Alumni News

Dotfile Teams Up with Bastion to Boost Risk Management for Stablecoin Programs

Dotfile Teams Up with Bastion to Boost Risk Management for Stablecoin Programs
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Dotfile
  • AML compliance platform Dotfile has teamed up with stablecoin issuance platform Bastion to provide onboarding and risk management for stablecoin programs.
  • The partnership will deliver comprehensive verification, AI-powered compliance screening, and the ability to adapt to local jurisdictions and multiple regulatory regimes.
  • Headquartered in Paris, France and founded in 2021, Dotfile made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024 in London.

AI-powered AML compliance platform Dotfile has forged a partnership with Bastion to provide onboarding and risk management for enterprise-grade stablecoin programs. Bastion, which powers secure and compliant stablecoin issuance, wallets, on/off ramps, cards, and yield products for financial institutions, will benefit from a comprehensive verification platform with AI-powered compliance and the ability to adapt to multiple regulatory contexts.

“Bastion’s enterprise focus demands flexible, auditable onboarding that scales,” Dotfile Founder and CEO, Vasco Alexandre, said. “Together, we’re enabling a compliant path from treasury to consumer rollouts.”

As stablecoins are maturing into enterprise-grade financial instruments, a greater range of companies and brands are exploring ways to use their own branded stablecoins for operations such as treasury management and consumer payments. In order for them to do so safely and compliantly, these firms will need modern KYC capabilities to ensure an engaging user experience as well as meet regulatory requirements. The partnership between Dotfile and Bastion will deliver an all-in-one solution for the safe and secure onboarding of institutions (KYB) as well as individuals (KYC). The platform leverages AI to automate sanctions and PEP screening, document verifications, and risk assessments. It also ensures compliance with local regulatory requirements with bank-level due diligence across jurisdictions.

“Bastion has been hyper-focused on compliance and ensuring we operate under the highest level of regulation as we work to bring stablecoin implementation to life for some of the world’s largest enterprises,” Bastion Chief Risk & Compliance Officer Rohan Kohli said. “Partners like Dotfile help us meet those standards in a scalable and efficient way.”

Bastion builds regulated stablecoin infrastructure for modern money movement. Businesses around the world leverage Bastion’s technology to issue, orchestrate, convert, transfer, and scale white-label stablecoins. Founded in 2023, Bastion recently announced a partnership with Sony Bank to power the Japanese financial institution’s stablecoin program infrastructure. Nassim Eddequiouaq is Bastion’s co-founder and CEO.

Headquartered in Paris, France, Dotfile was founded in 2021. The company made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024, demonstrating how its platform enables businesses to streamline verification and onboarding, automatically evaluate risk profiles, and manage risk in real-time. Dotfile’s technology increases productivity, reduces operational costs, and accelerates customer onboarding processes.

Photo by Clément Dellandrea on Unsplash

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ThetaRay Launches Ray, An Agentic AI Investigation Suite 

ThetaRay Launches Ray, An Agentic AI Investigation Suite 
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, ThetaRay
  • ThetaRay has launched Ray, an Agentic AI investigation suite designed to help banks automate and standardize transaction monitoring investigations amid rising alert volumes and regulatory scrutiny.
  • The platform targets growing regulatory demands from frameworks such as the EU’s AMLR and FinCEN’s AML/CFT directives by delivering faster, more consistent, and audit-ready investigations with traceable, explainable AI.
  • Ray helps firms create compliance-critical workflows and scale AML operations without relying on manual processes or increasing headcount.

Financial crime detection company ThetaRay has launched a new set of tools to help firms keep up with evolving regulations in the face of advanced fraud. Called Ray, the new Agentic AI investigation suite aims to help banks conduct transaction monitoring investigations.

Ray is embedded into ThetaRay’s Investigation Center, an Agentic investigation suite designed for banks, fintechs, and payments platforms balancing high alert volumes with rising regulatory demands. Ray combines autonomous investigations with on-demand analyst support. The fintech anticipates Ray will ultimately help banks reduce the time it takes to resolve cases and create more consistency in investigations that span internal teams and jurisdictions. ThetaRay created Ray to autonomously handle the full investigation by validating the geolocation, analyzing patterns, and scanning adverse media to prepare a structured, audit-ready case-file document.

The launch is strategic and comes at a time when regulators across the globe are raising their expectations for investigative quality and documentation. The EU’s new Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR) and AML Authority framework require stronger due diligence, more rigorous monitoring and record-keeping, and consistent compliance controls across jurisdictions. In the US, FinCEN’s AML and Counter Financing of Terrorism (CFT) directives require transparent, evidence-based investigations and Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) narratives.

“This is an incredibly important moment for us and for the industry,” said ThetaRay CEO Brad Levy. “I couldn’t be more energized by the opportunity to tackle one of the biggest challenges in financial crime compliance. Our mission is simple: to help make global markets more modern and secure for all. The future will be shaped by people who care and by megatechs and specialized fintechs working closely together to raise the bar for transparency, accountability, and lasting trust.”

