Daily news

Fifth Third Bank Embeds Brex’s Payments Infrastructure

Fifth Third Bank Embeds Brex’s Payments Infrastructure
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Brex and Fifth Third Bank have entered a multiyear partnership that uses Brex Embedded to power the bank’s new commercial card, bringing modern spend management and AI-driven automation to Fifth Third’s commercial clients.
  • The integration gives businesses access to Brex’s finance platform, enabling real-time payments, automated expense workflows, corporate card issuance, and AI agents that streamline closing the books and controlling spend.
  • The partnership is strategically significant for both sides. It expands Brex’s reach into established commercial banking while helping Fifth Third differentiate itself with an AI-powered alternative to legacy expense management tools.

Corporate card and expense management fintech Brex announced a new partnership with Fifth Third Bank this week. In the multiyear agreement, Fifth Third will leverage Brex Embedded, Brex’s API-driven payments infrastructure to power the Fifth Third Commercial Card.

Through the integration, Fifth Third’s commercial clients will gain access to Brex’s finance software platform that will enable them to issue corporate cards, automate expense management, and make secure, real-time payments. Customers can also use Brex’s AI agents that automate complex workflows to close the books faster, reduce manual review, and control spending.

“The future of business demands financial platforms that do more than process payments—they must power growth,” said Fifth Third Chairman, CEO, and President Tim Spence. “Our partnership with Brex is a commitment to redefine how companies leverage financial technology. By combining the strength of a leading bank with Brex’s AI-driven innovation, we’re creating intelligent solutions that simplify complexity, drive efficiency, and enable businesses to scale globally with confidence.”

For a long-standing, traditional financial institution like Fifth Third, this partnership will bring modern, AI-powered technology into its commercial banking business. The new commercial card will become the default commercial card solution for the bank’s commercial clients.

“This partnership changes everything. By combining Fifth Third Bank’s financial strength with Brex’s AI-driven technology, we’re delivering an intelligent platform that automates workflows, enhances visibility and eliminates manual processes,” said Fifth Third’s Head of Commercial Payments Bridgit Chayt. “Businesses gain real-time insights, global scalability and finance tools that work proactively on their behalf—freeing teams to focus on strategy, not spreadsheets. We’re introducing a new standard for speed, accuracy and control in commercial finance.”

Brex was founded in 2017 to create a digital-first business banking solution. The company offers business bank accounts with credit cards that have built-in rewards, spend controls, and expense tracking. The accounts provide businesses access to their online revenue, billpay tools, and integration with popular accounting tools.

Brex quickly rose to prominence in the fintech space after positioning itself as a digital bank account and card offering for startups. The company sought to solve pain points that often come with corporate cards, including lengthy approval processes and restrictive credit limits. Within just two years, Brex managed to raise billions of dollars in funding and achieve unicorn status.

In 2022, however, as Brex sought to expand its client base from small businesses to larger, venture-backed firms, the company experienced a downward shift. In pivoting toward this target market, Brex discontinued some of its services geared toward small businesses, many of which were the fintech’s original customers. This pivot required some of Brex’s original small business clients to leave to seek alternative solutions.

Despite the dip, Brex remains a major player in the fintech space, serving “tens of thousands of businesses” ranging from small private companies to large public brands, including Airbnb and ClassPass.

For Brex, the partnership is strategically significant. After years of repositioning toward larger, venture-backed firms, embedding its technology inside a major US bank gives the company a new distribution channel and a path to reach established commercial clients. For Fifth Third, the partnership serves as a differentiating factor from peers that still rely on dated expense management tools and manual workflows. Overall, the partnership raises expectations across the commercial banking category.

Photo by Karola G

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eToro Brings Stock Lending to the UK

eToro Brings Stock Lending to the UK
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Daily news, eToro

Social trading and investment network eToro unveiled that it will begin rolling out its stock lending program in the UK. The capability, which is available in Europe and the UK, enables eligible users to lend out their stocks.

