In an era where financial infrastructure is being quietly rewritten by bold builders and visionary capital, true progress emerges not from hype, but from those who solve foundational problems with clarity, resilience, and foresight.
Welcome to this week’s edition, where we shine a light on the standout companies featured in Samarth’s Deal Highlights—innovators tackling everything from KYB data integrity and legacy system rescue to the complexities of cross-border commerce. We also dive deep with Frank Schwab on the urgent need for banks to escape the “Complexity Tax” and unlock a genuine Decommissioning Dividend for the future of finance.
In our Q&A of the week, we sit down with Maxime Pasquier, Principal at BlackWood Ventures, for thoughtful insights on building FinTech infrastructure that earns trust over time, the rise of stablecoins and agentic AI, and what it takes to scale B2B solutions across Europe and beyond.
Finally, our Funding Rounds section celebrates the companies that secured fresh capital this week—each one advancing projects that inspire the next wave of responsible innovation in finance.
We hope these stories spark ideas, connections, and renewed conviction that the most impactful work in FinTech is still ahead. Happy reading.
A Q&A with Blackwood’s Maxime Pasquier on Building FinTech Infrastructure That Earns Trust Over Time
In the heart of Copenhagen, where curiosity first sparked a bold pan-European vision, Bastian Larsen founded BlackWood Ventures in 2021—not with a fund, but with a mission to back the most serious founders across Europe. Today, with a freshly closed $25M Fund I and a powerhouse network of over 1,000 angels backed by proven builders with real exits, BlackWood delivers far more than capital: it gives founders a true unfair advantage in FinTech, Cleantech, and Web3.
We’re delighted to sit down with Maxime Pasquier, Principal at BlackWood, who leads the investment team with a rare blend of operator, founder, and investor experience. From scouting deals to building companies and navigating uncertainty firsthand, Maxime’s “proximity to reality” lens delivers sharp, no-fluff insights into the infrastructure reshaping B2B FinTech and beyond. Ready to uncover what’s next? Let’s dive in.
1- Tell us a bit about yourself, both at work and leisure
I work at the intersection of technology, capital, and company building. Over the past six years, I’ve moved through the ecosystem in different roles, scouting, operating, founding, venture building, and today investing, but the thread connecting them has stayed remarkably consistent: proximity to reality.
I’m currently a Principal at BlackWood, where I lead the investment team and work closely with founders from pre-seed onward. The role is often described as pattern recognition, but in practice it’s closer to judgment under uncertainty 🙂
After having operated inside large organizations, built companies from zero, and sat on both sides of the fundraising table, I tend to look less for polished narratives and more for how people reason when things don’t go according to plan.
Outside of work, I read geopolitics, philosophy, and literature, listen to jazz, spend time in the mountains, and write. Writing, in particular, is how I slow things down and make sense of complex systems.
Read more from the interview: Maxime Pasquier from BlackWood on Stablecoins, Agentic AI, and Scaling B2B FinTech Infrastructure
Deal Highlights
KYB remains hard to solve, as company information is fragmented across hundreds of national registries with inconsistent formats, limited APIs, and varying reliability. Topograph is fixing this data integrity layer by pulling directly from official registries with full traceability, to unlock the next generation of KYB. Meantime, the value in compliance is shifting from raw data access to decisioning, risk scoring, and intelligence. One to watch.
Seedcamp backs Topograph in €2m seed funding round…Topograph, founded in 2024, operates as the data layer for global know-your-business (KYB) processes, integrating directly with official company registers to deliver real-time, structured business data and documents via a single endpoint.
Rather than relying on scraped or repackaged databases, the platform retrieves information on demand from source registers, with full traceability linking every data point back to its originating official document.
Have to give it to Fuse for calling it a “rescue fund”! TLDR: Fuse is an AI-native loan origination fund that is setting aside $5M fund to finance credit unions looking to get “rescued” from legacy loan origination software. We need plenty such incentives here in Europe as well!
