10x Banking Raises £40 Million from AshGrove Capital

Core banking platform 10x Banking has raised £40 million ($53.8 million) in funding from AshGrove Capital. The UK-based fintech will use the capital to drive sales and go-to-market activity.

The investment comes in the wake of the pair of major announcements from 10x Banking: becoming EBITDA-positive and topping the 10 million live account milestone.

Based in London, 10x Banking won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023. Antony Jenkins is Founder, Chair, and CEO.

SaaS core banking platform 10x Banking has secured £40 million ($53.8 million) from AshGrove Capital. The funding will fuel the UK-based fintech's sales and go-to-market efforts and comes as the company reports becoming EBITDA-positive and surpassing the 10 million live account milestone. Additionally, in the last 12 months, 10x Banking has onboarded 10+ new financial institutions and boosted annual recurring revenue (ARR) by more than 30%.

In the company's statement, the firm underscored…

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Ariel Leachman of Bluum Finance on the Rise of Embedded Investing

Credit union members and community banking customers readily trust their credit unions and community banks with their capital when it comes to saving and borrowing. But what about investing? In most instances, those same members and customers will seek out other institutions and businesses when it comes to investing for the future and managing their wealth.

What if credit unions and community banks instead could keep those members and customers by catering to their investing and wealth management needs? How might this positively impact customer and member relationships and deepen engagement?

This week, our Finovate First-Timers series features Ariel Leachman, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at Bluum Finance. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California and founded in 2025, Bluum Finance offers a unified platform for embedded wealth management and investing, providing brokerage and AI-powered advisory infrastructure via APIs. The company combines multi-asset, multi-market brokerage, custody, and reporting in a single…

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Connect Credit Union Turns to Appli for AI-Powered Smart Financial Calculators

Connect Credit Union, a Florida-based financial institution with $103 million in assets, has partnered with smart financial calculator builder, Appli.

Appli's AI-powered calculators are designed to turn passive visitors into active financial consumers by enabling them to assess loan opportunities, calculate property values in real-time, plan for retirement, and more.

Founded in 2024 and headquartered in Cedar Hills, Utah, Appli made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2025 in New York.

Florida-based Connect Credit Union has teamed up with Appli, builder of AI-powered smart financial calculators, to provide members with a new, interactive way to learn about their lending options, assess how best to save for future goals, and identify optimal savings instruments.

"Connect's members are digitally savvy, and they expect that from every part of their credit union experience now, not just online banking," Appli CEO Tim Pranger said. "Rolling this out right after their website relaunch means members…

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Meet the Investors, Founders, and Operators Taking the Stage at Our IMPACT Funders & Founders Event

When we announced IMPACT Funders & Founders, we described it as a new kind of event designed to bring together fintech founders and the investors backing the next generation of fintech in a setting built for meaningful conversations, targeted networking, and real fundraising opportunities.

Now, we're excited to share our speaker lineup.

The inaugural IMPACT event, taking place alongside FinovateFall on September 11 in New York City, features venture capitalists, startup founders, corporate investors, accelerators, and ecosystem builders who are actively shaping fintech's next chapter. Rather than focusing on broad industry trends alone, these speakers will tackle the practical questions founders and investors face every day, such as raising capital, scaling a company, navigating exits, leveraging AI, embedded finance, and the changing venture landscape.

Learn from investors writing today's checks

Whether you're raising your first institutional round or preparing for growth-stage funding, one of the biggest advantages of…

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Visa Acquires Behavioral Biometrics Innovator BioCatch for $2.4 Billion

Digital payments giant Visa has agreed to acquire fraud and financial crime prevention platform BioCatch for $2.4 billion in cash.

The acquisition will add to Visa's existing cyber, fraud, risk, and security solutions and provide greater defense against newer threats including account takeover and money mule fraud.

BioCatch was founded in 2011. The company made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2014 in New York.

Visa has inked a definitive agreement to acquire behavioral and device intelligence innovator BioCatch. Visa will purchase the company from funds advised by Permira and other shareholders for $2.4 billion in cash. The move will add to Visa's current array of cyber, fraud, risk, and security solutions and is expected to be especially helpful in managing threats such as account takeovers, scams, money mules, and application fraud.

Subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of all relevant regulatory approvals, the acquisition is expected to close…

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Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

August is off to an auspicious start in the fintech world, with news of acquisitions in behavioral biometrics and regtech, and good news for a pair of firms seeking approval to initiate digital asset operations in New York and the UK, respectively. Be sure to swing by Finovate's Fintech Rundown all week long for the latest updates and fintech headlines!

Wealth management

Asset and wealth management software specialist ZILO launches its digital transfer agency platform, integration mutual fund administration with digital asset capabilities.

Payments

London-based financial services provider Teya unveils new payments card machine.

Fraud prevention

Visa agrees to acquire behavioral biometrics company BioCatch for $2.4 billion in cash.

Bank of America to acquire UK-based information security firm MDSec Consulting.

Digital assets

Circle secures limited purpose trust charter from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).

Robinhood receives authorization from the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to offer…

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CUSO InvestiFi Raises $20 Million to Help Community Banks and Credit Unions Retain Deposits

InvestiFi raised $20 million in a strategic funding round led largely by credit unions and fintech investors to expand its embedded investing platform for community financial institutions.