Stock lending isn’t new. In fact, it has long been a passive revenue generator for large brokers and hedge funds. Bringing this capability to an alternative platform like eToro gives the fintech a competitive edge as it brings more transparent, value-added services to the retail trading market. As investor expectations increase, platforms that provide passive-income engines, improved liquidity, and greater control over their portfolios may gain more interest in an ever-crowded market.

Facilitating the launch are global financial services company BNY and stock lending program EquiLend. Under these partnerships, BNY is acting as custodian and clearing provider, while EquiLend identifies borrowers and facilitates the lending process. eToro anticipates that the new program will allow its investors to put their portfolios to work while retaining their investments.

As with most stock lending programs, borrowers post collateral, and investors can still sell their positions at any time. By partnering with institutions such as BNY and EquiLend, eToro aims to ensure operational safeguards that offer retail users institutional-grade risk management.

“Launching stock lending in the UK is a key step in our mission to make passive income opportunities available to every investor,” said eToro VP of Execution Services Yossi Brandes. “With the ability to lend not just US but also global stocks, we are maximizing the potential for our clients to generate additional revenues, and this rollout sets the stage for further expansion into new markets.” 

Launching in the UK expands eToro’s partnership with BNY, which it leverages for clearing and custody services for its stock and ETF offering across 19 global exchanges.

“We are delighted to extend our relationship with eToro, delivering an integrated solution encompassing clearing, settlement, custody, foreign exchange and cash management to UK investors,” said BNY Executive Platform Owner of Global Clearing Victor O’Laughlen. “By combining the capabilities of eToro and EquiLend with the scale and deep expertise of BNY’s leading Global Clearing platform, this initiative aims to equip retail investors with an institutional-grade solution to support their investing journey.”

Israel-based eToro said that the move marks the next step in the company’s plan to expand stock lending access to retail investors worldwide.

For eToro, today’s launch is more than a feature. The expansion is a signal of the company’s strategic move into deeper monetization and institutional-grade services. Leveraging BNY’s clearing and custody infrastructure places eToro closer to the operational standards of traditional brokers while maintaining its core social-trading product. Adding features like these in partnerships with traditional financial institutions could help eToro attract more sophisticated retail investors looking for passive-income tools and greater flexibility.

Founded in 2007, eToro has since raised $693 million in funding. With more than 35 million registered users and investors on its trading and investing platform, the company offers trading and investing tools that are more accessible and collaborative. eToro launched in the US market in 2019, entering a space where Robinhood had already established a six-year presence.

eToro began 2025 with its public debut in May. The company is now listed on Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker ETOR. eToro has a current market capitalization of $3.5 billion.

Photo by John Angel on Unsplash

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Business Financial Management Heats Up as Airwallex Brings in $330 Million

Business Financial Management Heats Up as Airwallex Brings in $330 Million
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Airwallex has raised $330 million at an $8 billion valuation, boosting its total funding to $1.5 billion and setting up a major US expansion with a new San Francisco headquarters.
  • The company’s business performance is rising, with annualized revenue surpassing $1 billion, transaction volume doubling to $235 billion, and half of its customers using multiple Airwallex products.
  • The company is positioning itself as the backbone of global, AI-powered finance, expanding regulatory coverage to 80 licenses worldwide.

Global commercial payments and financial platform Airwallex has captured fintech’s attention with its new funding round today. The Singapore-based company closed a $330 million Series G round at an $8 billion valuation, which is 30% higher than its valuation six months ago at its Series F round.

Led by Addition with participation from T. Rowe Price, Activant, Lingotto, Robinhood Ventures, and TIAA Ventures, the round boosts Airwallex’s total funding to $1.5 billion and will allow the company to create AI agents and fuel product development. The company will also use the investment to fuel its global growth, including in the US.

As part of this, Airwallex has established a second headquarters location in San Francisco and will invest $1 billion from 2026 to 2029 to scale its US operations, attract new employees, and expand its physical footprint and brand awareness.

“We believe the future of global banking will be borderless, real-time, and intelligent,” said Airwallex CEO and co-founder Jack Zhang. “Legacy providers are fundamentally incompatible with how modern businesses operate, and our investors understand that we’re pulling ahead in the race to define this category. We’re building a modern alternative, a single platform that powers global banking, payments, billing, treasury, and spend on top of proprietary financial infrastructure. This capital will accelerate our growth, extend our technical leadership, and strengthen our position in the U S and across key markets worldwide.”