Fuse, an AI-native loan origination and account opening platform, has announced a $5m initiative aimed at freeing credit unions from long-term contracts with legacy technology vendors.
The fund, dubbed the Fuse Rescue Fund, will offer the first 50 qualifying credit unions full access to the Fuse platform at no cost until their existing loan origination system (LOS) contract expires. Once that contract ends, those institutions will transition to a flat annual subscription of $100,000 — or $50,000 for smaller credit unions — with no implementation fees, variable charges, or hidden costs.
Outpost is attacking a massive, worsening pain point: cross-border commerce (part of global trade worth $35T) is getting harder, not easier- with 20,000+ tax jurisdictions, rising protectionism, and constantly shifting rules. The combination of Merchant of Record + Tax of Record is especially powerful: it doesn’t just optimize payments, it fully abstracts legal, tax, and operational complexity, which is a much higher-value wedge than point solutions. It won’t be easy, but I’m watching them!
Outpost secures £13 million Series A Investment led by Ribbit….Over the past year, global trade has shifted sharply towards protectionism, led by rising US tariffs and a broader rewiring of supply chains and regional trade alliances – creating a more fragmented trading environment. At the same time, governments are tightening enforcement and updating tax regimes more frequently with more than 20,000 indirect tax jurisdictions worldwide now actively updating rates and compliance requirements.
For merchants, this means the rules for selling into each country are constantly changing. A product priced correctly last month may now require a different tax treatment. A shipment that previously cleared customs smoothly may now incur new duties or paperwork requirements. When these changes aren’t applied correctly, payments can fail, goods can be delayed at the border, and unexpected tax bills can erode margins – costing businesses lost revenue.
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 Decommissioning Dividend: Why Great Boards Focus on What to Turn Off, Not What to Turn On
by Frank Schwab
Financial institutions are currently stifling innovation by spending a staggering 95% of their technology budgets on maintenance and regulatory requirements rather than new growth.
📉 This “Complexity Tax” is fueled by the illusion of progress, such as placing sleek mobile wrappers over 25-year-old batch-processing mainframes that create massive operational risk.
🛑 To reclaim value, boards must pursue the “Decommissioning Dividend” by structurally dropping cost-to-income ratios and consolidating fragmented systems, like moving from five CRMs down to one.
⚖️ Effective governance requires directors to demand that for every 1 new digital initiative approved, 2 legacy systems must be sunsetted to fund the transformation.
FUNDING ROUNDS
Seedcamp backs Topograph in €2m seed funding round
Topograph, a B2B data infrastructure company that connects compliance teams to official business registers worldwide, has closed a €2m seed funding round to accelerate its global expansion.
Seedcamp, the UK-based venture capital firm behind FinTech names including Revolut, Wise and Pleo, led the round. Early-stage investors Drysdale Ventures, Motier Ventures, Kima Ventures, and Better Angle also took part.
Proceeds from the raise will go towards extending Topograph’s country coverage beyond its current 40 markets, with North America, Asia and the Middle East earmarked as the next phases of growth. The company will simultaneously invest in advancing its artificial intelligence capabilities for extracting and enriching data from official sources.
https://fintech.global/2026/03/19/seedcamp-backs-topograph-in-e2m-seed-funding-round/
Orca Fraud raises $2.35M to protect mobile payments across 70 emerging markets
Africa’s digital payments scene is booming, but with that growth comes a wave of fraud risks that Western tools just can’t keep up with. Most legacy systems were built for neat data and fixed identities, so they either block legit transactions or let clever fraud slip through, hurting trust and slowing down the whole ecosystem.
Orca Fraud adds smart, adaptive technology directly into payment processes, helping banks, fintechs, and telcos quickly spot fraud without slowing down real transactions. The Cape Town startup recently raised $2.35 million in an oversubscribed seed round led by Norrsken22, with support from OneDayYes, Enza Capital, and CV VC Africa.