However, as regulators require higher investigative quality, documentation, and more defensible decisions, alert volumes continue to rise and place a strain on investigation teams, requiring manual data gathering.

“Financial institutions are moving beyond experimentation toward real, production-grade use of Agentic AI in compliance-critical environments,” said Microsoft Global Head of AI Strategy and GTM for Payments and Banking Tyler Pichach. “Platforms like Ray demonstrate how Agentic AI, when deployed on a secure and governed cloud like Microsoft Azure, can help banks modernize complex investigation workflows while meeting regulatory expectations for transparency, control, and trust.”

With Ray, firms can prepare for this increased strain by using it to automate evidence collection, behavioral and counterparty analysis, open-source checks, and document review and narrative generation. Built and deployed on Microsoft Azure, Ray offers an on-demand AI assistant that supports questions from analysts and deeper exploration.

“Manual investigations inevitably vary from analyst to analyst. Ray introduces a consistent reasoning framework across the entire operation, reducing subjectivity, and ensuring that each case, no matter who handles it, stands up to scrutiny,” said ThetaRay Regulatory Affairs Manager David Shapiro. “Most importantly, Ray was built so that every decision is traceable back to evidence. In a regulatory environment that demands transparency, AI explainability is the foundation.”

As regulators require more defensible, consistent, and transparent investigations, financial institutions are under pressure to modernize workflows that rely on manual analysis and fragmented tools. By embedding Agentic AI directly into the investigation process, ThetaRay is positioning Ray amid the next generation of AML operations in which regulators require speed, consistency, and explainability.

Founded in 2013, ThetaRay offers transaction monitoring, transaction and customer screening, and customer risk assessment suites to help firms fight financial crime. The Israel-based company helps its 100+ institutional clients leverage AI to monitor 15 billion transactions valued at $20 trillion on an annual basis.

Photo by cottonbro studio

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Intellect Design Arena Unveils AI-First Payments Platform Amid Expansion to the US

Intellect Design Arena Unveils AI-First Payments Platform Amid Expansion to the US
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Intellect Design
  • India-based fintech Intellect Design Arena introduced its AI-first payments platform, Intellect Payments, this week. The announcement is part of the firm’s continued expansion into the US.
  • The new offering will help banks and financial institutions take advantage of a US real-time payments market that analysts expect to be worth $2 billion by 2030.
  • Intellect Design Arena made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2025. The company was founded in 1993 and serves more than 500 customers in 60+ countries.

Intellect Design Arena has launched its AI-first payments platform, Intellect Payments. Part of the Indian company’s US market expansion, the new offering integrates with existing core systems, channels, and operations to allow for incremental modernization rather than large-scale replacement. The technology relies on a low-code/no-code composable framework, making it easy to quickly deploy new payment rails as institutions scale. Intellect Design Arena’s Purple Fabric AI intelligently validates and enriches payments before they enter the flow, using real-time anomaly detection and exception prediction as transactions route, execute, and settle via a centralized control plane.

“Banks face a binary choice: lead the payment transformation or risk becoming outpaced by competitors,” Intellect Design Arena’s Manish Maakan said. Maakan is Executive President & Group Chief Revenue Officer and CEO of Wholesale Banking. “As real-time payments scale, incremental upgrades are no longer sufficient. Banks need AI-first payment platforms designed specifically for the realities of regulated banking—platforms that combine speed, resilience, and operational intelligence without adding complexity. American banks need partners who understand their infrastructure, their competitive pressures, and their growth ambitions. That is exactly what we are focused on delivering in the US market.”

Intellect Payments is built on eMACH.ai principles—eMACH.ai is the company’s comprehensive, composable, and contextual open finance platform, launched in 2023—and purpose-built Pay9 architecture. The platform’s AI models work at pre- and in-flight decision points to support anomaly detection, exception prediction, and operational decisioning. The new solution delivers a single orchestration layer across major US payment networks, including TCH RTP, FedNow, ACH, Fedwire, and SWIFT.

Intellect Design Arena’s offering comes at a time when banks and other financial institutions are pursuing opportunities arising from the growth of instant payments. Analysts estimate that real-time payments in the US could reach $2 billion by 2030, with an annual growth rate of 40%. And while a sizable number of businesses have indicated an interest in instant payments—with a growing minority of them willing to switch banks to secure this functionality—many banks, nearly two-thirds of them according to analysts, have yet to join instant payment networks.

Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Chennai, India, Intellect Design Arena made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2025. At the conference, the company demonstrated its no-code platform that empowers banks to quickly build and launch role-based digital journeys for corporate customers. Intellect Design Arena’s suite of solutions ranges from wholesale and consumer banking, treasury, capital markets, and insurance to help banks and other financial institutions modernize their operations, lower costs, and remain competitive. With 500+ customers in more than 60 countries, Intellect Design Arena counts six out of the top 10 North American banks, five out of the top 15 Middle Eastern banks, seven out of the top 10 Southeast Asia and ANZ banks, nine of the top 10 European banks, and 13 out of the top 15 Indian banks among its clients.