Airwallex’s new round comes during a time of not only geographical expansion, but also significant growth in business performance and platform adoption. The company’s annualized revenue surpassed $1 billion in October, marking 90% year-over-year growth, while its annualized transaction volume doubled to more than $235 billion. Product depth is also increasing, with approximately half of all customers now using multiple Airwallex products, a sign of expanding product-market fit and stickiness.

Airwallex has also strengthened its global regulatory footprint, holding 80 licenses and permits that enable customers to operate in 200+ countries and regions and support multi-currency checkout at scale. In 2025 alone, the company extended its regulated and local capabilities across 12 new markets, securing licenses and launching products in France, the Netherlands, Israel, Canada, Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brazil, Mexico, the UAE, and more.

As Airwallex scales its infrastructure, footprint, and product suite, investors see the company as a foundational layer for the next era of global business banking. Addition’s Lee Fixel captured this shift, noting that “Airwallex is reshaping the global business banking landscape. The traditional financial system wasn’t built for borderless businesses, and Airwallex is uniquely equipped to solve this challenge. With its global financial infrastructure, software and AI capabilities, the company is exceptionally well positioned to lead the future of global business banking.”

As mentioned earlier, part of today’s investment will help Airwallex build a team of AI agents for financial workflows to eventually create a fully autonomous finance department. The agents will leverage behavioral and transactional data to automate multi-step operations such as expense approvals, policy checks, and end-to-end task orchestration. The company estimates that it will employ hundreds of agents across its platform.

“As AI lowers software costs, infrastructure and data become the ultimate differentiator,” Zhang added. “Airwallex connects the full spectrum of a customer’s financial operations – money in, money out, and everything in between, giving our agents the contextual data to execute with precision. This proprietary visibility, built on our scalable financial infrastructure, is what powers agentic finance.”

Photo by Mikhail Nilov

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MoneyGram Teams with Fireblocks to Upgrade its Rails with Stablecoins

MoneyGram Teams with Fireblocks to Upgrade its Rails with Stablecoins
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, MoneyGram
  • MoneyGram is partnering with Fireblocks to introduce stablecoin-based settlement across its global payments network, enabling faster, lower-cost transactions and real-time liquidity management.
  • Fireblocks’ blockchain infrastructure will power a programmable settlement layer that streamlines reconciliation, reduces pre-funding needs, enhances treasury operations, and supports large-scale stablecoin flows.
  • As a legacy payments giant adopts digital-asset rails, fiat-backed stablecoins are becoming core infrastructure for cross-border payments and corporate treasury.

Cross-border payments network MoneyGram is taking a step toward modernizing its global settlement infrastructure by partnering with Fireblocks to bring stablecoin-based settlement into its core treasury processes. The collaboration aims to enable faster payments, lower costs, and real-time liquidity across MoneyGram’s worldwide network.

Fireblocks is a blockchain infrastructure and security platform designed for storing, transferring, and issuing digital assets. Founded in 2018 and headquartered in New York, the company’s suite of digital asset tools includes treasury management, wallets-as-a-service, payments, and tokenization. Fireblocks also offers stablecoin infrastructure that enables institutions to seamlessly move, hold, manage, and issue stablecoins with enterprise-grade security.

Founded in 1940, MoneyGram serves 50 million clients annually with its payment network that connects over 200 countries and territories, 20,000 corridors, and close to 500,000 retail locations.

“We are leading the next era of money movement by enabling money to move instantly across any channel—fiat or stablecoin,” said MoneyGram Chairman and CEO Anthony Soohoo. “Fireblocks accelerates this vision by giving us the secure, programmable infrastructure to transform global payments at scale.”

The company will use Fireblocks’ stablecoin infrastructure to create a programmable settlement layer to help reduce capital requirements with pre-funding partners through continuous funding, receive stablecoin payments at scale from its partners, improve access to liquidity pools across global entities, streamline reconciliation and financial reporting for stablecoin operations, and improve treasury operations. MoneyGram will also use Fireblocks to help introduce programmable money and more resilient liquidity pathways.

