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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
A holiday-shortened week begins with Independence Day in the US celebrated on Friday. Be sure to check with Finovate’s Fintech Rundown for the latest fintech news as the second half of 2025 gets underway in earnest!
Digital banking
Greece-based core banking vendor Natechraises $33 million in Series B funding.
This week’s edition of Finovate Global looks at recent fintech headlines from Nigeria and South Africa.
BAS Group acquired a majority stake in Nigeria’s Zuvy
Nigeria-based diversified financial services group BAS Group announced this week that it has acquired a minority stake in Zuvy, a local fintech that specializes in invoice financing. The move gives BAS Group more than 50% of the company, a stake that analysts estimate could be valued between $1.5 million and $3 million. The transaction will also place BAS Group Chief Operating Officer, Adnan Kayode, at the helm of Zuvy—although the firm will continue to operate independently.
“This acquisition of Zuvy goes beyond simply expanding our investment portfolio—it represents a strategic alignment with our core mission of developing a comprehensive, technology-enabled financial ecosystem for Africa,” BAS Group Founder and CEO Abdulateef Hussein said.
Co-founded in 2023 by Angel Onuoha and Ahmed Shehu, Zuvy provides invoice financing to businesses in the FMCG (“fast-moving consumer goods”) and healthcare sectors, as well as to companies in supply chain industries. Zuvy reports financing invoices worth more than ₦1 billion ($650,000) for 1,500 small businesses over the past two years. As part of the deal, Onuoha and Shehu will retain minority stakes in the company, but will no longer have operational roles. The two founders have moved on to focus on their new healthcare venture, Avelis Health.
“We take great pride in Zuvy’s accomplishments and the positive impact we’ve created for thousands of Nigerian enterprises,” Onuoha said. “BAS Group represents the perfect partner to advance Zuvy’s growth trajectory while we focus our efforts on addressing critical healthcare challenges in the American market.”
BAS Group’s deal for Zuvy comes after the firm launched a lending business that provides collateralized loans to small and medium-sized businesses. The majority stake in Zuvy will enable BAS Group to add uncollateralized lending to its offering.
South African fintech Lesaka acquired Bank Zero
Lesaka Technologies reported that its subsidiary, Lesaka Technologies Proprietary Ltd, has agreed to acquire Bank Zero Mutual Bank (Bank Zero). Subject to customary closing conditions, the acquisition will be settled via a combination of new share issuance and up to ZAR 91 million ($5.1 million) in cash. The total value of the transaction is estimated to be $61 million.
“The acquisition of Bank Zero is a transformative event in Lesaka’s journey, enabling us to better serve our consumers, merchants, and enterprise clients by embedding a trusted, well-engineered neobank capability into our fintech platform,” Lesaka Chairman Ali Mazanderani said. “I am delighted to welcome the Bank Zero team to Lesaka as partners.”
Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, Bank Zero is a modern “app-only” bank for both individuals and businesses. As of April 2025, the institution had a deposit base of more than ZAR 400 million ($22.4 million), and more than 40,000 funded accounts across South Africa. Co-launched by Michael Jordaan (Chairman) and Yatin Narsai (CEO), Bank Zero boasts 45% black- and 20% female-ownership. Post-acquisition, Jordaan will join the Lesaka Board of Directors while Narsai continues to serve as CEO.
“Bank Zero was built from the ground up to deliver a secure, digital-first banking experience that puts control back in the hands of customers,” Narsai said. “Our focus has always been on using technology to remove friction, lower costs, and challenge legacy banking norms. Joining forces with Lesaka allows us to accelerate that mission at scale—reaching more customers, faster—while staying true to the principles that define who we are.”
TransUnion invests, partners with Omnisient
Speaking of minority investments, TransUnion announced that it has secured a minority investment in—and a strategic partnership with—South Africa-based fintech Omnisient. Omnisient offers a data collaboration and advanced analytics platform that enables companies to securely access high-value consumer data ecosystems and integrate alternative data sets to support smart decision-making.
