This edition brings together the forces shaping the next chapter of financial services — from the infrastructure quietly redefining global money movement to the systems that will determine whether AI can truly scale inside regulated institutions.
In this issue, Samarth Shekhar breaks down the companies building the rails behind cross-border payments and embedded finance, while Frank Schwab launches a new analytical section exploring where banking is headed — and why the next global giant may not look anything like the incumbents we know today. We also sit down with the founders of Avido to unpack what it really takes to scale trusted GenAI in financial services, beyond pilots and promises.
Rounding it out, we spotlight the founders and teams that secured fresh funding last week — not just as headlines, but as signals of where capital, conviction, and long-term impact are converging. Let’s dive in.
A Q&A with Avido’s Founders on Scaling Trusted GenAI in Financial Services
In a landscape where generative AI is reshaping the pillars of finance, Rasmus Risager Lindegaard, Alexander Bach Schmidt, and Lasse Hyldahl Jensen are redefining the intersection of innovation and control. As co-founders of Avido, they bring a unique ‘operator-first’ perspective, having navigated the high-stakes reality of production-scale GenAI.
Rather than chasing the latest hype, they are building the bedrock of institutional confidence. In this Q&A, the founders reveal how they bridge the gap between compliance and technology to help financial leaders scale AI—turning trust into a measurable, provable asset.
1- Tell us about yourself / your co-founder(s)
Avido was founded by operators with experience from banking and other regulated enterprises. The founding team has carried direct responsibility for quality, risk, and business outcomes in production GenAI systems.
Between us, we have implemented multiple GenAI applications in live production, in some cases covering more than a third of a company’s total operational workload. We understand where GenAI breaks in the real world because we have been responsible when it did.
We also understand how fundamentally cross-functional GenAI is in regulated industries. Success requires alignment across technology, legal, risk, compliance, content, and business teams. Designing for that reality is core to how we build Avido.
Read more from the interview: Avido on Scaling Trusted GenAI in Financial Services
Deal Highlights
by @Samarth Shekhar
Cross-border payments is a massive market- expected to reach nearly $300T by 2030 as per Celent. World Bank analysis shows average remittance cost of G8 senders of ca. 6%, and banks offering the most expensive rates at over 14%. Stablecoins look unstoppable, with volumes over $400B for the two largest coins as per BIS. Meld’s journey to build the “multi-country / multi-provider adapter” for pay-in / pay-outs will be one to watch.
Meld secures $7m to expand global stablecoin network…The company is building a network connecting over 150 fiat currencies with any stablecoin or token, aiming to be the “one-stop shop” for global digital asset access. In essence, it’s building the “Visa for crypto”-an aggregation layer that solves the critical interoperability problem. By partnering with over 50 providers across 180 countries, Meld is constructing the fundamental rails that will allow the next wave of stablecoin-driven applications, from global payroll to cross-border trade, to finally reach their exponential potential.
Embedded finance has gone from a “trend” to one of the “standard” ways to distribute financial services (for banks, insurers) and to add additional revenue streams and customer loyalty (for brands and firms). Embedded finance revenues could surpass €100B by 2030 as per McKinsey estimates, accounting for 20-25% of retail banking sales and lending to individuals and SMEs, up from 5-10 percent in 2024. It will be interesting to see Aazzur’s “financial orchestrator” / middleware Lego blocks be part of that growth.
Aazzur closes £2 million funding round…“Embedded finance is moving from ‘nice to have’ to mission-critical, but most teams do not want to stitch together vendors and maintain the plumbing. AAZZUR is solving that problem with an enterprise-grade orchestration platform that accelerates time to market and lowers integration cost. We’re proud to support the team as they broaden the platform across banking, cards, lending and wealth, and push category leadership.” said Scott Weavers-Wright, OBE Co-Founder & General Partner, Haatch
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 next global banking giant will not be a legacy institution. It will be a crypto-native pioneer.
by @Frank Schwab
There is a prevailing belief that traditional Wall Street giants will eventually dominate the digital asset space simply through brute force and scale.
I believe this view is fundamentally flawed.
When we look at the financial corridors connecting Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, we see a different story unfolding. The legacy banks in these regions are often paralyzed by the “Legacy Trap”—siloed data, aging infrastructure, and risk frameworks designed for the 20th century.
FUNDING ROUNDS
Obside lands €500K to let anyone automate stock trades
For years, automated trading has been reserved for hedge funds, investment banks and programmers with strong technical skills. Building an algorithm required coding skills, testing strategies often took days, and setting up servers was out of reach for most individuals. Obside wants to change that.