“MoneyGram is rebuilding the rails of cross-border settlement in real time,” said Fireblocks Co-Founder and CEO Michael Shaulov. “By moving to a multi-chain, programmable infrastructure, it’s upgrading the speed and reliability of global payments at the foundation layer—where it matters most for the people who rely on these payments every day.”

For a long-standing, traditional player like MoneyGram, teaming up with Fireblocks pivots the company from traditional correspondent-bank rails toward a modern, agile payments infrastructure. Today’s partnership is an example of how fiat-backed stablecoins are becoming core plumbing for global payments and corporate treasury operations. It shows that stablecoins could provide instant, reliable, low-cost cross-border value movement at scale, while bypassing legacy banking delays and costs.

Photo by David Dibert

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Fidelity International Taps Tink for Account Top-Ups via Pay by Bank

Fidelity International Taps Tink for Account Top-Ups via Pay by Bank
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Tink
  • Fidelity International is partnering with Visa-owned Tink to offer pay by bank account top-ups, giving investors a faster, more seamless way to fund ISAs, SIPPs, cash management accounts, and general investment accounts.
  • Tink’s pay by bank enables real-time, secure bank-to-bank transfers, settling in under 40 seconds and reducing friction, fraud risk, and costs associated with manual transfers or card-based payments.
  • Pay by bank adoption is accelerating across Europe, driven by lower fees, faster settlement, and open banking growth.

Global asset manager and retirement savings firm Fidelity International has teamed up with Visa’s open banking platform Tink. Fidelity will leverage Tink’s pay by bank tool to enable account top-ups for its personal investing customers and advised clients.

Adding the account top-up capability will allow Fidelity International users to quickly add funds to their ISAs, SIPPs, cash management accounts, and general investment accounts. With Tink’s pay by bank, users can send funds directly from their bank accounts using their secure bank log-in details. The funds are sent on fast rails that settle the transaction in less than 40 seconds on average and offer real-time payment confirmation.

“Fidelity’s focus is always on making investing as accessible and straightforward as possible. Partnering with Tink to offer pay by bank gives both our personal investors and our advised clients a fast, convenient way to fund accounts—reducing friction and improving the overall customer experience,” said Fidelity International Chief Digital Officer, Global Platform Solutions, Ian Hood. “By integrating pay by bank, we’re expanding our digital payments infrastructure to offer a modern, secure alternative to traditional methods like manual bank transfers, helping users move money quickly and safely.”

Founded in 2012, Tink was an early player in Europe’s open banking ecosystem. The Sweden-based company was acquired by Visa in 2022 for $2 billion and today offers a wide variety of products ranging from payments to account data to risk decisioning and finance management. With 3,000+ connections to all major banks across Europe, Tink processes 10 billion transactions per year across 19 geographical markets.

Pay by bank is one of Europe’s fastest-growing payment methods, driven by lower transaction costs, faster settlement times, and a shift toward open banking–powered digital payments. For merchants, direct bank-to-bank transfers eliminate interchange fees and reduce chargeback risk, making the payment experience both cheaper and less prone to fraud. Consumers benefit from a smoother checkout flow, fewer authentication steps, and greater security due to strong customer authentication.

According to Juniper Research, there are currently 183 million open banking users worldwide, a number expected to surpass 645 million by 2029. The combination of cost efficiency, real-time settlement, higher authorization rates, and improved fraud controls positions it as one of the most strategically important payment innovations in the market today and offers the potential for it to become a mainstream payment option.

For Tink, Fidelity’s rollout is another signal that pay by bank is moving from early adoption into mainstream financial services. As Tink Head of Payments Ian Morrin noted, “Pay by bank represents the next evolution of open banking payments, delivering a fast, secure way to pay directly from your bank account. As adoption accelerates, we’re thrilled to see leading institutions like Fidelity put open banking at the heart of their payments experiences to make topping up investment accounts more seamless.”