The strategic partnership will enhance TransUnion’s ability to bring more of the estimated 500 million un- and underbanked Africans into the formal financial system. By leveraging alternative data at scale, TransUnion’s partnership with Omnisient will enable more new-to-credit and credit-underserved consumers to begin building a credit profile and start the journey toward greater, long-term financial empowerment and opportunity.
“Traditional data models often fail to reflect the lived realities of African consumers, leaving millions without access to credit and the opportunities it enables,” TransUnion Africa Regional President/CEO Lee Naik said. “Financial inclusion is central to unlocking economic growth across the continent. That’s why we’re committed to leading with bold, Africa-born solutions designed to see the unseen and serve the credit-invisible by integrating alternative datasets alongside traditional credit data in ways that reflect uniquely African contexts and realities.”
Along with the investment (amount undisclosed) and strategic partnership, a member of TransUnion will join Omnisient’s board of directors.
TransUnion’s investment and strategic partnership comes at a time when demand is rising worldwide for access to alternative data and solutions that leverage this data while ensuring privacy, enhancing trust, and creating value for financial institutions. Omnisient’s technology uses tokenized keys to represent personal information in the data set, avoiding the transfer of raw data and providing privacy throughout the entire process. The company’s many-to-many data connectivity between banks and other financial services providers and third-parties helps promote innovation in the field of data collaboration.
“Our privacy-preserving data collaboration platform brings financial services and consumer brands together, allowing them to discover, validate, and commercialize new alternative sources of consumer behavioral and transactional data without having to exchange sensitive personal information,” Omnisient Co-Founder and Group CEO Jon Jacobson said.
Founded in 2019 in Cape Town, South Africa, Omnisient is currently headquartered in the UK. TransUnion most recently demoed its technology at FinovateSpring 2024, showing how its Enhanced BreachIQ solution provides modern, gamified consumer identity protection.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
UnaFinancial and JSCB Microcreditbank partnered to launch a digital credit service in Uzbekistan.
SEBI-registered Online Bond Platform Provider (OBPP) IndiaBonds.com raised $3.77 million in funding.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Open payments platform Belvo and digital bank Ualá teamed up to launch new digital credit-scoring model leveraging a large-scale integration of employment data.
This week’s Streamly Snapshot features an interview with Rob Thacher, Founder and CEO of BankShift, on the way embedded banking helps community banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions offer more services to their customers and initiate new revenue streams.
In this interview, recorded at FinovateSpring 2025 in San Diego, Thacher talks about the latest trends in the embedded banking space, current challenges and barriers faced by community banks and credit unions, and how technologies are emerging to help these institutions better serve their customers and members while competing effectively against their larger rivals.
The new demographic, we call them the Gen Zers, 28 years old and below, they are in a different space from where financial institutions are. Traditionally, with financial institution apps, you have to go there and do everything. But unfortunately, these large financial institutions and these neobanks are really impeding those Gen Zers from wanting to participate with the financial institution any more. Why? Because they don’t have a seamless interface; it’s not embedded where they are already at … They are not in the financial institutions that are $5 billion and below; they’re not looking for those apps.
The metrics show that you lose those folks when they come along with their family member to become a part of a credit union or community bank. And that’s how you (get) these users. And so, what’s happening? They’re losing them and they’re not coming back.
Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Portland, Oregon, BankShift offers an embedded banking loyalty platform that helps financial institutions partner with trusted brands in order to unlock new sources of revenue and enhance engagement with customers. BankShift provides banking and loyalty services via both direct embeds into brand-owned apps, portals, and digital ecosystems, as well as by a standalone option hosted by the financial institution and co-branded with the partner. BankShift made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2024 in New York and returned to the Finovate stage the following year for FinovateSpring 2025 in San Diego.