This funding will help Orca expand its transaction monitoring across Africa and other emerging markets. The company already handles over $5 billion in payments every month across more than 70 countries.
https://techfundingnews.com/orca-fraud-raises-2-35m-emerging-markets-fraud-detection
Gangkhar secures $4.25m to power AI-native protection platform
Gangkhar, an AI-native embedded protection infrastructure platform, has closed a $4.25m seed round led by Anthemis to accelerate its global expansion.
Accion Ventures, Sancor Ventures, Seedstars, EWA Capital, and Simma Capital also participated in the round, alongside early-stage backer Rally Cap, which supported the company at the pre-seed stage.
The capital will be used to accelerate product development, deepen AI-driven optimisation capabilities, and support continued international growth.
Gangkhar enables capacity providers and digital platforms to configure, deploy, and optimise embedded protection products across regions.
Its AI-enabled optimisation engine draws on real-time programme data to improve segmentation, pricing, and messaging. Via a single API, partners can scale embedded protection offerings across multiple markets through its Sherpa+ infrastructure, which covers onboarding, pricing, underwriting, and claims.
https://fintech.global/2026/03/16/gangkhar-secures-4-25m-to-power-ai-native-protection-platform/
Fuse launches $5m rescue fund for credit unions
Fuse, an AI-native loan origination and account opening platform, has announced a $5m initiative aimed at freeing credit unions from long-term contracts with legacy technology vendors.
The fund, dubbed the Fuse Rescue Fund, will offer the first 50 qualifying credit unions full access to the Fuse platform at no cost until their existing loan origination system (LOS) contract expires. Once that contract ends, those institutions will transition to a flat annual subscription of $100,000 — or $50,000 for smaller credit unions — with no implementation fees, variable charges, or hidden costs.
Fuse describes itself as a proactive automation platform built on generative AI, designed specifically for financial institutions. Its GenAI Lending Copilot continuously monitors manual workflows, identifies bottlenecks, and recommends fixes.
https://fintech.global/2026/03/18/fuse-launches-5m-rescue-fund-for-credit-unions/
AI compliance platform Steward secures $5m funding
Steward, an AI-first compliance platform trusted with $100bn in investor assets, has raised $5m to automate AML/KYC onboarding for sophisticated investors.
The round was led by Motive Partners, with participation from Outward VC, Cooley, and a group of founders and operators. The financing was heavily oversubscribed and supported by prominent angel investors including Shai Wininger, co-founder of Lemonade and Fiverr, Mark Ransford, a FinTech angel investor, Tom Keiser, former COO of Zendesk and Carta, Remy Astié and Ulric Musset, co-founders of Vauban, Mushegh Tovmasyan, founder of Zenus Bank, and Keith Grose, UK CEO of Coinbase.
The funding will be used to expand product capabilities and continue to scale the team. Steward is dual-headquartered in New York and London.
https://fintech.global/2026/03/18/ai-compliance-platform-steward-secures-5m-funding/
Earth Blox raises £6m to help banks price nature risk
Earth Blox, an Edinburgh-based technology scaleup that helps organisations quantify how nature loss and climate hazards affect financial performance, has raised £6m in a funding round led by PXN Ventures, with backing from Scottish Enterprise, follow-on investment from Archangels, and funding from the European Space Agency (ESA).
The capital will be used to grow the Earth Blox team, accelerate product development and expand the platform’s capabilities by integrating satellite, environmental and portfolio data with AI-powered analysis. Alongside the raise, the company has appointed Ben Matthews as director of nature and climate, who previously led the Nature Analytics team at PwC UK.
https://fintech.global/2026/03/18/earth-blox-raises-6m-to-help-banks-price-nature-risk/
Ezra Raises $8 Million Seed Round to Build Institutional-Grade AI Infrastructure for Private Capital Markets
Founded by veterans of Mosaic, Ezra is using AI and capital networks to modernize financing for real-world assets
SAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESS Newswire / March 12, 2026 / Ezra, an AI-powered finance platform for asset-backed finance, today announced an $8M seed round led by Congruent Ventures with participation from Planeteer, Wireframe, KDX, Stepchange, Leap Forward, and others.