Photo by Karola G

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Payments Fintech Sokin Raises $50 Million to Build Out Global Infrastructure

Payments Fintech Sokin Raises $50 Million to Build Out Global Infrastructure
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Sokin raised $50 million in Series B funding, bringing its total raised to $96 million and boosting its valuation to $300 million following 100% year-over-year revenue growth.
  • The fintech offers global payments, multi-currency accounts, and treasury tools across 170+ countries, positioning itself as a fast-scaling competitor in the $56 trillion cross-border payments market.
  • Investors see Sokin as part of a new wave of infrastructure-focused payments challengers aiming to solve cross-border complexity at a global scale.

Global payments fintech Sokin raised $50 million in Series B funding this week. The round boosts the UK-based company’s total raised to $96 million since it was founded in 2019.

Today’s investment was led by Prysm Capital with additional contributions from Watershed Ventures and existing investors including investment funds managed by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, Aurum Partners, Gary Marino, former Chief Commercial Officer at PayPal, and Mark Britto, former Chief Product Officer at PayPal. 

With the new round, Sokin’s valuation has increased to $300 million. Prysm said that it invested in Sokin because of its “rapid and profitable growth” in the global business payments market, a subsector that is projected to see $56 trillion in transaction volume by 2030. The company’s revenues have increased by 8x since 2022, rising 100% year-over-year since then.

“Sokin is at a transformative stage, having demonstrated impressive year-on-year business growth,” said Prysm Capital Co-founder and partner Muhammad Mian. “The company is perfectly positioned to become the definitive leader in cross-border payments. Critically, Sokin has already built the infrastructure to capitalize on what we see as a huge addressable market.”

Sokin’s platform brings together global payments, payment acceptance, and treasury management tools to support businesses operating across borders. The company provides access to more than 70 currencies and enables customers to hold 26 currencies in multi-currency accounts, facilitating transactions in over 170 countries.

“We’ve spent the past six years building a comprehensive financial infrastructure that makes global business faster and more efficient,” said ‍Sokin CEO and Founder Vroon Modgill. “For too long, payments, treasury management, and international accounts have been fragmented and outdated. We’ve built the platform that brings it all together, and this funding lets us accelerate that vision globally.”

In the next year, Sokin will continue to build out its global infrastructure across Asia, the Middle East, and South America, including securing additional regional licenses and banking partnerships. Sokin will also invest in its platform and embedded solutions to expand its accounts payable and receivable capabilities.

This funding round positions Sokin on a growing list of challengers building global payments infrastructure, competing not just with banks but also with new providers like Airwallex, Nium, and Rapyd. Investor appetite for these organizations shows that the winners in this new era of payments will be those that solve cross-border complexity at the infrastructure level, not just through front-end interfaces. If Sokin can turn its rapid revenue growth into market share, it may emerge as a key operator in the growing cross-border payments market.

Photo by Pixabay

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Kraken Debuts Debit Card with 1% Cash Back

Kraken Debuts Debit Card with 1% Cash Back
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Kraken is launching the Krak Card, a crypto-to-fiat debit card offering 1% cash back and multi-asset spending across 400+ crypto and fiat currencies, with initial rollout in the UK and EU.
  • The card supports direct deposit, no foreign exchange or monthly fees, and flexible funding rules that let users choose which assets cover each purchase.
  • With the Krak Card, Kraken is positioning itself closer to a full-service financial platform, further blurring the lines between TradFi and DeFi and enabling everyday spending of digital assets.

Cryptocurrency exchange platform Kraken revealed plans to launch a crypto-to-fiat debit card that pays 1% cash back rewards on all purchases. The Krak Card will first be available to users in the UK and EU, and will be offered to customers in additional markets in the coming weeks. 

In addition to paying rewards, the Krak Card also allows direct deposit for salaries and offers expanded wealth-building opportunities. Kraken anticipates that the new upgrades will bring users one step closer to replacing their traditional banking relationships by helping them explore the unique opportunities available within digital assets.

“To us, everything is money. You should be able to use whatever assets you hold to pay for everyday goods and services in the digital era we live in,” said Kraken Global Head of Consumer Mark Greenberg. “From groceries to getaways, the Krak Card makes value move freely, no matter who you are or how you choose to store your money.”