Rob Thacher is Founder and CEO of BankShift. He is a veteran technology executive with 25 years of experience, including co-developing CreditWise and leading innovative fintech initiatives. Thacher thrives on building large-scale products and platforms that solve real consumer challenges through cutting-edge technology.
Banking technology company Thought Machine has teamed up with technology services provider DXC Technology.
The two companies are offering a joint solution that combines DXC Technology’s industry expertise with Thought Machine’s core banking platform, Vault Core, and payments processing platform, Vault Payments.
London-based Thought Machine made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2018.
A newly available joint solution from banking technology company Thought Machine and technology services provider DXC Technology will help small and medium-sized banks initiate and complete their digital transformations faster. The solution combines DXC Technology’s industry expertise and full-service management with Thought Machine’s core banking technology platform, Vault Core, and its payments processing platform, Vault Payments.
“This collaboration underscores our dedication to leveraging next-generation technology to enable banks to modernize faster and deliver exceptional financial products,” Thought Machine Global Head of Partnerships Randy McFarlane said. “With modern core systems, banks are empowered to develop more innovative, customer-centric services with speed and ease. We are excited to work with DXC to accelerate banking transformation and build the future of financial services globally.”
Vault Core is Thought Machine’s cloud-native core banking platform. As a cloud-agnostic solution, Vault Core gives banks the flexibility they need to select their preferred hosting option and provider. Institutions can leverage the technology to replicate their current back book of products, as well as create new financial products such as savings accounts, credit cards, loans, and mortgages. Vault Payments is the firm’s cloud-native payments processing platform and enables banks to work with all payment types regardless of method, scheme, or region. The technology embeds new and existing financial products into the payments platform, and gives users control over the entire payment life cycle.
The joint solution is designed to help smaller and midsized banks and financial institutions compete with their larger, global rivals who are able to build innovative, proprietary platforms in-house. Given the obstacles of complex vendor ecosystems and legacy infrastructures, the new offering from Thought Machine and DXC provides smaller and midsized bank with a one-stop managed service offering the technology, tools, and human talent to help them modernize legacy core banking systems, get new digital products to market faster, and ensure operational efficiency and compliance.
“With more than 45 years of experience in banking operations, DXC is deeply committed to delivering best-in-class digital solutions to the world’s leading financial institutions,” DXC Technology President, Global Infrastructure Services, Chris Drumgoole said. “Our joint solution with Thought Machine provides a comprehensive, future-ready path to modernization—enabling banks to accelerate innovation, improve operational efficiency, and reduce risk.”
Virginia-based DXC Technology partners with companies around the world to help them modernize IT systems, optimize data architectures, and ensure both security and scalability across public, private, and hybrid clouds. With more than 200 technology partners, DXC was created in 2017 in the wake of the merger between Computer Sciences Corporation and Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s Enterprise Services business.
Headquartered in London, UK, Thought Machine made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2018. In the years since then, the company has grown into a leading core banking and payments technology provider for banks and financial institutions around the world, including Intesa Sanpaolo, Lloyds Banking Group, Standard Chartered, Lunar, Atom bank, and more.
Credit risk analytics company Carrington Labs has teamed up with decision platform Taktile to help lenders optimize their credit risk strategies.
Lenders will be able to access Carrington Labs’ custom models directly from Taktile’s platform, enabling them to gain a better, more complete financial picture of loan applicants.
Carrington Labs made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateFall 2024 in New York. The company is headquartered in Sydney, Australia.
Credit risk analytics company Carrington Labsannounced a partnership with decision platform Taktile to help lenders optimize their credit risk strategies for both consumer and SMB loans. Carrington Labs offers custom models that analyze a wide variety of data types—including transaction data, credit bureau data, and behavioral insights—to give lenders a more comprehensive understanding of a would-be borrower’s financial status. This leads to more accurate credit risk scoring, more approvals, and fewer defaults.