Its platform allows anyone to create automated trading strategies simply by typing or saying what they want. A user might, for example, set a rule such as “buy if this stock drops for three consecutive days.” Obside’s system then interprets the instruction and executes it automatically.
Today, this French fintech company, aiming to open up automated trading to all investors, has raised €500,000 from private investors in France and abroad. This brings the total valuation to €2.5M, with €515k raised in a seed round from business angels in France and abroad, as Obside’s founders share exclusively with TFN.
https://techfundingnews.com/obside-raises-eu500k-automated-trading/
Aazzur closes £2 million funding round
AAZZUR Ltd. today announces it has closed a £2 million funding round, completed in October 2025, to expand platform use cases and accelerate go-to-market activity as the business builds on strong year-on-year revenue growth.
AAZZUR is the easiest and most cost-effective way for brands and platforms to seamlessly integrate financial products and increase customer value.
The £2m round was oversubscribed and led by Haatch Ventures. Other institutional investors that participated were Alert Venture Foundry, Alumni Ventures, Great Stuff Ventures, Tyr Ventures and Tenity. Other notable investors include industry insiders that build or lead the first wave of fintechs.
https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/108547/aazzur-closes-2-million-funding-round
ARKK secures £4.5m from Gresham House Ventures to scale tax platform
Gresham House Ventures, a growth equity investor backing software and technology-enabled businesses, has made a £4.5m follow-on investment into ARKK, a financial automation and regulatory reporting platform focused on supporting the Office of the CFO.
The latest funding sees Gresham House Ventures doubling down on ARKK, having already made two previous investments in the business since 2019.
The investment is intended to support ARKK’s continued commercial momentum, expand its product roadmap to meet new regulatory reporting requirements, enhance the customer experience, and scale its sales and marketing capabilities.
ARKK’s platform is designed to help businesses make highly accurate regulatory submissions up to 80% faster and at a significantly lower cost than traditional consultancy-based approaches.
Cyb3r Operations raises $5.4m to close third-party cyber risk gaps
Cyb3r Operations, a London-based cybersecurity startup, has raised $5.4m (£4m) to help organisations gain continuous visibility into third-party cyber risk across their digital ecosystems.
The funding round was led by Octopus Ventures, with follow-on investment from Pi Labs. Following the raise, Cyb3r Operations’ total funding now stands at $6.75m (£5m).
The company is addressing a growing challenge for enterprises, with more than a third of major cyber incidents now linked to third parties, it said. Despite this, many organisations still rely on outdated methods such as annual questionnaires, spreadsheets and static audits, which quickly become obsolete as supplier networks expand.
https://fintech.global/2026/01/16/cyb3r-operations-raises-5-4m-to-close-third-party-cyber-risk-gaps
Exclusive: Meld raises $7 million to integrate stablecoin networks, build the ‘Visa for crypto’
When a company wants to pay its employees in different countries using stablecoins, it encounters a roadblock: many countries use different stablecoin service providers. There is Yellow Card in South Africa, Onmeta in India, and so on. Pankaj Bengani, a veteran of payment giant Block, founded Meld in part to fix this issue. He is building a network that aims to be a one-stop shop for companies and individuals to access and convert digital assets globally.
The startup announced on Wednesday that it raised $7 million dollars in a funding round led by Lightspeed Faction, with participation from F-Prime, Yolo Investments, and Scytale Digital, which brings their total capital raised to $15 million. Bengani, the founder and CEO of Meld, did not disclose his company’s valuation in an interview with Fortune.
https://fortune.com/2026/01/14/meld-raises-7-million-to-integrate-stablecoin-networks/
PhotonPay Raises Tens of Millions in Series B to Pioneer Stablecoin-Centric Financial Infrastructure
HONG KONG, Jan. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — PhotonPay, a leading stablecoin-centric global digital financial infrastructure, today announced the successful completion of its tens of millions of USD Series B funding round.
This round was led by IDG Capital, with participation from Hillhouse Investment, Enlight Capital, Lightspeed Faction, and Shoplazza. Blacksheep Technology acted as the exclusive financial advisor for this round. The funds will enable PhotonPay to accelerate the expansion of its next-generation stablecoin financial rails, hire key talent, and broaden its global regulatory footprint.
As a core enabler of the global digital economy, PhotonPay is dedicated to empowering businesses with a secure, compliant, and frictionless financial operating system.