Community banks and credit unions are increasingly competing with fintechs like Robinhood, Wealthfront, Betterment, and Coinbase for the primary customer relationship, making embedded investing a key retention strategy.

The investor lineup signals strong industry confidence that integrated wealth management tools will be critical for smaller financial institutions to remain competitive with digital-first providers.

Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO) InvestiFi has landed $20 million in a funding round led by Vibe Credit Union, with participation from BankTech Ventures, ICCU (Idaho Central Credit Union), Navari (formerly CUSG), United Financial Credit Union, Coastal Credit Union, Mid Minnesota Credit Union, Truity Credit Union, and Southpoint Credit Union.

"What makes this raise especially meaningful is that so much of it comes directly from the consumer-focused financial…

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Meet Nine FinovateFall Speakers: Their Thoughts on AI, Banking, and What’s Next

In the run-up to FinovateFall, which takes place on September 9 through 11 in New York, we asked several speakers for their perspectives on technologies shaping financial services, the biggest challenges facing banks, and why they keep coming back to Finovate.

Below is a preview of what nine speakers had to say ahead of this year's event.

Michael Reynolds, Business Technology Executive at KeyBank

Michael Reynolds leads intelligent automation at KeyBank, where he oversees robotic process automation, intelligent document processing, low-code development, and generative AI initiatives. Under his leadership, KeyBank's digital workforce now performs the equivalent of more than 500 employees' worth of work.

Why Finovate?

"Finovate is one of the few conferences where you can see real, working technology, not concept slides. The live demo format lets banks quickly assess what is production-ready, identify emerging fintech partners, and compare innovation across multiple categories in just a few days. Finovate…

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MoonPay Lets AI Agents Transact with PayBox

MoonPay launched PayBox, enabling ChatGPT and Claude users to authorize AI agents to make purchases, trade tokens, interact with DeFi, and move assets using natural language.

The platform combines Visa's agentic commerce protocol, x402, and cryptographic security to let AI transact while keeping users' card details and wallet keys protected.

PayBox reflects the growing shift toward agentic commerce, as companies build the payment infrastructure that will enable AI agents to transact safely on users' behalf.

Stablecoin infrastructure provider MoonPay launched PayBox this week. The new payment vault allows users' AI agents to trade tokens, bridge assets, interact with DeFi, and transact online without leaving the conversation.

The new capability enables Claude and ChatGPT users with a PayBox connector to offer their AI the ability to transact by describing what they want in natural language. In addition to requesting their AI to make purchases like booking a flight, customers…

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14 AI Solutions that Help Banks Work Smarter

While it used to be largely experimental, AI has quickly evolved into a practical tool that is reshaping how banks and fintechs operate. Today's AI platforms are helping bankers, advisors, operations teams, and customer service representatives work more efficiently by automating routine tasks, surfacing insights faster, and reducing the amount of manual work required to serve customers.

At FinovateFall 2026, which takes place September 9 through 11 in New York, we'll see 68 companies take the demo stage, more than a dozen of which will use their seven-minute slot on stage to demonstrate how they're putting AI to work across financial services. From advisor copilots and employee training to customer support, analytics, workflow automation, and personalized banking experiences, these fintechs are helping financial institutions become more productive without sacrificing the customer and partner relationships that remain central to banking. Below are 14 companies that will showcase how AI can…

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EnFi Secures $15 Million to Bring Agentic AI to Commercial Lending

AI-native lending platform EnFi has raised $15 million in Series A funding. The round was led by FINTOP and the investment brings the firm's total capital raised to date to $22.5 million.

The funds will be used to enable the Boston, Massachusetts-based fintech to scale its offering, grow its team, and boost its go-to-market efforts.

EnFi made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateFall 2025 in New York. Co-founder Joshua Summers is CEO.

Here's some Finovate alumni funding news from earlier this year that slipped beneath our radar: EnFi, which leverages agentic AI to complete end-to-end commercial lending workflows, has raised $15 million in Series A funding. The Massachusetts-based fintech will use the capital to scale its technology, grow its team, and accelerate go-to-market efforts.

The investment takes the company's total funding to $22.5 million. The round was led by FINTOP, and featured participation from Patriot Financial Partners,…

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Increase Brings Banking and Banking Infrastructure Under One Roof

Increase has launched Increase Bank, combining an FDIC-member institution with its API-first banking core and direct connections to the Federal Reserve, The Clearing House, and Visa.

The company entered banking through its 2025 acquisition of Washington-based Twin City Bank, which continues serving existing community customers under the Twin City Bank name.

By operating its own bank while continuing to work with partner banks, Increase is integrating more of the embedded-finance stack and gaining greater control over product development, compliance, payments, and economics.

API-first banking fintech Increase is launching Increase Bank to bring its modern bank core to help businesses build and launch financial products.

With today's launch, Increase now includes Increase Bank, an FDIC-member institution, plus its built-from-scratch banking core with direct connections to the Federal Reserve, The Clearing House, and Visa.

"This is a bank built by a team of product-obsessed operators for ambitious companies that are just as…

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