“Every lender is looking to modernize their approach to decisioning, offer management, and monitoring. Taktile’s low-code decision platform enables our clients to deploy Carrington Labs models and tools quickly, while also giving lenders much better visibility and control over their process,” Carrington Labs CEO Jamie Twiss said.
Courtesy of the partnership, lenders will be able to access Carrington Labs’ models directly from Taktile’s platform. Firms will be able to combine the models with their own business rules to boost approval accuracy and quantify the probability of default. The models will also help them improve underwriting accuracy and launch faster without requiring major system overhauls or technical implementations. Via a single interface, lenders will have end-to-end control over the optimization of their credit risk strategy.
“I’ve seen how tough it can be for lenders to not only build strong risk models but also connect them to flexible, automated decision workflows,” Taktile CEO and Co-Founder Maik Taro Wehmeyer said. “That’s why I’m excited about our partnership with Carrington Labs. Lenders can now directly integrate their sophisticated credit risk models into the workflows they build on Taktile, making it easier to develop inclusive, data-driven underwriting strategies and continuously improve them at scale.”
Taktile’s technology helps lenders and other financial services companies better manage risk: from onboarding and underwriting to fraud detection, compliance, and collections. The company empowers risk teams to build, test, and update their risk strategies without requiring engineering talent. Companies working with Taktile have reported a 67% reduction in logic deployment time and a 95% reduction in decision time. Headquartered in New York, with offices in Berlin, Germany, and London, Taktile was founded in 2020.
Sydney, Australia-based Carrington Labs made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2024 in New York. At the conference, the company demonstrated its AI-powered, alternative credit risk scoring and loan limit recommendation technology. Carrington Labs leverages non-traditional data, credit expertise, and commercial acumen to provide lenders with a more complete picture of a loan applicant’s creditworthiness. This enables lenders to be more inclusive while at the same time boosting revenues, lowering default rates, and improving margins.
Carrington Labs’ partnership announcement comes just a month after the company reported that it was working with decisioning platform Oscilar to help shorten integration times for lenders and improve credit risk workflows for banks, credit unions, and other financial services providers.
Risk intelligence platform Supply Wisdom has secured $14 million in Series B funding in a round led by Jurassic Capital.
Supply Wisdom also announced that Chief Operating Officer Jenna Wells has been appointed as the company’s new CEO.
Supply Wisdom made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2022 in New York. We interviewed Jenna Wells in March of this year on the subject of third-party risk in financial services.
“I’m honored to step into this new role during such a pivotal time for our company and the global business community as there is clearly an increased need for strong risk management,” Wells said in a statement announcing both the investment and her new status as Supply Wisdom CEO.
“As both a risk practitioner and leader at Supply Wisdom, I’ve seen firsthand how our AI-powered platform transforms how organizations manage risk across their entire supply chain ecosystem. I’m excited to support Supply Wisdom in continuing to provide comprehensive, predictive risk intelligence that enables businesses to act proactively and confidently in an increasingly complex risk landscape.”
Supply Wisdom offers a full-stack SaaS platform, powered by AI, that helps companies in financial services, insurance, technology and other industries turn open source data into risk intelligence on key third-party relationships. The company’s technology provides continuous monitoring, comprehensive intelligence reports, and alerts that cover all risk domains—financial, cyber, operational, ESG, compliance, Nth party, location—in real-time. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in New York, Supply Wisdom includes companies in the Fortune 100 and Global 2000 among its clients.
The Series B round was led by Jurassic Capital, which joins existing investors Fulcrum Equity Partners and Conductor Capital. Jurassic Capital General Partner Kevin Mosley praised Supply Wisdom as a “high-growth, capital-efficient and innovative company with a strong history of delivering exceptional value for third party risk management departments at leading global firms.” Mosley also expressed excitement at the appointment of Wells as CEO, noting that her “firsthand experience as a customer will continue to pay dividends across the organization.”
Tom Thimot, who led the company as CEO since 2023, will continue to serve the firm in a new role as Advisor to the CEO. In this capacity, Thimot will provide strategic advice to both Wells and Supply Wisdom’s leadership team.
