Author: Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz)

6 Stats Pointing to the Rise of Gen AI-Powered Shopping

6 Stats Pointing to the Rise of Gen AI-Powered Shopping
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: List series, Thought Leadership

Generative AI-powered shopping has been gaining steam in the latter half of this year and is shaping up to be one of the top trends as we move into 2026. The availability and convenience of Gen AI tools are shifting consumers’ shopping habits away from traditional browser-based shopping as these new tools become more deeply embedded in the shopping experience.

Adobe for Business published a report earlier this year that shows momentum in the use of generative AI-powered chat services. The report, which surveyed more than 5,000 US individuals, aimed to complement a study conducted during the 2024 holiday shopping season that examined consumers’ usage of Gen AI-powered chat services and browsers.

There are six standout findings from the report that exemplify the shift in consumers’ habits.

Generative AI traffic to retail sites exploded

Adobe found that the first surge during the 2024 holiday season reached a growth of 1,300% year-over-year. Following this, the recent data shows that traffic from Gen AI-powered chat tools and browsers has continued to accelerate, reaching a 4,700% year-over-year increase as of July 2025. AI-driven visits now represent a meaningful and fast-growing share of retail shopping and research activity.

Over one-third of US consumers have used AI for shopping

According to Adobe’s 5,000-person survey, 38% of consumers have used generative AI at some point during their shopping process, while 52% plan to do so this year. Shoppers are most commonly using it for product research (53%), recommendations (40%), finding deals (36%), creating shopping lists (30%), and gift ideas (30%).

AI shoppers are more engaged and informed

Consumers that arrive at a website from AI-powered sources spend 32% more time per visit, view 10% more pages, and have a 27% lower bounce rate than those coming from traditional sources such as search, social media, and email. Shoppers using Gen AI also report an increase in satisfaction, with 85% of users saying that AI improved their shopping experience and 73% now rely on it as their primary product research tool. Overall, shoppers using Gen AI tools are more engaged than shoppers using traditional ecommerce methods.

Conversions still lag

While consumers are increasingly using Gen AI tools for browsing, many stop there and fail to actually make the purchase. In fact, Adobe’s study showed that AI-driven traffic is still 23% less likely to convert than traditional traffic. This figure has actually shown a bit of improvement over the past few months. The study showed that conversion rates were 49% lower in January 2025 and 38% lower in April 2025. This suggests that consumers increasingly trust AI-powered recommendations enough to complete purchases directly.

Revenue-per-visit from AI sources is catching up to non-AI visits

When it comes down to dollar figures, it turns out that Gen AI-powered shopping isn’t as valuable, though that is quickly changing. Adobe’s study found that AI-driven revenue-per-visit rose 84% from January 2025 to July 2025. While AI-driven visits were worth 97% less than non-AI visits in July 2024, they were only 27% less than a non-AI visit a year later. This indicates shoppers are moving from using AI purely for research to actually buying through AI-driven paths.

Mobile is fueling AI-driven shopping growth

According to the study, in July 2025, 26% of AI-driven retail traffic came from mobile. This is up by 8 percentage points from 18% six months earlier. Adobe expects mobile AI use to further close the conversion gap, given consumers’ tendency toward more impulse-driven shopping on phones.

All of these statistics paint a picture of what we can expect to happen to ecommerce in the next few years. As consumers increasingly turn to their preferred Gen AI tool when they start their shopping journey, we’re witnessing the early stages of a new kind of marketplace. In ecommerce 2.0, we’ll see discovery, recommendation, and payment converge within a single interface. Competition in this new frontier will no longer be about who owns the checkout. Rather, it will centralize around who owns the conversation that leads there. As the 2025 holiday shopping season picks up, expect to see fintechs, retailers, and payment providers racing to claim their spot in the Gen AI shopping ecosystem.