Intellect Design Arena’s new product and US expansion announcement comes just days after the company announced a multi-year partnership with Canada-based, independent mutual fund dealer and national MGA Carte Financial Group. The partnership will integrate Intellect Design Arena’s Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) platform—powered by Purple Fabric—into Carte’s regulatory, onboarding, and governance workflows. This will enhance speed, transparency, and accuracy.

“Securing this flagship partnership with Carte Financial Group is a defining win for Intellect as we expand our footprint across North America, specifically into Canada,” said Banesh Prabhu, CEO of IntellectAI; Insurance, Wealth & Capital Markets, a division of Intellect Design Arena. “This milestone reflects our strong alignment with Carte’s vision of transforming compliance into a strategic advantage and showcases the confidence they have placed in our technology and approach.”

Photo by General Kenobi

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Fiserv Brings BNPL Capabilities to Debit Cards with Affirm

Fiserv Brings BNPL Capabilities to Debit Cards with Affirm
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Fiserv
  • Fiserv and Affirm are bringing BNPL to debit cards, enabling banks and credit unions to offer pay-over-time capabilities through existing debit programs without building new lending infrastructure.
  • Offering BNPL with bank-issued debit cards shifts installment lending from the merchant checkout to bank-owned channels, allowing financial institutions to retain customer relationships, data, and engagement within their own apps and card programs.
  • The model positions banks as the primary gateway for flexible payments, placing BNPL distribution within core payments infrastructure.

Core banking platform and payments player Fiserv is bringing buy now, pay later (BNPL) capabilities to its debit cards.

The Wisconsin-based company is collaborating with Affirm to bring pay-over-time capabilities to its debit card programs, empowering Fiserv clients, including community banks and credit unions, to offer their end customers flexible payment options without having to build new lending products.

According to Fiserv, the move is designed to help smaller financial institutions compete more effectively while keeping customer relationships anchored to their own debit products. “Community and regional banks and credit unions want to meet evolving consumer expectations around greater flexibility in how they pay for purchases all the while building a strong relationship with their primary financial institution,” said Fiserv Head of Card Services Erik Wichita. “This partnership gives our clients a practical, scalable way to offer such payment flexibility through their existing debit products—helping them compete effectively, deepen customer and member relationships, and drive top-of-wallet engagement with their products.”

Today’s announcement comes four years after Affirm and Fiserv first teamed up, integrating Affirm’s Adaptive Checkout to Fiserv’s Carat global commerce hub. The move allowed merchants using Carat to offer BNPL to their shoppers.

Adding pay-over-time capabilities to debit cards instead of just offering the option at the point-of-sale moves the payment from a merchant-led experience to a bank-centric one. Instead of being offered only at checkout with participating retailers, debit-based BNPL allows shoppers to access installment payments across a wider range of purchases and merchants, using their preferred payment card. For banks and credit unions, this model retains the customer relationship, data, and engagement within their own debit programs and mobile apps.

Affirm, for its part, sees the partnership as a way to bring pay-over-time options directly into the primary banking relationship, rather than positioning BNPL as a standalone checkout experience. “Millions of consumers depend on their local financial institutions, including for their top-of-wallet debit cards,” said Affirm CRO Wayne Pommen. “By partnering with Fiserv, we’re helping these institutions offer transparent pay-over-time options so customers can get the flexibility they need from the banks and credit unions they already depend on, rather than having to look elsewhere. We’re excited to enable this co-branded offering for Fiserv’s partners, allowing them to natively offer Affirm’s flexible payments through their existing debit cards.”

Fiserv and Affirm are aiming to make an easy transition for banks by managing all of the technical aspects, including real-time underwriting, loan origination, and funding. As a further benefit, consumers can use Affirm anywhere their debit cards are accepted. Additionally, Affirm’s 420,000 merchant partners give cardholders access to custom financing offers.

The companies are enabling banks and credit unions to participate in BNPL economics without giving up customer ownership to third-party point-of-sale providers. This could reshape how flexible payments are delivered and position banks as the primary gateway for installment lending.

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 $35.39 billion.

Photo by Marek Piwnicki

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PayPal Acquires Cymbio for Agentic Commerce Capabilities

PayPal Acquires Cymbio for Agentic Commerce Capabilities
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions, PayPal
  • PayPal has acquired Cymbio to accelerate its push into agentic commerce, adding marketplace and drop-ship automation capabilities that help merchants sell across AI-driven channels like Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity.
  • The deal builds on an existing partnership between the two players, which first teamed up in October 2025.
  • The acquisition reinforces PayPal’s broader ambitions in agentic commerce.

PayPal just acquired drop-ship and marketplace automation platform Cymbio for an undisclosed amount. The move fits with PayPal’s push into agentic commerce, as Cymbio’s payment orchestration platform helps brands sell across agentic channels, including Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity.

Financial terms of the deal, which is expected to close later this year, were undisclosed.

PayPal’s acquisition comes three months after PayPal first partnered with Cymbio to launch agentic commerce services, a suite of solutions to help merchants attract customers in an AI-powered commerce environment.

