Hi there and welcome to Funded, where we spotlight early-stage bets on the future of tech.This week’s spotlight is on international payouts, where Routefusion is building the infrastructure that helps platforms and financial institutions move money across borders without the backend chaos. Routefusion has raised $26.5 million in Series A funding led by PeakSpan Capital, […]
Lacking safeguards, at least for now, fraud is flourishing through stablecoins As stablecoins enter mainstream use, buoyed by regulatory normalization and a surge of institutional interest by bulge bracket banks, among other entities, this new kind of blockchain-based financial technology may encounter a forceful headwind in the form of fraud. With their one-two punch of […]
As banking leaders and fintech builders know all too well, the rise of generative AI is making it increasingly difficult in online and digital communications to know what is real and what’s not. Fraud is a challenge that is keeping bankers, business owners, and investors up at night. In Visa’s 2025 Global eCommerce Payments & […]
The venture firms betting on AI are now using it to rethink their own ops and due diligence. The AI gold rush is at its peak in 2025. Every day, a new AI startup raises funds with the promise to change the world, or a prominent AI lab raises a massive round at an eye-popping […]
Where are startup dollars going? A16z just released a new report tracking the top 50 AI-native apps by actual startup spend, based on data from 200,000+ customers of Mercury, a fintech providing banking services. The takeaway is that “not only is AI augmenting employees in specific roles (‘AI for patent lawyers’), it’s turning specific roles […]
“You have to understand the role that product plays in what [the customer] is trying to do — and it better be important — or it’s just not worth the kind of mind share and prioritization of that customer to onboard you.” Audrey Kim, a venture partner at Oak HC/FT, focuses on growth equity and […]
“We’re excited about the environment where interest rates are reducing, but at a very high level, our mission does not change: We try to be the lowest cost of capital for consumers as on the way up, and we try to be the lowest cost of capital on the way down,” Khan told Fintech Nexus. […]
It’s been a busy week for the government, AI industry, and payments sectors. Let’s unpack. First, what’s at the top of everyone’s mind today: the U.S. government has shut down. Government-funded AI projects are likely to stall — such as those powered by the NSF, which has already announced its closure. Under its umbrella is […]
LLMs can answer business questions — but how do you know if their inferences are accurate? Theory Ventures Partner Andy Triedman unpacks what it would take to make AI predictions about human behavior more accurate for marketing and customer research. Like a good friend, LLMs have opinions if you ask them. “Which of these outfits […]
Tariff headwinds are causing a headache for many businesses with sprawling supply chains and large importers, yet small businesses continue to be optimistic — and fintech is taking note of the opportunity. According to the latest MetLife and U.S. Chamber of Commerce Small Business Index, optimism climbed to 72.0 this quarter, up sharply from 65.2. […]