Photo by Ivan Samkov

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TrueLayer to Acquire Pay-by-Bank Fintech Zimpler

TrueLayer to Acquire Pay-by-Bank Fintech Zimpler
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • TrueLayer plans to acquire Sweden-based Zimpler, expanding its footprint in the Nordics and strengthening its position in Europe’s growing pay-by-bank sector.
  • The deal combines TrueLayer’s European network with Zimpler’s Nordic expertise and Swish integration, creating a strong alternative to traditional card payments.
  • The acquisition highlights the rise of account-to-account payments in the debt-averse Nordic region, where pay-by-bank adoption already leads the world.

UK open banking platform TrueLayer unveiled today that it will acquire Sweden-based pay-by-bank company Zimpler. The financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

TrueLayer will leverage Zimpler’s strong standing in the Nordic market to expand its network and expertise. The purchase will support TrueLayer’s mission to build a payments alternative in Europe, which will in turn create competition and increase value for customers.

“We’re not just expanding our footprint in the Nordics—we’re combining talent, technology, and scale to accelerate Pay by Bank adoption across the continent,” said TrueLayer Co-Founder and CEO Francesco Simoneschi.

Zimpler was founded in 2012 with a mission to democratize payments and enable growth for businesses across industries and markets. The company connects businesses with over 350 million customer bank accounts across more than 25 markets.

“Joining forces with TrueLayer is a fantastic opportunity to build the leading Pay by Bank provider in Europe,” said Zimpler CEO Johan Strand. “TrueLayer has a proven track record of innovation and a powerful network. Our combined strengths will allow us to offer an even more compelling proposition to the market. Joining TrueLayer will enable us to reach new heights and drive the next wave of growth in the industry. At the same time, we remain firmly anchored in Sweden, with our local license and expertise ensuring continuity for our customers.”

Europe, specifically the Nordic region, has some of the highest adoption rates of account-to-account payments in the world. The debt-averse culture of the Nordics leads to low credit card usage. Only around 35% to 45% of Swedish adults have an active credit card. Because of this, pay-by-bank is widely adopted and accepted.

By acquiring Zimpler, TrueLayer will strengthen its pan-European network to more than 20 million users and will add coverage across key markets such as Sweden, Finland, and will add A2A capabilities through the Swish payment rail integration. This significantly strengthens TrueLayer’s pan-European network, accelerating the shift to smarter, safer, and more cost-effective payments.

TrueLayer’s acquisition of Zimpler consolidates pay-by-bank in Europe. As open banking matures, scale and network coverage are two key differentiators. Combining TrueLayer’s European reach with Zimpler’s Nordic expertise, plus its connectivity to Swedish mobile banking app Swish, the partnership creates a strong alternative to traditional card networks.

“I am excited to welcome the Zimpler team to TrueLayer,” said Simoneschi. “We’ve long admired their progress, and we’re excited to add such an incredible group of builders and payment experts to the TrueLayer team. We’re not just expanding our footprint in the Nordics—we’re combining talent, technology, and scale to accelerate Pay by Bank adoption across the continent, and further strengthening Pay by Bank as a force of disruption that is changing how the world pays.”

Photo by Robert Bye on Unsplash

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What Will Happen to Open Banking Regulation if the CFPB is Torn Down?

What Will Happen to Open Banking Regulation if the CFPB is Torn Down?
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Julie's Column, Thought Leadership

If you’ve been paying attention to the open banking conversation in the US, you are aware that it is currently on the cusp of a major shift. In July, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed a surprise motion to pause the legal battle over its Section 1033 data access rule. The Bureau then announced its plans to rewrite the rule altogether, and initiated a call for public comments.

The purpose of Section 1033 is to align principles on how consumers access and share their financial data. The rule essentially stands as the legal backbone of open banking in the US. For its part, the CFPB’s role is to define the technical and legal framework behind the mechanics of consumer data access. The Bureau is tasked with creating standards for data access, consent, and security.

The public comment period ends tomorrow, October 21, but writing a new rule will likely be anything but smooth. Aside from the various viewpoints from opposing stakeholders, which complicates the CFPB’s effort to write a fair ruling for all parties, there is now another wrinkle in the story. Last week, White House budget director Russell Vought said on a podcast that he wants to close down the CFPB. If the CFPB were indeed dismantled, would open banking stall or survive?

