Finovate Blog

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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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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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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Ramp has officially launched in Canada, marking the spend management platform's first expansion outside the US and bringing its corporate cards, expense management, bill pay, and accounting tools to Canadian businesses.

The Canadian platform includes localized features such as CAD and USD spending without FX markup, automatic GST/HST/PST/QST tax coding, Canadian-dollar accounting integrations, and cards issued through Peoples Trust.

Ramp's expansion comes as competition in business banking intensifies, following Expensify's UK and EU corporate card launch and Intuit's introduction of a QuickBooks-connected corporate credit card.

Corporate card and expense management platform Ramp is moving across international borders this week. The New York-based company is now available to businesses in Canada.

Today's launch comes after Ramp piloted its Canadian operations with a select few Canada-based small businesses. With the broad launch, businesses headquartered in Canada can now use Ramp's capabilities for managing spend, paying bills, and closing their books. Notably, Ramp…

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