Supply Wisdom’s funding and C-suite leadership news comes in the wake of the company earning a spot in the Inc. Regionals: Northeast list of the fastest-growing private companies in the US Northeast. An extension of the Inc. 5000 roster, the Inc. Regionals: Northeast listing includes firms in Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Jersey.
There are still a few days left but, so far, in the second quarter of 2025, 17 Finovate alums have raised more than $1.2 billion in new funding. The sum is several times larger than last year’s Q2 investment haul, as we note below, and also featured twice as many alums securing fresh capital.
Previous quarterly comparisons
Q2 2024: More than $292 million raised by eight alums
Q2 2023: More than $209 million raised by ten alums
Q2 2022: More than $984 million raised by eight alums
Q2 2021: More than $2.8 billion raised by 14 alums
In fact, Finovate alums in the second quarter of this year raised more than they have in any Q2 since 2021. This quarter also featured three funding rounds in which the amount of the investment was undisclosed. This means that the true tally for alum funding for Q2 exceeds the $1.2 billion headline number—and perhaps by a significant margin.
Top equity investments
Plaid: $575 million
Scalable Capital: $176 million
Thunes: $150 million
Stash: $146 million
Zopa: $106 million
The $575 million raised by Plaid is far and away the biggest equity investment for Finovate alums in Q2 of 2025. The funding round was led by Franklin Templeton, a new investor to the company, and featured participation from existing investors NEA and Ribbit Capital. The investment was a venture round, in which Plaid sold new shares to address a variety of issues, including providing liquidity to members of the Plaid team, as explained by company CEO and Co-Founder Zach Perret.
Q2 also featured a handful of other significant investments of more than $100 million. Interestingly, the four companies to receive funding in this range in recent months come from either the world of payments (Thunes) or investing (Scalable Capital, Stash, and Zopa). As fintech funding begins to recover, it will be worthwhile to watch and see if these two subsectors of our industry play a major role in leading fintech funding back toward pre-pandemic levels.
Here is our detailed alum funding report for Q2 2025.
April: More than $795 million raised by five alums
If you are a Finovate alum that raised money in the second quarter of 2025 and do not see your company listed, please drop us a note at [email protected]. We would love to share the good news! Funding received prior to becoming an alum not included.
Fiserv is leveraging Paxos, Circle, and Solana to launch FIUSD, a new stablecoin integrated into its global banking and payments infrastructure.
FIUSD is designed for traditional banks and offers a compliant, SDK-based solution that maintains control over the customer experience while enabling 24/7 settlement and programmable payments.
Fiserv is positioning FIUSD as a “bank-friendly coin,” making it possible for banks to participate and compete in the tokenized financial ecosystem.
In a move that signals growing mainstream adoption of digital assets, payments giant Fiserv has unveiled plans to launch its own stablecoin, FIUSD. The Wisconsin-based company is embedding the blockchain-based payments tool directly into its global financial infrastructure by the end of the year.
Fiserv will leverage stablecoin infrastructure from Paxos and Circle and will make FIUSD available to its clients via Web3 infrastructure player Solana. The new stablecoin will be made available at no additional cost to clients, giving them access to a new, interoperable digital asset service to integrate into their banking and payment flows.
Along with today’s announcement, the company also said that it is evaluating the use of tokenized deposits as an alternative to stablecoins. Tokenized deposits offer many of the same advantages that stablecoins do, such as speed, interoperability, and programmability. However, tokenized deposits are designed to align more closely with regulatory and capital requirements. This approach may offer banks a more familiar path to leveraging blockchain-based payment infrastructure without taking on the balance sheet complexities of non-deposit stablecoins.
For traditional banks, FIUSD offers a safe and controlled on-ramp into stablecoins. By partnering with a trusted infrastructure provider like Fiserv, banks can experiment with programmable money without needing to become crypto-native themselves.