Powered by Mastercard, the physical Krak Card comes in two color options and is available in a virtual format, as well. With no foreign exchange or monthly fees, the card delivers instant spending using multiple balances with no FX or monthly fees. Uniquely, the Krak Card offers multi-asset spending, supporting more than 400 crypto and fiat assets. Purchases can be funded from either crypto, fiat, or a mix of both. The app lets users preset which assets are used first and allows them to exclude specific holdings from payments.

The 1% cash back on every purchase is paid in either the local fiat currency or Bitcoin. The cash back rewards help differentiate Kraken from other debit products, as it is quite rare to find a debit card that pays cash back.

Since its debut six months ago, the Krak app has seen over 450,000 downloads in over 130 countries. Kraken expects that the launch of its debit card will accelerate this number. In the coming months, Kraken plans to launch new features, including credit products, additional card options, enhanced merchant rewards, simplified onboarding, and broader support for assets.

Kraken’s move, as it positions itself against traditional banks and neobanks, is an example of the pending convergence of traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi). By combining multi-asset spending, direct deposit, and cash-back rewards into a single debit product, Kraken is offering another way to spend crypto while building an everyday money hub. The new capabilities allow consumers to bridge their digital assets and real-world payments without the friction of conversions or fees.

Photo by Karola G

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Klarna Debuts KlarnaUSD Stablecoin

Klarna Debuts KlarnaUSD Stablecoin
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Klarna
  • Klarna revealed plans to launch KlarnaUSD, a new stablecoin built on Stripe and Paradigm’s Tempo blockchain.
  • Set to debut on the Tempo mainnet in 2026, KlarnaUSD will leverage early access to Tempo for testing and integration.
  • The move positions Klarna to capture value in the $120 billion cross-border payments market, using stablecoins to cut costs for both consumers and merchants as stablecoin usage surpasses $27 trillion annually.

Two months after reaching one million card sign-ups in the US, BNPL leader Klarna has revealed plans to launch its own stablecoin, KlarnaUSD.

Klarna is launching its new stablecoin on the Tempo blockchain. Launched in September 2025, Tempo is an independent, layer-1 blockchain created by Stripe and Paradigm that’s built for payments. KlarnaUSD is built on Open Issuance by stablecoin infrastructure platform Bridge.

“With 114 million customers and $118 billion in annual GMV, Klarna has the scale to change payments globally: with Klarna’s scale and Tempo’s infrastructure, we can challenge old networks and make payments faster and cheaper for everyone,” said Klarna Co-founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski. “Crypto is finally at a stage where it is fast, low-cost, secure, and built for scale. This is the beginning of Klarna in crypto, and I’m excited to work with Stripe and Tempo to continue to shape the future of payments.”

Klarna will launch its stablecoin on the Tempo mainnet in 2026. Tempo has granted Klarna early access to its infrastructure in advance of the KlarnaUSD launch to allow the fintech to conduct advanced testing, prototyping, and integration.

Klarna and Stripe first teamed up in 2021 when they partnered to allow Stripe users in 20 countries to offer Klarna’s BNPL option, with Stripe as the preferred payments partner in the US and Canada. The partnership between Klarna and Stripe’s blockchain, Tempo, deepens the relationship between the two players.

Today’s announcement comes as cross-border payments are estimated to generate $120 billion in transaction fees annually, and as stablecoin transactions top $27 trillion a year. Launching its own stablecoin isn’t just a way for Klarna to jump on a recent trend. The company will leverage the benefits of stablecoins to reduce costs for both consumers and merchants.

Photo by appshunter.io on Unsplash

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Kyriba Powers New Cash Forecasting Tool for U.S. Bank

Kyriba Powers New Cash Forecasting Tool for U.S. Bank
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, US Bank
  • U.S. Bank partnered with Kyriba to launch Liquidity Manager, an AI-powered cash forecasting and liquidity management tool for commercial clients.
  • The solution offers real-time visibility, scenario planning, reconciliation, and multi-bank reporting, helping firms automate workflows and reduce operational risk.
  • The move signals U.S. Bank’s push into tech-forward treasury capabilities, positioning it to compete with modern finance platforms like Ramp.