“PayPal has established itself as a leading commerce partner for merchants looking to sell within top AI platforms,” said PayPal Executive Vice President and General Manager of Small Business and Financial Services Michelle Gill. “Acquiring Cymbio’s technology and team will enhance our agentic commerce capabilities and accelerate the expansion to more of our merchants. By making their product catalogs discoverable on AI surfaces, merchants can increase sales while expanding product choice to the millions of consumers shopping on AI platforms today.”

Cymbio was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Tel Aviv. The company’s marketplace and social commerce automation platform facilitates collaboration between brands and retailers by automating processes such as product listing, inventory management, pricing, order fulfillment, and returns. Cymbio connects to 800 brands’ and retailers’ internal systems to enable strong collaborations that can be scaled quickly. The company has raised $35 million from investors including PayPal Ventures, and counts Balmain, Reebok, Abercrombie & Fitch, New Balance, Steve Madden, and Fabletics among its customers.

Once the deal is finalized, PayPal will use Cymbio to power Store Sync, one of PayPal’s agentic commerce services that allows merchants’ product data to be discoverable within AI channels. Store Sync drops orders to merchants’ existing fulfillment and management systems. The system allows the merchant to remain the merchant of record and retain customer relationships and control over their brand.

As a pioneer in fintech, PayPal is seeking to be an early mover in agentic commerce as well. In late 2025, the company rolled out agentic commerce services to help merchants connect product catalogs and checkout experiences to AI platforms like Perplexity. PayPal has also collaborated with AI ecosystem partners such as OpenAI to support instant checkout via the Agentic Commerce Protocol. It is clear that the company is seeking a top spot in the agentic commerce battlefield.

Photo by Julio Lopez

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OnePay Expands Klarna Partnership with Post-Purchase Payments

OnePay Expands Klarna Partnership with Post-Purchase Payments
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Klarna
  • OnePay is expanding its partnership with Klarna to launch Swipe to Finance, a feature that will enable eligible customers to convert debit card purchases into post-transaction installment payment plans.
  • Specific details of the terms around post-purchase financing have not been disclosed, but the feature will position OnePay alongside players like PayPal and Affirm by offering flexible repayment options beyond the point of sale.
  • Swipe to Finance strengthens OnePay’s push to compete with digital banks such as Chime and Dave, adding to its growing suite of banking, payments, investing, and crypto tools backed by Walmart’s scale and embedded distribution.

Walmart-owned digital banking platform OnePay is deepening its ties with BNPL player Klarna to launch Swipe to Finance, a new feature that will offer customers the option to pay over time even after they’ve made the transaction.

“Not every purchase comes at the right time,” said Thomas Hoare, Chief Commercial Officer at OnePay. “Customers want and deserve financial flexibility when they need it most, which is why we’re excited to offer new ways for them to pay over time and do it simply, transparently, and all in the OnePay app.”

After making a purchase with a OnePay debit card, eligible customers can use the OnePay app to convert transactions into fixed-term payment plans. While the company has not disclosed details about launch timing, eligible purchases, or available plan options, OnePay’s post-purchase financing may resemble models offered by PayPal and Affirm, which allow users to either pay in four installments or spread payments over longer repayment periods ranging from three to 36 months.

“Post-purchase payments are becoming a core part of how people manage money,” said David Sykes, Chief Commercial Officer at Klarna. “With Swipe to Finance powered by Klarna, we’re giving customers a simple, transparent way to take control of payments after the fact, directly in the OnePay app. It’s another step in expanding smarter payment options and meeting consumers wherever they choose to pay.”

This week’s Swipe to Finance announcement comes about 10 months after OnePay and Klarna first teamed up to offer BNPL options at the point of sale for consumers. The company hinted at plans to deepen ties with Klarna even further, stating, “Additional products and features are planned for later this year that expand OnePay’s types of flexible payment options and can reach new customers.”

Today’s announcement comes at a time of major growth for OnePay, which is seeking to compete with well entrenched digital banks such as Chime and Dave. Last fall, the company partnered with DriveWealth to offer embedded investing tools and teamed up with Zero Hash to facilitate bitcoin and ether trading within its app. In addition to these new capabilities, the OnePay app also offers traditional banking tools such as a high-yield savings account, peer-to-peer money transfer capabilities, and cross-border payments. However, the app also differentiates itself from traditional banks and even other digital banks with a credit builder card, tax filing service, and even a low-cost mobile phone plan via a partnership with Gigs.

OnePay is seeking to compete with entrenched digital banking players such as Chime and Dave. The company is well positioned to do so thanks to its second-mover advantages and embedded distribution through its parent company, Walmart, which launched OnePay in January 2021 in partnership with Ribbit Capital. In January 2022, Walmart expanded OnePay’s capabilities by acquiring two fintech platforms, Even and ONE, which helped Walmart create its version of a financial services super app.