When the public comments period ends tomorrow, the CFPB will begin drafting the new open banking proposal. Further complicating the matter, the rewrite is unfolding alongside ongoing litigation over the original rule. The Financial Technology Association (FTA) is defending the rule in court after the Trump administration moved to overturn it back in May. In September it argued against an effort by the Bank Policy Institute to keep the rule on hold indefinitely, saying that big banks are trying to limit how much authority the CFPB has over open banking in hopes of shaping what the new version of the rule will look like.

Between the drafting of the new rule and all of the litigation, the next six-to-twelve months are pivotal in steering the open banking conversation. And yet, even as the rule is being rewritten and argued over in court, a much bigger question looms: what happens if the CFPB itself disappears? If Vought’s comments are correct and the CFPB is indeed completely dismantled there are a few likely scenarios of what may happen moving forward:

Regulatory limbo

With no agency to finalize or enforce 1033, the rule could be delayed or stalled indefinitely. This delay would slow technological adoption and would make open banking once again driven by the market, instead of regulation.

In fact, for years, banks and fintechs have been building API-based data-sharing frameworks and forming independent networks such as FDX, which unifies the financial industry around a common standard for the secure and convenient access of permissioned consumer and business data.

In the absence of regulatory guardrails, however, big banks could set the terms of data access and possibly introduce unreasonable fees or restrictive policies. Additionally, smaller fintechs could be squeezed out, which would ultimately reduce consumer choice. As a result, the US would have a more industry-controlled version of open banking instead of a consumer-centric model.

Reassignment

The authority to shape, finalize, and enforce 1033 could shift to other agencies such as the FCC or OCC. Swapping agencies, however, may create jurisdictional confusion since neither agency has a direct consumer-data mandate. This confusion may lead to slower adoption and reduced technological innovation.

If federal leadership falters, however, individual states may step in to organize their own regulations. States like California or New York may end up writing their own data-sharing laws. This would result in a patchwork of regulations, increasing compliance costs and complexity, especially for new fintechs seeking to compete. In theory, Congress could pass national open banking legislation, but bipartisan agreement on financial regulation (or any regulation) is rare.

Wiping out the CFPB will not wipe out the underlying law, Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010. However, even though the law would continue to stand on its own two feet, the rulemaking, enforcement, and coordination around the law could be thrown into disarray. If the rulemaking is stalled for too long, it is likely that we will see individual states take matters into their own hands.

Photo by Bernd 📷 Dittrich on Unsplash

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An IPO Alternative: Revolut’s $75 Billion Valuation and $3 Billion Funding Round

An IPO Alternative: Revolut’s $75 Billion Valuation and $3 Billion Funding Round
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Revolut
  • Revolut is rumored to be raising capital and selling previously repurchased shares at a higher valuation in a creative alternative to going public.
  • Staying private gives Revolut more flexibility as it expands into new markets and adds roughly one million customers every 17 days, without the scrutiny of quarterly earnings reports.
  • The company is likely delaying its IPO until it secures a full UK banking license, but strong investor demand and ample private funding mean Revolut can continue scaling without listing on public markets.

Global banking fintech Revolut is nearing the threshold of two major milestones. The UK-based company is currently seeking to close a $3 billion funding round, marking a $75 billion valuation.

According to Bloomberg, which broke the news, Revolut has spent months putting the round together and has been informing investors about the allocation of shares they’ll receive as part of the oversubscribed round. The investment will bring in cash and offer early backers and employees liquidity.

Revolut declined to comment, but according to people familiar with the matter, Revolut will use the funds as fuel to enter dozens of new markets across the globe in the coming years. Revolut already operates in the European Economic Area (EEA), Australia, Brazil, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, the UK, and the US, as well as a handful of small territories. Expanding its geographical reach will allow Revolut to deepen its customer base, diversify revenue streams, and strengthen its position as a global financial “super app.”