The funding will support continued product development and further customer deployments as investors, lenders, and companies raising capital face growing deal volume while still relying on fragmented workflows, manual diligence processes, and generic AI tools.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ezra-raises-8-million-seed-120000036.html
Manifold raises $8m seed round to secure AI agents at runtime
Manifold, an AI detection and response platform designed to secure autonomous AI on enterprise endpoints, has closed an $8m seed funding round.
The round was led by Costanoa Ventures, with participation from Cherry Ventures, Rain Capital and Modern Technical Fund. A number of notable angel investors also took part, including former Uber CSO Joe Sullivan and former Google DeepMind CISO Vijay Bolina.
The company’s platform — known as its agentic AI Detection and Response (AIDR) system — is built to address the growing risks posed by autonomous AI agents operating across enterprise environments.
As AI adoption accelerates, tools such as coding agents have become ubiquitous, with 85% of developers now relying on tools like GitHub Copilot, Claude Code and Cursor.
https://fintech.global/2026/03/19/manifold-raises-8m-seed-round-to-secure-ai-agents-at-runtime/
dtcpay raises $10m Series A to expand stablecoin network
dtcpay, a Singapore-headquartered regulated digital payments company, has raised $10m in a Series A funding round led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India, with proceeds earmarked for expanding its global stablecoin payments infrastructure.
Favour Capital, a Singapore-based boutique investment bank, served as exclusive financial adviser on the raise.
The round will be used to enhance dtcpay’s product suite, strengthen its underlying infrastructure, and expand its operational presence across newly licensed jurisdictions, with a particular focus on accelerating its European market entry.
Founded by Alice Liu and Band Zhao, dtcpay bridges digital assets with traditional finance, enabling businesses and individuals to accept, store, and transact in stablecoins for everyday use.
https://fintech.global/2026/03/17/dtcpay-raises-10m-series-a-to-expand-stablecoin-network/
Outpost secures £13 million Series A Investment led by Ribbit
Outpost Raises $17.5M (£13 million) Series A to Unlock Growth Amid Escalating Trade Friction. Outpost, the AI-powered payments and compliance infrastructure for cross-border commerce, raises Series A led by Ribbit
LONDON & NYC – 10 March, 2026 – Outpost, the AI-powered platform that enables merchants to sell worldwide with zero liability, today announced it has raised $17.5 million (£13 million) in Series A funding led by Ribbit. Ribbit is known for backing category-defining companies such as Revolut, Coinbase, and Stripe. The investment round was supported by existing investors, including Better Tomorrow Ventures, which previously led a $3 million seed round less than a year ago. Angel investors also include executives from Revolut, Uber, Affirm, Airwallex, Checkout and others.
https://www.uktechnews.info/2026/03/10/outpost-secures-13-million-series-a-investment-led-by-ribbit/
TransFi raises $19m to scale stablecoin payments
TransFi, a global payments infrastructure company building on stablecoin rails with a focus on emerging markets, has closed a $19.2m financing round.
The raise comprises a $14.2m Series A equity round and a $5m committed liquidity facility, led by Turing Financial Group, a strategic investor in digital payments and financial infrastructure.
The funding is intended to support TransFi’s mission to modernise cross-border payments by reducing reliance on legacy banking infrastructure and enabling real-time value transfer through stablecoin-enabled rails.
Proceeds from the Series A will be deployed across several growth priorities, including expansion into high-growth emerging market corridors spanning South-East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa.
https://fintech.global/2026/03/19/transfi-raises-19m-to-scale-stablecoin-payments/
Ironlight secures $21m to scale regulated tokenised markets
Ironlight Group, Inc., an Austin, Texas-based FinTech company developing regulated infrastructure for tokenised securities, has closed a $21m Series A financing round.
The round drew backing from prominent Wall Street and financial services figures, including Greg Braca, former president and CEO of TD Bank, as well as institutional investors Sei Development Foundation and Laidlaw Private Equity.
