AI avatars are crashing the C-suite—is this a scalable fix for exec overload, or a shortcut that chips away at trust? If you tuned into Klarna’s Q1 2025 earnings call in mid-May — curious, perhaps, about the BNPL giant’s IPO-launch status — you encountered a stoic introduction by CEO and Co-Founder Sebstian Siemiatkowski, donning a […]
Are we scaling productivity, or faking it? While genAI is omnipresent, its value remains elusive. Recently dubbed in a McKinsey study as “the genAI paradox,” nearly eight in ten companies use generative AI… yet just as many confess they’ve seen no real change to their bottom line. Often described as a “scalable” solution, genAI is […]
“From a reliability standpoint, when you think about the product integration, the fact that we can power financial operations for a company of McLaren’s scale, if we can do it for them, trust me, we can do it for you too.” Fintechs have entered the arena, literally, as they kick off sports sponsorships across leagues […]
Hi there and welcome to Funded, where we spotlight the early-stage bets on the future of tech. Today, we look at Maze, a London-based AI-native security platform that is building AI agents to investigate, triage, and resolve the small number of cloud vulnerabilities most likely to cause a breach. The co announced a $25 million […]
The stablecoin revolution isn’t coming, it’s already here. And if you’re in banking or fintech, you should be paying attention. Right now. Just last month, we witnessed what can only be described as a watershed moment for stablecoins. Stripe announced stablecoin financial accounts in 101 countries, Visa and Mastercard rolled out products allowing consumers to […]
Across traditional professions, a wave of AI optimism is beginning to take hold; in healthcare, AI is already proving instrumental in easing clinician burnout and reducing admin overhead, while in finance, it’s unlocking strategic insight at scale. Even education is adapting fast: As reported by The Guardian, Ohio State University will now require all graduates […]
Armed with new funding, the company’s AI agents aim to help smaller banks compete around compliance There’s an increasing need for financial institutions to meet compliance requirements or end up on the wrong side of the government. One of the more recent “landmark fines” was issued to TD Bank in October 2024 by the Justice […]
ai.work built an AI worker OS to cut through SaaS sprawl with agents trained on your business logic. ai.work is well-positioned to address the challenge of integrating autonomous workers into workflows. Founders Maor Ezer and Nir Nahum have strong industry knowledge and have surrounded themselves with equally experienced key staffers. The team has also successfully […]
After implosions in ’08, Industrial Loan Company designations or ILCs are back in style — a tempting, less-regulated pathway to banking for commercial cos and fintechs With vestiges of the Biden regulatory interregnum fed into the woodchipper, fintechs, neobanks, and commercial businesses have set their sights on Trumpian banking policy, gauging the feasibility therein to […]
While many investors are still asking if AI will go mainstream, Bison Ventures is betting it already has — and is backing its deep-tech applications. The AI arms race has taken center stage in year-to-date tech news coverage — and has held that position since crypto’s wintry retreat in 2022 — defined by dramatic developments […]