Singapore Crypto Platform Veera Raises $10m, Plans On-Chain Payments Card
Singapore-based crypto financial services platform Veera has secured $10 million in funding to support product development and expand its on-chain financial services. The capital came from investors like Sigma Capital, CMCC Titan Fund, and 6th Man Ventures according to reports.
The funding consists of a $4 million seed round and a $6 million pre-seed round, with notable participation from Ayon Capital and Reflexive Capital as detailed in coverage.
Veera launched its mobile-first platform in January 2025 and has surpassed 2 million downloads with over 220,000 monthly active users. It recently introduced a waitlist for its Veera Card, which allows users to spend on-chain assets globally according to the company.
Identity and risk data firm Monnai raises $12m funding
Monnai, a global identity and risk data infrastructure company, has announced fresh equity funding of $12m.
The round was led by Motive Partners, with participation from existing investors including Commerce Ventures and 500 Global.
Founded in August 2021, Monnai provides identity and risk data infrastructure that supports real-time decisioning for financial institutions and digital businesses. Its platform delivers ultra-low latency risk signals, alongside built-in back-testing and enterprise-grade observability tools that allow customers to monitor performance, assess data quality and optimise models at scale.
The infrastructure is designed to enable rapid market entry, allowing organisations to deploy locally in new jurisdictions within days rather than months.
https://fintech.global/2026/01/15/identity-and-risk-data-firm-monnai-raises-12m-funding
Post-quantum firm Project Eleven bags $20m
Project Eleven, a post-quantum cryptography startup focused on safeguarding digital assets, has raised $20m in a Series A round.
The round was led by Castle Island Ventures, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Fin Capital, Variant, Quantonation, Nebular, Formation, Lattice Fund, Satstreet Ventures, Nascent Ventures and Balaji Srinivasan. It also reported continued investment from Variant, Quantonation, Nebular and Formation.
Project Eleven is building tools designed to help major digital assets transition away from cryptography that could be broken by a future fault-tolerant quantum computer capable of running Shor’s algorithm, which could allow private keys to be derived from public keys. The company argues that, without preparation, the concept of on-chain “digital ownership” could be undermined as quantum capabilities advance.
https://fintech.global/2026/01/19/post-quantum-crypto-security-firm-project-eleven-bags-20m
AssetPlus raises Rs 175 crore from Nexus Venture Partners, Eight Roads, others
Synopsis
Wealthtech startup AssetPlus raised Rs 175 crore to expand its distributor-led wealth management platform. Existing investors, including Eight Roads Ventures and Rainmatter Fund, also participated. It works with over 18,000 mutual fund distributors and manages Rs 7,250 crore in assets, offering mutual funds, insurance, and retirement products.
Wealthtech startup AssetPlus has raised Rs 175 crore ($19.5 million) in a funding round led by Nexus Venture Partners, as the company looks to scale its distributor-led assisted wealth management model, cofounder and CEO Vishranth Suresh said.
Existing investors Eight Roads Ventures and Rainmatter Fund, backed by Zerodha cofounder Nithin Kamath, also participated in the round.
Wint Wealth raises INR 250 Cr in Series B funding
Wint Wealth, an India-based online bond portfolio platform enabling retail participation in corporate bonds, has reportedly secured INR 250 Cr ($27m) in Series B funding to expand its offerings and scale operations.
The funding round was led by Vertex Ventures SEA and India, with participation from existing investors 3one4 Capital, Eight Roads Ventures, Arkam Ventures and Rainmatter, according to a report from Inc42.
Wint Wealth plans to use the fresh capital to expand its range of corporate bond offerings and to capitalise its NBFC arm, which currently has assets under management of INR 200 Cr. The company also plans to strengthen its investor education initiatives while scaling its technology and operations.
https://fintech.global/2026/01/14/wint-wealth-raises-inr-250-cr-in-series-b-funding/
Benepass Raises $40M Series B to Help Employers Redesign Benefits for Rising Healthcare Costs
Led by Centana Growth Partners, the funding accelerates Benepass’ platform expansion to help employers better control healthcare spending and expand employee choice.
NEW YORK, Jan. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Benepass, a global benefits capital management platform, today announced it has raised $40 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Centana Growth Partners, with participation from FoW Partners and existing investors Portage Ventures and Threshold Ventures. The funding will support Benepass’ efforts to expand into larger, more complex employers with their pre- and post-tax benefit offerings. The platform will be positioned to support more specialized and cost-sensitive programs.