Proceeds will be directed towards scaling two core business units: Ironlight Markets’ Alternative Trading System (ATS), which integrates issuance, distribution and trading; and Ironlight Technologies, which provides the underlying platform and settlement options for tokenised securities. Ironlight Markets’ ATS operates under SEC Regulation ATS and is subject to FINRA oversight.
https://fintech.global/2026/03/17/ironlight-secures-21m-to-scale-regulated-tokenised-markets/
Candex Extends Series C to $40M+ with Strategic Investment from HSBC
Funding accelerates Candex’s vision to redefine how global enterprises manage high-volume, small-value transactions
NEW YORK, March 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Candex, a leading vendor-management and tail-spend-solutions provider for global enterprises, has extended its Series C funding to over $40 million with a strategic investment from HSBC. The investment supports Candex’s long-term vision to turn high-volume, small-value supplier transactions into a fast, automated, and fully controlled part of enterprise finance. The raise brings the company’s total funding to over $120 million and adds HSBC to Candex’s investor base, which includes Goldman Sachs, Altos Ventures, 9Yards Capital, Hedosophia, NFX, Craft Ventures, World Innovation Labs, JPMorgan, and American Express.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/candex-extends-series-c-40m-130000899.html
GeoWealth secures $42.5m Goldman Sachs Series C extension
GeoWealth, a Chicago-based turnkey asset management platform (TAMP) and FinTech solution built for registered investment advisors (RIAs), has extended its Series C financing round with a $42.5m minority investment from Goldman Sachs.
The capital will be used to support the company’s growth momentum, as well as provide liquidity to shareholders. Family office The Globe Resources Group retains majority ownership of GeoWealth following the investment, while Apollo, BlackRock, J.P. Morgan Asset Management and Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors (sub-advised by Composition Capital) remain minority investors alongside Goldman Sachs.
GeoWealth attributes its growth to strong demand from large enterprise RIAs, early success with its new custom model portfolio partnerships, and deeper relationships with existing RIA partners.
https://fintech.global/2026/03/20/geowealth-secures-42-5m-goldman-sachs-series-c-extension/
Cryptio Raises $45m Series B as Digital Assets Move Into Regulated Financial Markets
The system of record for tokenized finance – ERP infrastructure for institutions operating in digital assets
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Cryptio, a leader in financial data transformation and enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications for regulated digital assets, announced today a $45 million Series B funding round co-led by BlackFin Capital Partners and Sentinel Global, with participation from 1kx, Alven, BlueYard Capital and Ledger Cathay Capital. Banks, exchanges, asset managers, including Société Générale’s SG Forge, Circle, Gemini, and Securitize rely on Cryptio to ensure financial integrity across their digital assets businesses.
Existing ERP systems fall short for digital assets
Traditional ERP and accounting systems were not designed for blockchain-native assets, real-time reporting, or modern custody frameworks.
Alan reaches €785M in ARR and completes €100M funding round as it grows internationally, including in Canada
TORONTO, March 11, 2026 /CNW/ – Digital health company Alan announced today that it has completed a €100 million funding round, bringing the company’s valuation to more than €5 billion.
The round follows a year of strong growth for Alan, which reached €785 million in annual recurring revenue in 2025 and achieved operational profitability in France, its largest market.
The round was led by Index Ventures through its growth fund, with participation from Belfius, Greenoaks, Kaaf Investments and SH Capital, alongside several individual investors including Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke and Wealthsimple co-founder and CEO Mike Katchen.
Alan continues to grow internationally, including in Canada where the company launched in early 2025. Alan is now licensed nationwide and currently serves more than 1,600 members across the country.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/alan-reaches-785m-arr-completes-110500154.html
Upvest secures $125m to modernise Europe’s banking infrastructure
Upvest, an API-first investment infrastructure provider, has secured $125m in new financing to accelerate the modernisation of legacy banking systems across Europe and the UK.
The raise comprises a $90m equity round led by Sapphire Ventures and Tencent, with continued backing from existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners and BlackRock. The Berlin-based company is also finalising a $35m debt facility to further bolster its capital base.