For more on Walmart’s fintech ambitions, which started in 2005 when it applied for a Utah Industrial Loan Corporation (ILC) charter, check out my deep dive conversation on the One Vision podcast with host Theodora Lau.

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FreeAgent and Fathom Partner to Help SMEs Better Manage Finances

FreeAgent and Fathom Partner to Help SMEs Better Manage Finances
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, FreeAgent
  • Accounting software provider FreeAgent has partnered with reporting, analysis, and forecasting platform Fathom.
  • The partnership will enable small businesses in the UK to access real-time profit and loss reporting, cash flow forecasting, KPI dashboards, and interactive management reports.
  • Founded in 2007, FreeAgent made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2013 in London.

A newly announced partnership between accounting software provider FreeAgent and all-in-one reporting, analysis, and forecasting platform Fathom will enhance the ability of small businesses in the UK—and their accountants—to better manage their finances and make smarter business decisions.

“By partnering with Fathom, we’re giving accountants and their clients the tools they need to scale up their financial scrutiny and analysis,” FreeAgent CSO Stewart Hurd said. “Rather than simply giving an overview of the current financial position, our integration offers deeper, visual insights, forecasting, and scenario modeling into small business data—meaning that accountants are better prepared to answer the questions that really matter.”

Automatically syncing data between FreeAgent and Fathom will enable companies to access real-time profit and loss reporting, cash flow forecasting, KPI dashboards, and interactive and customizable management reports. The integration will also allow accountants to support multiple clients with different reporting needs, and provide them with advisory insights. The latter will come courtesy of Fathom’s technology, which delivers in-depth reporting, forecasting, and scenario modeling that will enhance the ability of small business accountants to provide greater value to their clients.

“FreeAgent has built award-winning accounting software that thousands of UK SMEs rely on daily, but we’ve consistently heard that many businesses outgrow basic reporting as they scale,” Fathom Country Manager Darren Glanville said. “This integration changes that entirely. FreeAgent users now get direct access to Fathom’s enterprise-grade toolkit—which, for accounting partners, means they can deliver genuine strategic advisory services whilst clients stay in the platform they already know. We’re not just connecting two systems, we’re fundamentally upgrading what’s possible for ambitious businesses using FreeAgent.”

Based in Brisbane, Queensland, Fathom is an Australian firm that specializes in corporate performance management (CPM) software. Founded in 2012, Fathom offers a management reporting, forecasting, and financial analysis tool that helps business owners assess business performance, monitor trends, and identify areas for improvement. More than 90,000 businesses and advisors use Fathom’s technology, and the firm enjoys a 36% market share in the Australian financial reporting software category, according to Practice Protect’s Australian Cloud Accounting Apps Report 2025-2026. Fathom was acquired by The Access Group in 2022.

FreeAgent made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2013. In the years since then, the UK-based fintech has grown into an accounting software provider with more than 200,000 users. FreeAgent’s platform features tools for tax self assessment, VAT, and MTD. The technology enables firms to send invoices and automatic payment reminders, and record expenses and mileage to easily track business costs. FreeAgent also helps business owners make smarter business decisions by providing them with deep insights into profit and loss, cash flow, and overall business performance.

Acquired by NatWest Group in 2018, FreeAgent was founded in 2007. Co-founder Roan Lavery is CEO.

Photo by Pixabay

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Alloy Unveils Perpetual KYB and Customer Risk Assessment

Alloy Unveils Perpetual KYB and Customer Risk Assessment
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alloy, Alumni News
  • Identity orchestration platform company Alloy has launched its first perpetual Know Your Business (pKYB) and Customer Risk Assessment (CRA) orchestration solution in the UK and across Europe.
  • The new offering will enable banks, fintech, and payments companies to enhance their ability to check and provide risk assessments on companies on a continuous basis.
  • Headquartered in New York and founded in 2015, Alloy made its Finovate debut at our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016. Tommy Nicholas is Co-Founder and CEO.

Identity orchestration platform provider Alloy has introduced its first perpetual Know Your Business (pKYB) and Customer Risk Assessment (CRA) orchestration solution in the UK and across Europe. The launch follows the company’s introduction of its perpetual KYC (pKYC) solution in the fall of 2025.

Financial institutions serving customers in the UK and Europe benefit from the opportunity to develop a variety of solutions for many different markets—from the Baltics to the Mediterranean to the post-Soviet east. Nevertheless, expansion into new territories also comes with significant challenges as business risk becomes more complicated to manage. Corporate entities evolve, beneficial owners change, and regulatory demands shift and expand, especially as they relate to anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) controls.

In response, Alloy’s pKYB solution will empower banks, fintechs, and payments companies in the UK and Europe to automatically re-run checks and re-assign risk when significant business and ownership changes occur. Examples include registry updates, watchlist hits, and event-driven risk signals. Further, the new offering is supported by Alloy’s AI Assistant, which conducts comprehensive online research to corroborate business and ownership changes. The Assistant also runs the Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) review for businesses that change from low to high risk post-onboarding. This helps compliance and risk teams cut down on hours of manual work while improving straight-through-processing (STP) rates.