Fiserv anticipates FIUSD to scale quickly, as it will be launched across its global network that includes relationships with 10,000 financial institution clients and six million merchant locations that process 90 billion transactions each year. Leveraging stablecoins and tokenized deposits in traditional banking and payments is expected to rapidly expand due to their ability to settle 24/7, streamline processes, increase efficiency, and power use cases where existing options may be limited.
“Through our privileged position as a trusted infrastructure provider to financial institutions, merchants, and their customers worldwide, we are relentlessly focused on delivering state-of-the-art innovation, efficiency, and choice to all of our partners,” said Fiserv Chief Operating Officer Takis Georgakopoulos. “With our scale, reach, and technology leadership, Fiserv is uniquely positioned to advance stablecoin-powered payments and help democratize access to blockchain financial services. Together with our other cloud-native banking and merchant platforms, we believe FIUSD will provide our clients with the efficiency and optionality they need to thrive in the evolving banking and payments ecosystem.”
Fiserv is differentiating FIUSD as a “bank-friendly coin,” stating that it enables banks to maintain full control of the customer experience. Unlike traditional public stablecoins like USDC or USDT, FIUSD is designed specifically for financial institutions. The stablecoin is delivered via an SDK that fits into Fiserv’s existing platforms and offers integrated fraud monitoring, risk tools, and a regulatory-first approach, positioning the stablecoin as a bank-grade alternative that blends innovation with institutional trust.
“FIUSD is designed with our clients in mind, a financial institution-friendly coin that simplifies stablecoin access through a secure and scalable ecosystem,” said Sunil Sachdev, Head of Embedded Finance at Fiserv. “We are excited to begin collaborating with our clients, partners, and other ecosystem players to create modernized financial experiences.”
Fiserv noted that this is the first of “a series of announcements” surrounding digital asset products it plans to release. Notably, the announcement comes the week after the US Congress passed the GENIUS Act, which will serve as a foundation for US banks to participate in a regulated digital asset ecosystem.
The news comes two months after Fiserv acquired Australia-based payment facilitator Pinch Payments. Fiserv has been involved in the payments space since it was founded in 1984. The company serves merchants, banks, and fintechs with payments tools, customer analytics, and fraud prevention technology. Fiserv is publicly listed on the NYSE under the ticker FI and has a market capitalization of $92.3 billion.
With FIUSD, Fiserv is not just staying ahead of the evolution of the DeFi economy, but it is also making it possible for banks to participate and compete in the tokenized financial ecosystem. As one of the first traditional movers in the stablecoin space, Fiserv could set a new benchmark as a bank-grade DeFi provider.
It’s the first week of summer, and fintech is heating up. We’ll continue adding news to this post throughout the week, so stay tuned!
Payments
Open payments platform Spreedlyunveils a strategic enhancement to its platform via integration of Just-In-Time Card Updates for Visa Cards powered by Visa Account Updater (VAU).
AI-powered conversations platform for community financial institutions (CFIs) Eltropylaunches its Collections 2.0 Suite to help CFIs manage rising delinquency rates.
Banking technology company Thought Machinepartners with technology services provider DXC Technology.
SAP Taulia and PayMate partner to enhance payment flexibility for businesses.
Fraud and security
Financial crime compliance company ThetaRayteams up with East African financial services group, I&M Group PLC.
iDenfypartners with MN2S Label Services to enhance the identity verification process.
Wealth management and financial advisory
AI-driven financial planning and advice platform Quinnemerges from stealth with $11 million in seed funding.
Finovate Best of Show winner Trust & WilllaunchesEstateOS, an intelligent platform for modern legacy planning.
Crypto and DeFi
Automated reconciliation and financial control solutions company AutoRekintroduces its data management and reconciliation platform for cryptocurrencies and digital assets, Mion.
NetGuardians and Intix have merged to form Vyntra, a new company focused on unifying transaction observability and financial crime prevention for banks and financial institutions.