U.S. Bank has teamed up with treasury solutions company Kyriba to launch a cash forecasting tool to offer businesses visibility and control over their cash and liquidity positions. The new tool, Liquidity Manager, is powered by Kyriba’s liquidity performance platform.

Leveraging Kyriba, U.S. Bank will deliver cash forecasting, scenario planning, and operational efficiencies to its mid- to large-scale commercial clients. Kyriba’s SaaS solutions empower CFOs, treasurers, and IT leaders to connect, protect, forecast, and optimize their liquidity. Founded in 2000, the company aims to help companies and banks improve their financial performance and increase operational efficiency. 

“Many companies struggle to obtain a timely and accurate view of their liquidity, especially when managing multiple bank accounts across geographies and currencies,” said U.S. Bank Treasury and Payment Solutions Lead Kristy Carstensen. “This solution builds on the strengths of both U.S. Bank and Kyriba to address these challenges. By automating processes and providing actionable insights, U.S. Bank Liquidity Manager, powered by Kyriba, will empower our clients to make strategic financial decisions with confidence and ease.”

The new tool will improve firms’ cash forecasting by using historical cash flow data to predict future inflows and outflows, providing greater accuracy in daily cash position reporting and supporting more informed scenario planning. Liquidity Manager will also include cash positioning and reconciliation, cash pooling for zero-balance accounts, multi-bank balance and transaction reporting, and real-time visibility for all stakeholders. U.S. Bank expects these capabilities will help firms reduce costs through automated, centralized cash oversight and streamline workflows that minimize manual effort and operational risk.

Liquidity Manager will be available through U.S. Bank’s treasury management platform SinglePoint, which the bank updated a few weeks back. The new SinglePoint release aims to reduce manual work, deliver actionable insights, optimize common user flows, and help clients uncover operational blind spots.

“Working together, Kyriba and U.S. Bank can elevate liquidity management and cash forecasting for businesses,” said Kyriba CRO Bruno Ferreira. “By combining Kyriba’s secure, trusted AI-enabled technologies with U.S. Bank’s deep payments and banking expertise, we deliver real-time visibility across every account and region. This clarity empowers treasurers and finance teams to make confident decisions exactly when they need to, without guesswork or delays.”

Launching advanced treasury management tools may be U.S. Bank’s way of competing with platforms like Ramp, which are expanding beyond spend management into broader operational finance functions. Ramp, in fact, has proven that there is an appetite for this model, disclosing in a funding announcement yesterday that it is now valued at $32 billion.

By strengthening its digital treasury stack, U.S. Bank positions itself as not just a traditional banking partner, but as a technology-minded bank capable of meeting CFO-level expectations around automation, visibility, and real-time decision support.

Photo by olia danilevich

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FreeAgent and Pleo Team Up to Help Small Businesses Manage Expenses, Cash Flow

FreeAgent and Pleo Team Up to Help Small Businesses Manage Expenses, Cash Flow
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, FreeAgent
  • Accounting software provider FreeAgent has partnered with spend management platform Pleo.
  • The partnership makes Pleo FreeAgent’s preferred expense management partner, enabling seamless, automated syncing of data from Pleo into FreeAgent.
  • Headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland, FreeAgent made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2013 in London.

A new partnership between accounting software provider FreeAgent and spend management platform Pleo will help small businesses in the UK better manage both day-to-day expenses as well as cash flow.

As part of the alliance, Pleo will now serve as FreeAgent’s preferred expense management partner. This will enable seamless syncing of expenses, card transactions, receipts, and attachments—as well as categories and VAT—from Pleo into FreeAgent. Automated syncing removes the reliance on error-prone and cumbersome manual entry, makes it easier for employees to complete their expense reporting responsibilities, and provides for more accurate, up-to-date bookkeeping for small businesses.

“We know how frustrating and time-consuming it can be for small businesses to keep track of spending, especially when lots of different people are making purchases,” FreeAgent CEO and Co-Founder Roan Lavery said. “This partnership with Pleo takes a huge amount of that stress away. Expenses are recorded and sent straight into FreeAgent without the usual chasing around for receipts or spreadsheets. It just works in the background, so business owners can focus on running their business, not wrestling with their books.”