In August, Revolut bought back some of its own shares from existing investors in a tender offer deal that paid investors for their shares based on the company valuation of $45 billion. Revolut is now considering selling some of the same shares it just bought back to new investors. Notably, this sale would be conducted at a much higher valuation of $75 billion, meaning Revolut could profit significantly from the difference. In addition to selling these existing shares, Revolut may also issue new shares to raise new funding which would bring additional cash into the company as opposed to simply transferring ownership of existing shares.

Sources noted that Revolut CEO Nik Storonsky encouraged early employees to sell some of their stock in order to allow the company to offer more shares to eager new investors. Despite this effort, demand was far greater than supply, so many investors could only buy a small amount. This strong demand showcases Revolut’s rising valuation and positions it well for raising more capital.

This complicated song and dance around share shifting may sound more complicated than simply going public. But many analysts argue that an IPO isn’t ideal for Revolut at the moment. The company is expanding rapidly, adding around one million customers every 17 days, and staying private offers it more flexibility to pivot, experiment, and grow without the quarterly pressure and scrutiny that come with being a public company.

Perhaps the biggest aspect holding the company back is that it has not received its full UK banking license. While the UK Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) awarded Revolut a banking license in 2024, it did so with restrictions. Regulators have been reviewing the company’s application for years, and not having a banking license significantly decreases both revenue potential and investor confidence. In fact, going public before securing the license could lower Revolut’s valuation or limit interest from institutional investors.

Fortunately for Revolut, private funding is still plentiful. Since the company was founded in 2015, it has been able to raise a large amount of capital privately, and at valuations similar to or higher than what it may get in public markets.

Photo by cottonbro studio

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FIS Launches Smart Basket to Keep Pace with Agentic Payments

FIS Launches Smart Basket to Keep Pace with Agentic Payments
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, FIS
  • FIS launches Smart Basket, a checkout solution that uses real-time, item-level intelligence to optimize payment methods, rewards, and savings for each purchase.
  • The platform blends FIS’ payments, loyalty, and spend technologies to give shoppers granular payment choices, including HSAs, and help merchants reduce costs while boosting loyalty.
  • The launch positions FIS in the agentic AI payments race, turning checkout into a proactive decision engine that anticipates consumer needs and personalizes outcomes.

Fintech giant FIS announced its latest planned launch, Smart Basket, this week. The new tool aims to enhance the payment experience at checkout with real-time, item-level adjudication.

The new transaction gateway analyzes an individual’s shopping behavior and applies optimal rewards and payment methods at checkout. The proactive, automated approach helps shoppers save money and earn rewards while increasing brand loyalty for the merchant.

The solution combines FIS’ real-time payments gateway, its loyalty platform, and its filtered spend technologies to differentiate its payment network. Notably, Smart Basket will allow shoppers to select which payment method to use for each individual item they are purchasing. In addition to using traditional debit, credit, and prepaid cards, Smart Basket will allow flexible healthcare spending accounts to be used as payment methods. FIS anticipates that this will lower payment costs while enabling customized loyalty and rewards programs at highly targeted levels.

“Smart Basket represents a significant leap forward in how money can be moved and put to work during the search and shopping experience,” said FIS President Jim Johnson. “By leveraging real-time, item-level intelligence, Smart Basket is seeking to deliver personalized value and frictionless savings to consumers while providing retailers and brands with increased sales and insights they need to optimize their strategies. This will be a game-changer for the industry, and we are excited to bring more value to buyers, sellers, and brands wherever money flows.”

Launching Smart Basket positions FIS within the emerging agentic AI payments landscape. In the past few months we’ve seen a handful of big tech and fintech companies, including Walmart, OpenAI, Google, and Splitit, launch payments capabilities that transform payments into an embedded capability rather than a separate checkout destination.

By leveraging real-time, item-level data to make proactive decisions about payment methods, loyalty redemptions, and savings opportunities, Smart Basket will optimize the checkout experience from a passive endpoint into a dynamic, automated decision engine. This shift aligns with growing consumer expectations around seamless, smart payments that anticipate needs, maximize value, and personalize outcomes.