Vyntra will deliver real-time transaction intelligence to help over 130 financial institutions across 60+ countries detect fraud, ensure AML compliance, and resolve payment issues before they impact customers.
Vyntra aims to strengthen operational resilience and support instant payments by offering a more transparent, secure, and intelligent financial infrastructure.
Fraud and risk protection company NetGuardians is joining forces with financial messaging platform Intix. The two announced this week that they have merged to form Vyntra, which aims to bring transaction intelligence to financial institutions.
Vyntra combines NetGuardians’ expertise in financial crime prevention with Intix’s transaction observability. Vyntra will help its more than 130 financial institution clients in 60+ countries receive real-time intelligence about their customers based on their transactions.
“Vyntra represents a new chapter—not just for us, but for the financial institutions we serve,” said Vyntra CEO and former Group CEO of both Intix and NetGuardians Joël Winteregg. “Whether it’s monitoring transactions and payment flows, ensuring anti-money laundering (AML) compliance, or detecting fraud as it happens, Vyntra unifies transaction observability and financial crime prevention under one roof. Our mission is simple: to help financial institutions navigate complexity with clarity and protect the integrity of every transaction.”
Vyntra is launching at a time when financial institutions need real-time, full observability of transactions to enhance compliance, reduce risk, and strengthen operational resilience. The company will leverage fraud prevention, AML compliance, and transaction observability to help financial institutions see, secure, and optimize every transaction in real time. The intelligence will also help firms protect instant payment networks and detect and resolve payment issues before they impact customers.
“The merger of NetGuardians and Intix was designed to support a safer and more transparent financial system,” said Gisle Glück Evensen, Partner at Summa Equity. “Now, as Vyntra, this vision becomes a reality. We’re proud to support the team as they lead the way in transaction observability and financial crime prevention.”
Switzerland-based NetGuardians offers tools to help companies reduce payment and internal fraud and monitor transactions to meet AML requirements. The company also provides its own NetGuardians Community Scoring and Intelligence service that generates actionable insights to help firms expand their risk signals.
The GENIUS Act passed in the US Senate yesterday with a 68 to 30 vote. The bill now moves to the House, where it’s up against the STABLE Act. This means that the House will need to choose between passing the GENIUS Act at face value or passing and reconciling the STABLE Act.
For financial services, the GENIUS Act is a big deal. That’s because it is not only the first stablecoin legislation to gain real bipartisan traction, but it will also serve as a foundation for the US to begin a digital asset ecosystem. Overall, there are four major implications the bill has on banks.
Stablecoins gain legitimacy and clarity
As a decentralized finance tool, stablecoins have long been grouped together with their crypto cousin bitcoin. Because of this, many traditional financial institutions in the US have shied away from associating themselves with stablecoins.
The GENIUS Act, however, offers both banks and fintechs a clearer legal framework to issue and use stablecoins since it outlines requirements for licensing, reserves, and oversight. Having regulation on their side reduces regulatory uncertainty and will encourage financial institutions to adopt the new payments tool and leverage stablecoins for new use cases. Reducing ambiguity around compliance and risk will also benefit firms exploring tokenization.
Banks may face new competition from Special Purpose Depository Institutions
The Senate version of the bill includes a controversial provision allowing Special Purpose Depository Institutions (SPDIs), such as Kraken, to operate across US states without the approval of each host state’s banking regulator.
If the bill is successful, it will allow fintechs with SPDI licenses to gain a regulatory shortcut because they do not need to comply with capital and liquidity requirements. This may erode the role of traditional banks in certain payment and custody markets and may not be a positive change.
“That is a pretty significant expansion of special purpose depository institutions,” Klaros Group Partner Michele Alt told American Banker. “I would ask, what else could you create as a special depository institution? How could this be used?”
Notably, however, even though the bill has passed through the Senate, the House’s version of the stablecoin bill doesn’t include a similar provision. This means that if the bill does pass through the House, the House and the Senate will need to convene for a conference to come to an agreement.