WithCoverage raises $42m to disrupt insurance broking
New York-based InsurTech WithCoverage has raised $42m in a Series B funding round as it looks to challenge traditional, commission-based insurance brokerage models for fast-growing businesses.
The Series B round was led by Sequoia Capital and Khosla Ventures, with additional participation from 8VC and Crystal Venture Partners, according to Beinsure.
The funding will be used to expand WithCoverage’s product capabilities, grow its workforce, and support entry into new industry verticals.
Founded by JD Ross, co-founder of Opendoor, and Max Brenner, WithCoverage aims to change how scaling companies assess, purchase and manage insurance.
The platform combines AI-driven analysis with in-house teams of insurance specialists and legal professionals, allowing businesses to identify risk exposures earlier and optimise coverage structures.
https://fintech.global/2026/01/14/withcoverage-raises-42m-to-disrupt-insurance-broking
Datarails lands $70m Series C raise
Alongside the new injection of capital, Datarails has also launched its new AI finance agents to assist with strategy, planning, and reporting.
Datarails, a US-based financial planning and analysis platform, has secured $70 million in Series C funding led by One Peak, with added participation from Vertex Growth, Vintage Investment Partners, Zeev Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Joey Low, Qumra Capital, and ClalTech.
Building on a $43.5 million Series A from 2021, and $50 million Series B from 2022, led by Qumra Capital, this latest round brings Datarails’ total capital to $175 million.
Datarails says the new capital will accelerate its “geographic expansion across North America and EMEA, further increase investment in R&D, and open up the possibility of acquiring other players in the sector in the coming months”.
https://www.fintechfutures.com/venture-capital-funding/datarails-lands-70m-series-c-raise
Stream lands $90m Series D for US expansion
Formerly known as Wagestream, Stream is exploring the possibility of an IPO, though the choice of listing venue remains undecided.
Stream, a UK-based fintech focused on employee financial wellness services, has secured $90 million in Series D funding round to fund an expansion to the US market. The funding round was led by Belgium-based investment firm Sofina, with participation from Better Society Capital and existing backers Ascension Ventures, Balderton, Northzone, Smash Capital, Local Globe, and the British Business Bank.
Founded in 2018 by CEO Peter Briffett and Portman Wills, Stream provides financial tools aimed at low-income workers, including flexible pay options that allow users to access up to 50% of their earnings before payday, as well as budgeting tools, spending insights, discounts, cashback, and assistance with claiming government benefits.
VENTURE FUNDS
Portage takes over management of Point72 Ventures’ fintech assets
Canadian investment firm Portage has struck a deal to take over the fintech assets of American venture capital firm Point72 Ventures.
An affiliate of fintech-focused Portage takes over management of a portfolio of mature, later-stage companies via a US$280 million continuation vehicle.
The investment in the continuation vehicle was led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives and supported by a syndicate of secondary investors.
In addition to the CV, Portage and Point72 Ventures have entered into a services agreement under which Portage will oversee certain assets owned by Point72 Ventures that are not being transferred.
https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/47153/portage-takes-over-management-of-point72-ventures-fintech-assets
Social Leverage Raises $85 Million Fund to Double Down on Seed-Stage Investing
V.C. Investor Matt Ober discusses raising the firm’s fifth fund and investing in San Diego.
Social Leverage — a venture capital firm with a presence in Arizona and San Diego — has raised its fifth seed stage venture fund to continue backing startups at the intersection of technology and financial services.
Social Leverage looks for extraordinary founders building in financial services or vertical AI. It also makes opportunistic investment in consumer and media companies.
The firm has made over 125 investments since inception, the most notable include Robinhood, Kustomer, eToro, Alpaca, among dozens of others.
Managing Partner Matt Ober, who joined the firm in 2022 after working as Chief Data Scientist at the $20 billion-plus hedge fund Third Point in New York, discussed the firm’s most recent fund and its 2026 investment strategy.
https://businessofsandiego.substack.com/p/social-leverage-raises-85-million
Across interviews, analysis, and funding milestones, a common thread runs through this edition: finance is being rebuilt at the system level. Trust, interoperability, and scale are no longer abstract ideas — they are products, platforms, and strategic decisions playing out in real time.
Whether you are building, investing, or simply trying to stay ahead of what’s next, we hope this issue offers both clarity and inspiration. The future of finance is not arriving all at once — but piece by piece, through the companies and ideas featured here.