Photo by Content Pixie

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Breaking Past Fragmentation: How Qolo Simplifies Payments for Banks and Businesses

Breaking Past Fragmentation: How Qolo Simplifies Payments for Banks and Businesses
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2025, Qolo, Speaker series, Streamly

Many businesses approach fintech in a fragmented way. They are forced to stitch together multiple payment systems, APIs, banking partners, and integrations just to achieve basic functionality.

Patricia Montesi, Founder and CEO of Qolo, explains in a FinovateFall video interview how her platform is solving that complexity for banks, fintechs, and enterprises. Qolo offers a unified payments stack through a single API that enables institutions to modernize their payments infrastructure without expensive and risky rip-and-replace of legacy systems.

In the video, Montesi delves into embedded ledgers, real-time rails, and how Qolo can overlay existing cores in under nine months while positioning clients for the next generation of payments, such as stablecoins and novel rails.

“We set out to build an entire, comprehensive payments stack that includes ledger, card, payments, virtual account management—everything all available through a single API served up to you so that you can then focus on your customers.”

Patricia Montesi is a seasoned payments veteran with over 20 years of experience across banking and fintech. Prior to Qolo, she held leadership roles driving innovation in payments and scaling complex platforms. Her deep domain expertise across card processing, FX, bank partnerships, and regulatory environments gives her insight into the pain points that banking partners face when retrofitting modern payments capabilities.

Qolo was founded in 2018 with the aim to simplify payments by offering a comprehensive payment stack, including an embedded ledger, card issuing, money movement, real-time reconciliation, and cross-rail connectivity on a single API. Rather than forcing banks to rip out their core, Qolo overlays its platform directly atop existing systems, enabling deployment in under nine months. This sidecar-oriented architecture lets institutions adopt new payment rails without disrupting core banking operations.

Photo by Tim Samuel

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Upgrade Raises $165 Million, Sees Valuation Rise to $7.3 Billion

Upgrade Raises $165 Million, Sees Valuation Rise to $7.3 Billion
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Upgrade has raised $165 million in a Series G round, boosting its total funding to $750 million and valuing the fintech at $7.3 billion.
  • Founded by Lending Club pioneer Renaud Laplanche, Upgrade has served 7.5 million customers, facilitated $42 billion in credit, and continues to grow profitably with a multi-product strategy spanning loans, cards, BNPL, and savings tools.
  • The late-stage round positions Upgrade near a potential IPO inflection point, signaling strong investor confidence in alternative lending models and the company’s ability to compete with both challenger and traditional banks.

It’s time for mobile banking and lending fintech Upgrade to get an upgrade of its own. The California-based fintech announced today that it landed a $165 million equity investment to enhance its credit and banking products aimed at retail customers. The round boosts the company’s total funding to $750 million since inception.

The Series G Preferred Round, which was led by Neuberger, indicates that this is a late-stage financing event, given that Upgrade has matured significantly in revenue, consumer adoption, and market presence. LuminArx Capital Management also contributed, and existing shareholders, including DST Global, Ribbit Capital and others, also increased their investment. While this stage and type of round could indicate that Upgrade is preparing for an IPO, it could also signal that the company is planning to delay its IPO, offering liquidity to prepare for a later exit.

According to Upgrade CEO and Co-Founder Renaud Laplanche—who previously founded and led early fintech pioneer Lending Club—Upgrade’s valuation now sits at $7.3 billion.

Founded in 2017, Upgrade is a digital banking platform headquartered in California. The company offers checking and savings accounts, personal loans, credit cards, and rewards programs that focus on low fees and responsible credit usage to help consumers improve their financial lives. Upgrade has served 7.5 million customers and has facilitated over $42 billion in credit with tools such as its Upgrade Card, which encourages customers to pay off balances quickly and avoid revolving debt and build credit responsibly.

In 2024, Upgrade launched the Flex Pay brand, which it rebranded from Uplift. The BNPL tool serves 750 travel and retail brands, helping them to increase their customer engagement, loyalty, and consumer spending by offering more flexible payment options. Upgrade also offers cashback rewards, competitive savings rates, and credit monitoring tools, positioning itself as a customer-friendly alternative to traditional banks.