Rising expectations for real-time money movement
While consumers already expect many things in real-time, the GENIUS Act adds more pressure for banks and fintechs to deliver faster, more programmable payments. The bill will enable regulated stablecoins and essentially facilitate real-time settlement, 24/7 money movement, and programmable financial interactions.
This method of funds transfer won’t rely on traditional rails like ACH, wires, or even FedNow. If end users and businesses get accustomed to real-time, programmable payments, their expectations may be permanently shifted, requiring banks to keep up.
This adjustment would be tricky for banks, as many would need to invest in infrastructure that supports tokenized payments, smart contracts, and on-chain compliance.
Banks need to stay agile
If the House does not pass the GENIUS Act, it can advance its own bill in the form of the STABLE Act or negotiate a compromise. Either way, regulatory change is clearly in motion. Banks and fintechs should closely monitor the developments and begin scenario planning now. Whether it’s the GENIUS Act, the STABLE Act, or a hybrid outcome, stablecoin regulation is on the horizon. Those who prepare early will be best positioned to compete in a tokenized financial future.
Grifin raised $11 million in Series A funding to grow its investing app that allows users to invest where they shop, bringing its total funding to $20 million.
The app uses Adaptive Investing to automatically invest $1 per purchase into companies users buy from, helping them build daily investing habits.
Grifin targets underserved investors, especially women ages 40 to 60.
Approachable investing app Grifin announced that it raised $11 million this week to help users invest where they shop. The Series A funding round, which brings the company’s total raised to $20 million, was led by Nava Ventures with participation from TTV, Draper Associates, Gaingels, Nevcaut Ventures, and Alloy Labs.
Grifin will use today’s funding to hire employees, partner with HR platforms and consumer brands, build family plans, and build out more tools and experiences to add to the app.
“We are thrilled to partner with Grifin in their mission to make investing fit into the daily lives of people across the country,” said Freddie Martignetti, Partner at Nava Ventures. “With more than 178 million uninvested Americans, Grifin has the potential to make a remarkably positive impact by helping their app users lay the foundation for long-term wealth building.”
Martignetti will join Grifin’s Board of Directors.
Grifin was founded in 2017 to make investing fun by allowing shoppers to invest in a portion of the brands they purchase from. The company removes complexity and fear associated with investing by building an investment portfolio based on the consumer’s purchasing habits. Grifin automatically transfers $1 for every transaction the user makes during the week, then invests the funds into their portfolio that is comprised of companies from which the user purchases. Grifin calls this approach Adaptive Investing.
With Adaptive Investing, Grifin creates a dynamic investment portfolio that is uniquely personalized to the user and their everyday habits. As the user’s shopping habits change, Grifin adapts the portfolio. The company also offers users full control on how much and in which companies they invest, allowing them to block companies and manually adjust their investment amount.
“We have always believed that investing should be positive and fun. Where it doesn’t feel like a second job, it simply feels like second nature,” said Grifin CEO and Cofounder Aaron Froug. “Unlike traditional investing, Grifin instills confidence through action and connection. Our goal with Grifin is to build daily investment habits, different mindsets and change the relationship people have with the brands they love. This new funding enables us the fuel to scale a product that’s already proven its power to increase investing habits in a whole new way.”
Grifin is targeting the 86% of Americans that don’t directly own any stock, and says that its primary investor group is women between the ages of 40 and 60. The company has added 500,000 registered users and has seen more than 100,000 new app installs in the last month alone.
Grifin differs from investing companies like Acorns by focusing on emotional connection and brand loyalty rather than rounding up spare change. While Acorns emphasizes passive micro-investing based on leftover change, Grifin actively builds a portfolio based on where users actually shop, which turns consumer behavior into their personalized investment strategy. This approach not only builds financial habits but also helps users feel more connected to their investments, making the process more engaging and meaningful.
