New York-based Novella – which has a research and development facility in Tel Aviv, Israel – has opened offices in Miami, Florida, and Houston, Texas, and it plans further US openings, including in southern California in Q2.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer Max Kane said Novella’s AI agents handle placement, binding, form comparison, policy review, subjectivity collection, inspections, billing, endorsements, renewals, and more. This allows producers to focus 100% of their time on building client relationships and growing their books.
Circle cofounder raises $30 million for Series A ‘AI-native bank’ Catena Labs
Sean Neville, who cofounded the stablecoin giant Circle, has raised another stash of capital from top-flight venture capitalists. His startup Catena Labs, which builds tools to allow AI agents to safely conduct financial transactions, announced Wednesday that it’s secured $30 million in a Series A funding round led by Acrew Capital and the crypto arm of Andreessen Horowitz (a16z crypto).
Neville declined to specify at what valuation he raised the capital for his newest startup, which drummed up an initial round of $18 million led by a16z crypto in 2025. Other participants in the more recent fundraise include Breyer Capital, General Catalyst, and QED.
https://finance.yahoo.com/video/cz-america-crypto-comeback-rise-220705341.html
bunch Raises $35M Series B to Replace Legacy Fund Operations
BERLIN & LONDON — May 19, 2026 — bunch, the AI-native fund operations platform for private markets, today announced the close of its $35 million Series B. The round was led by Portage, with participation from Illuminate Financial, significant follow-on investment from existing investors Motive Partners, Cherry Ventures, Fintech Collective and additional angel investors. The funding will be used to accelerate commercial growth across Europe, deepen bunch’s automation and AI capabilities, and expand the platform across new geographies, asset classes and operational workflows.
The investment lands as private markets enter a new phase of growth – and operational pressure. With AUM forecast to reach $32 trillion by 2030, and structures such as ELTIF 2.0 set to broaden private wealth access to alternatives, fund managers are being asked to serve more investors, deliver more reporting and manage greater complexity.
https://www.bunch.capital/blog-posts/bunch-raises-35m-series-b
Relay Secures $50 Million in Financing to Build the Small Business Financial Command Center
- General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund invests $50 million in Relay, enabling the company to accelerate customer acquisition while focusing existing investment on product innovation.
- The investment comes as Relay surpasses $1.3 billion in managed deposits and 150,000 small business customers to become the obvious banking and money management platform for self-made small businesses.
- Since Relay’s $32.2 million Series B in May, 2024, the company is on track to 3.2x its revenue by the end of 2026.
NEW YORK, May 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Relay (“Relay Financial Technologies, Inc.”), the small business banking1 and money management platform, today announced a $50 million growth investment by General Catalyst. The financing marks a growth inflection point for Relay.
Moment Raises $78 Million as Largest Wealth Firms Standardize on its AI Operating System for Investment Management
From fixed income to multi-asset unified managed accounts: Moment now works with firms managing more than $10 trillion in client assets.
NEW YORK, May 19, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Moment, the AI operating system for investment management, has raised $78 million in a Series C funding round led by Index Ventures, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Avra, and other existing investors. This comes less than 10 months after Moment’s $36M Series B, which was also led by Index Ventures.
“Investment management is being rebuilt around AI, and it’s happening at Moment,” said Jan Hammer, Partner at Index Ventures. “Index has backed the financial infrastructure companies that defined the last era of fintech, and the pattern at Moment is unmistakable: the world’s leading wealth firms are betting their next decade on Moment’s team and architecture.
London fintech Primer raises $100M to wire AI into the global payments stack
- London fintech Primer raises an oversubscribed $100m Series C led by Sofina, totalling $170m in funding.
- Funds will expand AI agent Primer Companion and drive US growth.
- US revenue, currently one-fifth of the total, is targeted to exceed one-third by 2028.
Primer, the London-based payments infrastructure company, has closed a $100 million Series C funding round, taking its total capital raised to $170 million. The round was oversubscribed and led by Sofina, the Belgian investment group, with Peak XV Partners joining alongside a roster of returning backers: Balderton, Accel, ICONIQ, Tencent, and Speedinvest.