As part of today’s deal, Neuberger Head of Specialty Finance Peter Sterling is joining Upgrade’s Board of Directors.

“Upgrade presents an unmatched opportunity in fintech,” said Sterling. “As many companies in the space struggle with acquisition costs and monetization strategy, Upgrade has sustained profitable growth through a multi-product, multi-channel strategy that relies on low-cost, proprietary distribution channels to acquire new customers and its ability to monetize users through multiple products. We have known Renaud and the Upgrade founding team for over a decade and are very excited to expand our partnership.”

Upgrade’s growth momentum has continued to build, reflected in several major milestones. The company has surpassed $2 billion in cumulative home improvement financing just three years after launching the product, and has already exceeded $1 billion in auto financing within two years of that product’s debut.

“We are thrilled to expand our relationship with Neuberger and welcome Peter as a new board member,” said Laplanche. “We are planning to use the new equity capital to keep developing new products and expand distribution to achieve our goal of helping more mainstream consumers get the banking and credit products they need today, while improving their financial and credit standing in the long run.”

Upgrade’s raise is a great indication that there is still consumer and investor appetite for alternative consumer lending options. Upgrade has managed to sustain profitable growth while scaling to millions of users. The company’s diversified product lineup positions it to compete with both challenger banks as well as traditional banks. Upgrade’s $7.3 billion valuation, combined with leadership from a seasoned founder who helped define the early fintech era places Upgrade at an IPO inflection point.

Photo by Jungwoo Hong on Unsplash

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Splitit to Help AI Agents Pay in Installments

Splitit to Help AI Agents Pay in Installments
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, SplitIt
  • Splitit launched its Agentic Commerce Partner Program that enables AI agents to offer card-linked installment payment options directly within merchant checkout flows without requiring new lines of credit.
  • The program is designed to align with emerging standards like Google’s AP2 and OpenAI’s Agentic Commerce Protocol, ensuring interoperability as autonomous shopping ecosystems evolve.
  • As AI-driven commerce accelerates, Splitit aims to make flexible pay-later options a native part of agent-powered purchases starting with a pilot in the fourth quarter of this year.

Embedded BNPL solutions provider Splitit announced yesterday that it launched a partner program that will allow AI agents to take advantage of pay-later capabilities when making payments on behalf of their users.

Called the Agentic Commerce Partner Program, the new initiative will allow autonomous shopping agents to make payments using card-linked installments. AI agents that have registered with Splitit can request real-time installment options directly within the merchant’s checkout flow. The payments take place on existing payment rails using the users’ existing payment cards, and do not require new lines of credit.

While the agentic commerce landscape is still in its early days of development, Splitit built its Agentic Commerce Partner Program to align with emerging industry frameworks like Google’s AP2 and OpenAI’s Agentic Commerce Protocol to ensure flexibility and interoperability across future agent ecosystems.

“Agentic AI will fundamentally reshape how consumers and businesses buy,” said Splitit CTO Ran Landau. “Splitit’s mission is to ensure that seamless, transparent installments are built into this new paradigm from day one, not bolted on later. We look forward to partnering with leading merchants, platforms, networks, and banks in developing meaningful use cases that can be beneficial to shoppers and brands.”

Splitit’s new feature aims to keep up with the newest evolutions in agent-powered shopping. According to Adobe, 53% of consumers plan to use AI for product research and 40% plan to use AI for purchasing recommendations this holiday season, especially as shoppers are turning to Gen AI for deal-hunting, recommendations, and gift inspiration.

By embedding installment payment functionality directly into agentic commerce flows, Splitit is positioning itself at the cutting edge of autonomous shopping. As agentic ecosystems mature, the integration will allow merchants and platforms to offer more flexible, seamless payment options at the point of decision. Splitit’s Agentic Commerce pilot program will roll out in Q4.