Founded in 2017, Upvest provides modular, API-first investment infrastructure to banks, brokers, and WealthTech firms. Its platform enables financial institutions to offer retail investment products without the burden of building and maintaining complex in-house systems. The company processed more than 100 million orders on behalf of clients in 2025, with the scale of its operations driving a multiple-fold increase in its valuation and putting it on a steady path to profitability.
https://fintech.global/2026/03/17/upvest-secures-125m-to-modernise-europes-banking-infrastructure/
Rogo Acquires Offset to Bring AI Agents into Financial Workflows
Rogo Acquires Offset to Bring AI Agents into Financial Workflows
Rogo, the AI platform used by leading financial institutions, today announced the acquisition of Offset, an AI agent company founded by Raj Khare and Shiv Shrivastava. Offset develops learning agents designed to operate directly inside financial workflows across investment banking, private equity, hedge funds, and corporate finance.
With the acquisition, Rogo will integrate Offset’s technology into its platform used by more than 25,000 finance professionals, accelerating its roadmap to deliver intelligent systems embedded directly into the tools financial professionals rely on every day.
Bite Investments Acquires Untap
Bite Investments, a London, United Kingdom-based provider of digital technology solutions for alternative investments, acquired Untap, a London, United Kingdom-based provider of portfolio management and fund-intelligence platforms.
The amount of the deal was not disclosed.
With the deal, Bite Investments will expand its Bite Stream platform to include AI-driven fund intelligence, ESG data collection, and enhanced portfolio visibility for private-market managers and wealth managers.
Led by Co-Founders Juan Manrique and Manfredi Bargioni, Untap provides a cloud-based portfolio management solution that automates data collection, financial reporting, and value-creation tracking for private equity, real estate, and infrastructure funds.
https://www.finsmes.com/2026/03/bite-investments-acquires-untap.html
ACA Group Acquires FX Transparency
ACA Group, a NYC-based provider of governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) advisory services, acquired FX Transparency, a Framingham, Massachusetts-based provider of foreign exchange transaction cost analysis and best execution analytics.
The amount of the deal was not disclosed.
With the deal, ACA Group will expand its transaction cost analysis (TCA) capabilities and strengthen its position in best execution analytics across global asset classes, specifically within the foreign exchange market.
Led by Co-Founder and CEO John Galanek, FX Transparency provides data-driven FX TCA solutions and proprietary analytics to help pension funds, insurance companies, and corporations evaluate execution quality and meet fiduciary obligations. The company leverages proprietary analytics and a broad repository of institutional trading data to help asset managers, pension funds, endowments, mutual funds, insurance companies, and corporations evaluate execution quality and meet fiduciary obligations.
https://www.finsmes.com/2026/03/aca-group-acquires-fx-transparency.html
OakNorth acquires Monite to expand business banking capabilities
The deal will see OakNorth acquire Monite’s core technologies and onboard its product and engineering teams.
UK-based digital business bank OakNorth has acquired embedded finance tech provider Monite for an undisclosed sum.
Monite, founded in 2020 and operating out of London and Berlin, enables B2B platforms, neobanks, vertical Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers, and payment companies to embed invoicing, bill payment, expense management, and cash flow analytics into their systems.
Backed by investors such as Third Prime, P72, and Valar Ventures, Monite has built a client base of more than 26 platforms, including Allica Bank, Payoneer, and Capital on Tap.
https://www.fintechfutures.com/m-a/oaknorth-acquires-monite
As the lines between technology, capital, and real-world impact continue to blur, one truth stands clear: the future of finance will belong to those who build with patience, rigor, and a deep respect for complexity.
Whether you are founding, investing, or leading transformation inside established institutions, we hope this edition has offered valuable perspectives, fresh inspiration, and perhaps even a few sparks for your own journey.
Thank you for being part of our community of forward-thinking builders and thinkers. Stay curious, stay resilient, and keep shaping what’s next.
Until the next edition—keep building boldly.