The company, founded in 2020 by Gabriel Le Roux and Paul Anthony, both alumni of Braintree, the Chicago-based payments gateway that PayPal acquired in 2013 has built what it describes as a unified infrastructure layer for global enterprise payments.
Mercury Raises $200 Million Series D at $5.2B Valuation
As AI creates the largest wave of entrepreneurs in a generation, Mercury helps founders start, scale, and run their businesses
SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Mercury, the technology company providing radically different banking*, today announced a $200 million Series D at a $5.2B valuation, led by TCV. The round included participation from existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, CRV, Sapphire Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Spark Capital. This brings total primary and secondary funding to approximately $700 million.
“AI is collapsing the friction between an idea and a company faster than anything I have seen in my career,” said Immad Akhund, co-founder and CEO of Mercury. “We are going to see more founders in the next five years than in the last twenty.
New Capital Fuels Expansion Across Payments Modernization, Fraud Prevention, AI-Driven Intelligence, and Digital Money Solutions
BRIDGEWATER, N.J. – May 20, 2026 – Alacriti, a leading payments-focused fintech, today announced a strategic growth equity investment led by Sageview Capital. Also participating were BMO Capital Partners, a segment of the BMO Financial Group’s Commercial Banking operating group, and Curql Fund. BMO Financial Group is the eighth-largest bank in North America by assets, and Curql Fund is a collective of 160+ credit unions jointly investing in fintech. Building on strong growth, the investment positions Alacriti to further accelerate the modernization of payments infrastructure as financial institutions and businesses face increasing pressure to evolve.
Carta ventures into law with Avantia acquisition
Carta Law will operate as “the largest AI-native, integrated legal and compliance solution for private markets”, according to a statement at launch.
Carta, a software company that manages equity, cap tables, and valuations for companies and investors, is venturing into legal services through the acquisition of Avantia. The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Avantia provides AI-focused legal and compliance administration software that helps private equity and asset management firms manage routine functions like contract negotiations, investor onboarding, and regulatory reporting.
The software, including Avantia’s AI workflow engine, Ava, is now being folded into Carta’s flagship enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform to create a new division called Carta Law.
https://www.fintechfutures.com/m-a/carta-acquires-avantia
VENTURE FUNDS
Mouro Capital secures $400M first close for latest fund
Mouro Capital has secured fresh capital for its third fund to support fintech and AI infrastructure startups across financial services markets globally.
Mouro Capital has announced the first close of its third fund, securing $400 million from Banco Santander, the firm’s longstanding strategic partner. The latest fundraising brings Mouro Capital’s total investment commitments to more than $1 billion.
Mouro Capital is an independently managed venture capital firm focused on financial services and technology. Since 2015, Mouro Capital’s team has invested across North America, Europe and Latin America, typically backing companies from seed through to Series C stages.
https://tech.eu/2026/05/19/mouro-capital-secures-400m-first-close-for-latest-fund
Restive Raises $45M for Its Third Fund to Back AI-Powered Fintech
Restive Ventures, an AI-backed venture firm, has raised $45 million for its third venture fund, which focuses on providing AI-related tools for financial services firms.
The capital raised for the fund, dubbed Restive Fund III, will go towards various investments across autonomous underwriting, agentic payments, and AI-powered financial operations, Restive said.
The fund, which closed in March, will aim to represent how capital moves in the industry, how risk is assessed, and how tough financial decisions are made over the next decade.
Fund III is led by co-founders and managing partners Ryan Falveyand, Tyler Griffin, and partner Cameron Peake.
Every week, the distance between “what’s coming” and “what’s already here” gets a little shorter.
The companies featured in this edition aren’t waiting for the market to catch up — they’re setting the pace. Whether it’s Portal26 turning AI governance into a competitive weapon, or a new wave of founders building the invisible infrastructure that will power the next decade of finance, the theme is consistent: the builders who act with conviction today will define the industry tomorrow.
We’ll be back next week with more signals, stories, and the startups you need to know. In the meantime, if you’re building or backing what’s next in finance, you know where to find us.
Stay curious. Stay ahead.