Photo by Magda Ehlers

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BVNK Lands Funds from Citi Ventures for Stablecoin Infrastructure

BVNK Lands Funds from Citi Ventures for Stablecoin Infrastructure
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • BVNK has received a strategic investment from Citi Ventures, adding to its $90+ million in funding to accelerate its multi-rail payments infrastructure.
  • BVNK has doubled transaction volumes in the past year and is competing with Circle, Ripple, and Stellar networks to bridge fiat and digital assets with enterprise-grade stablecoin settlement solutions.
  • Stablecoins are rapidly becoming core financial infrastructure, with supply surpassing $180 billion and on-chain settlement volumes reaching trillions as businesses seek faster, cheaper cross-border payments.

Multi-rail payments infrastructure platform BVNK announced this week that it has scored a strategic investment from Citi Ventures. The amount of the funds is undisclosed, and adds to the $90+ million in funding BVNK has raised from investors such as Visa, Haun Ventures, Tiger Global, and others.

“Stablecoins are seeing increased interest in use for settlement of on-chain and crypto asset transactions,” said Citi Ventures Head Arvind Purushotham. “We were impressed by BVNK’s enterprise-grade infrastructure, and their proven track record.”

BVNK was founded in 2021 and currently processes over $20 billion each year on behalf of enterprises and payment service providers. The UK-based company leverages stablecoins to enable businesses to move value instantly across borders and networks. Through its partnerships with global licensing bodies and Tier 1 banks, BVNK serves clients such as Worldpay, Deel, and dLocal.

“This investment reinforces our mission to accelerate the global movement of money,” said BVNK Co-Founder and CEO Jesse Hemson-Struthers. “Our platform enables companies to harness stablecoins to move money quickly across borders and launch innovative financial products with enterprise-ready security and compliance.”

Citi Ventures’ strategic investment comes as stablecoins are working their way to becoming a key piece of financial infrastructure. The total supply of stablecoins has exceeded $180 billion in 2025, with on-chain settlement volumes now reaching trillions of dollars each year as businesses make the swap to faster, cheaper alternatives to traditional banking.

This surge has helped to fuel BVNK, which has doubled its transaction volumes in the past year and has expanded its partnerships across the globe. The fintech’s biggest rivals, which include Circle, Ripple, and Stellar-powered payment networks, are all seeking to build top-tier infrastructure that bridges the gap between fiat and digital assets. Citi’s financial and strategic support will help BVNK differentiate itself in the race to build the enterprise-grade, multi-rail payments platform needed to make stablecoin settlement a mainstream tool for global commerce.

Photo by Brett Sayles

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From Rate Wars to Real Value: How Wysh is Redefining Deposit Strategy through Protection

From Rate Wars to Real Value: How Wysh is Redefining Deposit Strategy through Protection
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2025, Speaker series, Streamly, Wysh

With more banking options available than ever before, winning customers and their deposits has become increasingly difficult. Differentiation is not only harder to achieve, it’s also more essential for banks and credit unions seeking growth. Yet for many institutions, finding a truly distinct value proposition can feel elusive.

This is where Wysh’s embedded life insurance product comes in. I spoke with Wysh CEO and Founder Alex Matjanec at FinovateFall last month about how his company helps banks differentiate their offerings by adding life insurance protection. The unique benefits help firms build loyalty, retention, and deeper customer relationships while also helping grow deposits.

“The main problem that we’re solving is that in America, there’s a massive underinsured gap where many Americans don’t have enough insurance. And the way they get it is actually going away, so they’re looking for new avenues to do so. On the other side, banks are looking to differentiate themselves by capturing new deposits to beat digital institutions… and we think layering in protection is the way to do so and we make it very easy to do that.”

Alex Matjanec is a serial entrepreneur with deep roots in fintech and digital product leadership. Before founding Wysh, he co-founded MyBankTracker.com, which has been called “the Expedia of banks,” and was involved in other startup ventures focused on financial tools and mobile apps. Under his leadership, Wysh has scaled from a small team to over 50 employees, expanding into dozens of US states, and forging partnerships with banks and fintechs to embed protection into deposit accounts.

Wysh was founded in 2021 to help banks increase deposits while adding value and improving customer retention. The company’s flagship solution, Life Benefit, allows banks, credit unions, and fintechs to embed micro life insurance directly into deposit accounts without requiring underwriting, opt-in steps, or extra bureaucracy.