“Through deep conversations with our UK and European clients, it became clear that static, point-in-time KYB was no longer sufficient,” Alloy Senior Product Director Grace Liu said. “We took what we learned, evaluated how the pKYB ecosystem was evolving, and built on our pKYC foundation to move quickly toward a proactive, event-driven future—one our clients are genuinely excited about and that Alloy is uniquely positioned to deliver.”

Alloy’s pKYB and CRA solution will enable financial institutions to apply configurable policies by market, product, and entity risk level. This facilitates consistent decision-making while satisfying local regulatory mandates, and leverages smart routing to reduce the amount of manual work involved in the screening process. Alloy’s solution also uses filtered, event-triggered Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) alerts that route high-risk issues to human analysts while managing lower-risk issues via automated Customer Due Diligence (CDD) processes. Financial institutions will also be able to use AI-assisted workflows to accelerate investigations, create summaries, and recommend next best steps to achieve faster review-to-resolution.

“Periodic checks alone aren’t enough: they need to be complemented by continuous business monitoring,” Liu added. “With pKYB, Alloy helps institutions detect, evaluate, and act on changes to business identity, ownership, and risk by automating risk reassessment and escalating only the most critical alerts to analysts. The result is consistent policies across markets and the ability to scale confidently, with a clear, up-to-date understanding of business risk between reviews.”

Headquartered in New York and founded in 2015, Alloy introduced itself to Finovate audiences at our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016. Today, more than 700 of the world’s largest financial institutions and fintechs rely on Alloy’s platform to access actionable intelligence and a network of 200+ data sources to keep pace with emerging fraud, credit, and compliance risks.

Alloy’s new product announcement comes a month after the firm announced the latest fruits of its partnership with MANTL, an Alkami solution team and loan and deposit account opening technology provider. The company reported that more than two million deposit applications have been processed since the partnership began, with an average automated application decision rate exceeding 80%.

“Our partnership with MANTL shows that strong fraud prevention can actively fuel business growth,” Alloy CEO and Co-Founder Tommy Nicholas said. “By giving our joint clients a complete view of customer identities, we’re helping them stay ahead of fraud, unlock more opportunities to serve legitimate customers, and deliver a better experience.”

Photo by Morteza Mohammadi on Unsplash

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AMLYZE Teams Up with Vinted Pay to Bring AML/CFT Monitoring to Payments

AMLYZE Teams Up with Vinted Pay to Bring AML/CFT Monitoring to Payments
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, AMLYZE
  • Lithuania-based regtech AMLYZE has forged a partnership with Vinted Pay, the payments division of European online marketplace for second-hand fashion and other goods, Vinted.
  • Vinted Pay will use AMLYZE’s technology to provide real-time and retrospective transaction monitoring and customer risk assessment during onboarding and payment processes.
  • Headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania, AMLYZE made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024.

Lithuanian regtech AMLYZE announced a partnership with Vinted Pay, the payments subsidiary of European online marketplace for second-hand items, Vinted. Vinted Pay will leverage AMLYZE’s technology for real-time and retrospective transaction monitoring and customer risk assessment to ensure that Vinted Pay’s onboarding and payment processes meet AML/CFT requirements.

A leading second-hand fashion marketplace in Europe and a self-described “go-to destination for all kinds of pre-loved items,” Lithuania’s Vinted offers an online platform that connects millions of members across more than 20 markets. Founded in 2008, Vinted became the country’s first unicorn in 2019, and reached a valuation of more than €5 billion with a €340 million fundraising round in October 2024. That same year, the company reported a boost in net profits of 330%, exceeding €76 million.

“We are proud to partner with Vinted, a key player in the online marketplace industry,” AMLYZE CEO and Co-Founder Gabrielius Erikas Bilkštys said. “Now that Vinted Pay has successfully joined our platform, our advanced solutions will support Vinted Pay in maintaining strict compliance standards, including during onboarding processes, ensuring it continues to be a safe and trusted platform for its users. This collaboration underlines our commitment to providing world-class AML/CFT services and improving the prevention of financial crime across Europe.”

Launched in 2023, Vinted Pay is the latest initiative from Vinted, and is part of the company’s strategy to provide buyers and sellers across Europe with a secure, reliable payment option. Integrated into the Vinted App, Vinted Pay will ensure that members have access to safe, efficient, and easy online transactions with the platform. Members will be able to use Vinted Pay to shop for second-hand merchandise on the Vinted platform or, as Vinted recently announced, to enable members to transfer funds from sales to a secure digital account. These funds can be used to make purchases on the Vinted platform or withdrawn to a personal bank account outside of Vinted.

“Vinted Pay is dedicated to providing a safe and reliable payment experience for our community,” Vinted VP of Payments Modestas Tursa said. “The expertise and innovative technology of AMLYZE helps ensure we continue to foster trust within our platform as we gradually introduce and scale Vinted Pay across markets.”

Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Lithuania, AMLYZE made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024. At the conference, the company demonstrated its anti-financial crime information sharing framework that leverages synthetic data to facilitate AI model training, testing of automated monitoring solutions, and more.