Photo by Nita

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Coupa Acquires Supplier Discovery Platform Scoutbee

Coupa Acquires Supplier Discovery Platform Scoutbee
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Coupa has acquired AI-powered supplier discovery platform Scoutbee to enhance transparency and efficiency in supplier sourcing, onboarding, and transactions.
  • The move expands Coupa’s procurement ecosystem, adding Scoutbee’s collaborative tools and AI-driven supplier intelligence to Coupa’s $8 trillion spend management platform.
  • As competition in AI-enabled procurement heats up, Coupa’s acquisition positions it to better compete with SAP’s Ariba and JAGGAER in building a dynamic, resilient global supply chain network.

Spend management platform Coupa revealed today that it has acquired supplier discovery platform Scoutbee for an undisclosed amount.

Coupa anticipates that integrating Scoutbee’s tools into its platform will offer business clients greater transparency and efficiency in supplier discovery, onboarding, and transactions.

Scoutbee was founded in 2015 to connect buyers and suppliers through its AI-powered procurement platform, which includes a robust supplier database and collaboration tools. The California-based company has raised $76 million in funding to help organizations discover new, relevant suppliers and unlock new opportunities.

“We founded Scoutbee with the premise that AI can transform real-time sourcing and procurement by enabling buyers and suppliers to seamlessly connect, collaborate, and transact,” said Scoutbee co-founder and CEO Gregor Stühler. “Joining Coupa allows us to bring our mission to a global stage, and provide an exceptionally data-rich and comprehensive buyer-supplier network and B2B marketplace at scale.”

Coupa launched its AI platform for total spend management in 2006. The company’s platform contains a community-generated, $8 trillion dataset and brings autonomous AI agents, 10 million buyers and suppliers, and apps to automate the buying process. In 2022, Coupa was acquired by Thoma Bravo for $8 billion in cash.

“Coupa and Scoutbee share a fundamental belief that better data leads to better AI, better decisions, and ultimately, a better world through more resilient supply chains,” said Coupa Chief Product and Technology Officer Salvatore Lombardo. “Together, we are creating the world’s most comprehensive, dynamic, and data-rich network. This acquisition enables us to deliver a truly effortless buyer-supplier matching experience and further enhances our network that will power the future of global trade.”

Bringing Coupa and Scoutbee together under a united front will help fortify Coupa’s position in the race to dominate the AI-powered procurement and supplier intelligence space. With rivals like SAP’s Ariba Network doubling down on AI-enabled sourcing and JAGGAER investing heavily in autonomous commerce, Coupa’s move will deepen its supplier intelligence capabilities, reinforcing its position as a data-rich, network-first procurement ecosystem.

Photo by Tiger Lily

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From Demo to Deal: FinovateEurope Alumni Turn Innovation into Acquisition

From Demo to Deal: FinovateEurope Alumni Turn Innovation into Acquisition
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Finovate Marketing, FinovateEurope 2026, Mergers & Acquisitions

Each year, FinovateEurope brings together the brightest innovators in fintech to demo the future of financial technology. But for many companies, demoing their technology on the Finovate stage is more than just a moment in the spotlight, it’s a launching pad for growth.

Over the past 15 years, dozens of FinovateEurope alumni have captured the attention of major industry players, leading to high-profile acquisitions and partnerships. Below, we highlight some of the companies that turned their Finovate demo into their next big deal.

These success stories underscore how FinovateEurope has helped fintechs showcase their newest fintech innovation and connect it with the institutions and investors ready to scale it. From early-stage disruptors to industry leaders, the companies that have taken the Finovate stage prove that a seven-minute demo can spark partnerships, acquisitions, and growth.

As we look ahead to FinovateEurope 2026, we’ve already started to help the newest wave of fintechs prepare to take the spotlight. If the past 15 years are any indication, the ideas you will see on stage next February could be the ones reshaping fintech in the years to come.

Join us for FinovateEurope 2026 on February 10 through 11 in London. Tickets are available today at a discount, so register today and save!

Photo by Cytonn Photography

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