Photo by Gantas Vaičiulėnas on Unsplash

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Gusto Unveils Global Stablecoin Payout Capabilities 

Gusto Unveils Global Stablecoin Payout Capabilities 
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Gusto
  • Gusto is testing stablecoin payouts for global payroll through a partnership with zerohash.
  • The beta test is using regulated on-chain settlement infrastructure to enable faster, more transparent cross-border payments.
  • If successful, the beta could signal stablecoins’ shift into core payroll infrastructure, modeling how HR and payroll platforms can adopt digital assets in a compliant, scalable way.

Payroll, benefits, and HR management solutions company Gusto revealed today that it is testing stablecoin payout capabilities across its global payments. The California-based fintech will leverage a partnership with digital asset infrastructure provider zerohash.

Founded in 2017, zerohash is a crypto, stablecoin, and tokenization platform that brings instant money movement to banks, brokerages, and fintechs. With more than six million end customers, the company has settled $65 billion in transaction volume, is available in more than 200 jurisdictions, and supports over 100 assets.

Gusto said it chose zerohash for its deep regulatory expertise, operational maturity at scale, and the ability to support global expansion securely and seamlessly.

In teaming up with zerohash, Gusto will use zerohash’s regulated on-chain settlement infrastructure to allow its clients to receive their earnings in digital dollars. Gusto will use zerohash’s stablecoin rails to enhance speed and transparency to allow workers to receive payments in the form of stablecoins.

When compared to traditional cross-border payments, which can take three-to-seven days to settle, stablecoins will allow Gusto to move funds from employer to worker across the globe in minutes. In addition to real-time settlement, leveraging digital currencies will also allow for on-chain traceability and compatibility with both custodial and self-custodial wallets.

Pointing to the growing mismatch between global workforces and legacy payment infrastructure, zerohash Founder and CEO Edward Woodford said stablecoins offer a faster and more flexible alternative for moving money across borders. “As the workforce increasingly becomes more global and more digital, traditional payment rails can no longer meet the speed and accessibility that modern businesses require,” said Woodford. “Gusto is one of the most forward-thinking platforms for businesses, and we’re proud to provide the infrastructure that enables them to deliver instant, transparent, and flexible payouts across borders. Stablecoin rails unlock real-world benefits for millions of workers, and this partnership is a major step toward modernizing how money moves.”

Gusto, originally known as ZenPayroll, was founded in 2011 to provide a cloud-based payroll, benefits, and HR management solution. The company’s tools help businesses track time and attendance, onboard new employees, manage existing talent, and more. With more than 400,000 small business clients, Gusto processes tens of billions of dollars of payroll each year and provides employee benefits, including 401(k) accounts, which are powered by the company’s 2025 acquisition of retirement specialist Guideline.

According to Samant Nagpal, Head of Payments and Risk at Gusto, the partnership allows the company to introduce stablecoin payouts while maintaining the compliance and scalability required for global payroll. “At Gusto, our mission is to grow the small business economy. We believe payment choice is integral to helping small businesses and their teams thrive, which is why we’re committed to ensuring they can pay anyone, anywhere, anytime,” said Nagpal. “zerohash’s regulatory posture and global infrastructure allow us to offer stablecoin payouts in a way that is simple, compliant, and scalable. This partnership means that we can deliver a faster, more seamless global payments experience for our customers and their teams.”

This partnership is another example of how stablecoins are shifting from experimental use cases into core financial infrastructure, especially in cross-border payments. Testing stablecoin payouts within a regulated framework gives Gusto the ability to expand payment choice for its small business customers. While Gusto’s trial of stablecoin payouts is still in beta, if successful, the approach could set the standard for other HR and payroll platforms as global workforces continue to grow.

Photo by Ann H

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Feedzai and Matrix Partner to Create Standardized Fraud Fighting Approach

Feedzai and Matrix Partner to Create Standardized Fraud Fighting Approach
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Feedzai
  • Feedzai and Matrix USA are launching a Center of Excellence to deliver a standardized, repeatable approach to help financial institutions deploy fraud and AML solutions.
  • The partnership addresses the growing AI-driven fraud threat, as more than 50% of fraudsters now use AI.
  • By combining AI-native technology with deep implementation expertise, the companies aim to help banks modernize fraud and AML programs at speed and scale without disrupting day-to-day operations.

Risk management solutions provider Feedzai is teaming up with advisory and technology services company Matrix USA to help financial institutions fight the rising threats of fraud and money laundering.

The two companies are collaborating on a Center of Excellence that will create a standardized approach to deploying fraud and anti-money laundering (AML) solutions.

Highlighting the need for fraud prevention strategies that can keep pace with increasingly sophisticated threats, Feedzai Co-Founder and CEO Nuno Sebastião said AI has permanently reshaped the financial crime landscape. “AI has changed the fraud landscape forever, and financial institutions need solutions that can evolve just as quickly. That requires advanced technology with the right expertise to put it to work effectively. Together, Feedzai and Matrix USA will help financial institutions translate powerful capabilities into real-world impact against sophisticated, AI-enabled financial crime.”

Feedzai was founded in 2011 as a risk operations platform specializing in identity verification, fraud prevention, and financial crime detection. The company’s AI-powered solutions span KYC, AML, watchlist screening, and transaction fraud monitoring to help financial institutions stop fraud in real time without compromising the customer experience. Today, Feedzai protects over one billion consumers in more than 190 countries and safeguards over $8 billion in transactions annually.

Founded in 2006, Matrix USA provides advisory services to help financial institutions prevent financial crime and stay compliant when leveraging agentic AI, AI and LLM, automation, and model validation tools. The New Jersey-based company operates in more than 20 countries and has implemented more than 1,000 projects.

With new advancements in AI becoming more accessible than ever, the partnership comes at a key time. According to research from Feedzai, more than 50% of fraudsters now use AI. When paired with banks’ outdated infrastructure, the enabling technology is widening the gap between increasingly sophisticated financial crime and the tools institutions have used for decades.

Regarding the pressure banks face as they modernize legacy systems, Matrix USA CEO Lior Blik said financial institutions must strengthen fraud and AML defenses without slowing business operations. “Financial institutions are under tremendous pressure to modernize their fraud and AML defenses without slowing down business. By pairing Feedzai’s industry-leading AI capabilities with our deployment and integration expertise, we’re giving customers a faster, more reliable path to advanced prevention and stronger compliance.”

By combining Feedzai’s AI-native financial crime prevention technology with Matrix USA’s implementation and advisory expertise, the two companies aim to deliver a structured, repeatable approach that helps financial institutions fight fraud and money laundering at speed and scale without disrupting day-to-day operations.

Photo by Tara Winstead

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Worldline Connects AI Agents to its Global Payment Ecosystem

Worldline Connects AI Agents to its Global Payment Ecosystem
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Worldline
  • Worldline is launching new AI capabilities to help merchants move from experimenting with AI agents to deploying them in real-world commerce.
  • The company’s MCP servers act as a bridge between LLMs and payment APIs to allow AI agents to initiate transactions, issue refunds, and manage payment workflows using natural language.
  • Worldline acknowledged its support for emerging standards like Google’s AP2 and UCP, as well as European regulatory requirements.

Global payments company Worldline is making new moves to join the agentic future. The France-based firm is launching new capabilities that are helping companies to move from experimenting with AI agents to deploying AI agents.

According to McKinsey, agentic commerce could see between $3 trillion and $5 trillion in global retail value by 2030. To help users leverage this opportunity, Worldline is unveiling two new capabilities to interface with AI agents and help merchants experiment with AI-powered workflows and commerce experiences.

For the first capability, Worldline is using its Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers to act as a translation layer between LLMs and Worldline’s APIs. This bridge will enable consumers to participate in AI-driven shopping by allowing agents to share secure payment links. Shoppers can use AI agents to initiate a transaction using natural language, while merchants can support agent-initiated actions such as payment creation, refunds, status checks, and payment captures.

Worldline views its new AI capabilities as a foundational step toward making agentic commerce practical at scale. According to Gertjan Dewaele, VP of Product & Technology at Worldline, the introduction of MCP servers helps bridge the gap between experimentation and real-world deployment. “The shift to agentic commerce is underway, and MCP servers are the first building block for moving merchants from experimentation to real-world deployment. By providing secure, simple access to Worldline’s payment capabilities for AI agents, we enable the next generation of agentic commerce and streamline internal operations.”

Worldline has also introduced ConnectAI, which will allow developers and merchants to explore, build, test, and prepare for agentic commerce. ConnectAI serves as a hub that offers tools, documentation, and guidance for new agentic payment protocols.

According to Worldline Head of Global Commerce Stijn Gasthuys, the company sees agentic commerce as a catalyst for broader innovation in payments. “Agentic commerce will unlock new waves of innovation, helping merchants deliver better customer experiences. Our investments in this area position Worldline to capture a growing global market for AI-powered transactions, delivering secure, scalable infrastructure that empowers merchants and developers to innovate with confidence.”

Worldline’s move comes during a major shift in the payments industry, which is racing to accept the reality that AI agents are starting to participate in commerce. By focusing on infrastructure, standards alignment, and regulatory compliance, Worldline is positioning itself among the players willing to enable agentic commerce safely and at scale.

Worldline’s new capabilities make it easier for merchants to experiment while reducing the operational and compliance risks that slow adoption. The tools make it easier for companies to transition from AI pilots to real, revenue-generating use cases.

As part of today’s announcement, Worldline is actively supporting emerging standards, including Google’s newly launched Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) and Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP). The company also noted that it will place “a strong focus” on complying with European regulatory and trusted requirements.

Founded in 1974, Worldline offers payments technology and solutions customized for hundreds of industries. The company counts more than one million businesses as clients around the world and generated $5.3 billion (4.6 billion euros) in revenue in 2024.

Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash

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