Pleo provides small businesses with smart virtual or physical company cards that enable complete control over spending limits and policies. The technology automatically tracks, categorizes, and matches all transactions with a receipt in Pleo, then syncs directly into FreeAgent. This integration will provide business owners and finance teams with comprehensive, real-time visibility of company spending, from one-off purchases to recurring expenses.

“Pleo is thrilled to launch our integration with FreeAgent, two partners with a shared vision of empowering SMBs with seamless financial tools,” Pleo SVP Haresh Bajaj said. “This partnership is a step forward in simplifying workflows and unlocking greater value for our customers, and we’re excited about the impact we’ll achieve together.”

Headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, Pleo offers solutions for expense management, accounts payable, reimbursements, and vendor management, as well as smart business expense cards with individual spending limits. With more than 40,000 business users of its technology, Pleo notes that 75% of administrators using Pleo have said its solutions have made their companies more productive. Pleo recently announced its Cash Management solution which combines spend and cash management to give businesses full visibility over all accounts, lower FX costs, and earn on idle cash in a single resource.

Founded in 2007, FreeAgent offers accounting software and support for small businesses and their accounting and bookkeeping teams. The Edinburgh, Scotland-based fintech made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2013, and was acquired by NatWest Group in 2018. With more than 200,000 users, FreeAgent also recently announced a partnership with Australian corporate performance management (CPM) software provider Fathom.

Photo by Adam Wilson on Unsplash

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Ramp Valued at $32 Billion After $300 Million Financing Round 

Ramp Valued at $32 Billion After $300 Million Financing Round 
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Ramp raised $300 million at a $32 billion valuation, bringing its total funding raised to $2.3 billion.
  • The company surpassed $1 billion in annualized revenue, doubled customers year-over-year, and is scaling AI-driven automation across its platform.
  • Ramp is evolving from a corporate card provider into a more holistic finance operations engine, which raises the bar for value creation in corporate spend management.

Corporate card and expense management platform Ramp is unveiling an updated valuation this week after a new funding round. The New York-based company closed $300 million in funding, boosting its valuation to $32 billion and bringing its total raised to $2.3 billion in equity.

The investment was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with continued support from existing investors Founders Fund, D1 Capital Partners, Coatue, GIC, Avenir Growth, Thrive Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures, T. Rowe Price, Khosla Ventures, ICONIQ, Glade Brook Capital Partners, Soma Capital, Emerson Collective, 8VC, Lux Capital, Definition Capital, 137 Ventures, General Catalyst, Box Group, Kultura Capital, Pinegrove Venture Partners, Anti Fund, and Stripes. New investors, including Alpha Wave Global, Bessemer Venture Partners, Robinhood Ventures, 1789 Capital, Epicenter Capital, and Coral Capital also participated.

Ramp’s all-in-one solution offers corporate cards with expense management, bill payments, procurement, travel booking, treasury, and automated bookkeeping to help organizations save time, reduce costs, and focus on their core competencies. Ramp was founded in 2019 and has since experienced notable growth. As of November 1, the company has:

  • Generated more than $1 billion in annualized revenue
  • Served over 50,000 customers, doubling the number year-over-year
  • Grown its enterprise customer base by 133% year-over-year, with over 2,200 customers contributing $100,000 or more in annualized revenue.

This growth comes shortly after a busy year of development for Ramp. In January, the company launched Ramp Treasury to hold users’ cash deposits in partnership with First Internet Bank of Indiana. Later in the year, Ramp unveiled multiple Agentic AI solutions, including Agents for Controllers and Agents for AP.

It is clear that Ramp isn’t using Agentic AI simply because it is a buzzword. In October alone, the company’s AI made 26,146,619 decisions across over $10 billion in spend.

These adoption metrics, paired with Ramp’s accelerating AI-powered automation, underscore how the company is positioning its platform as a growth and efficiency engine rather than a traditional spend-control tool. According to Ramp CEO and Co-founder Eric Glyman, “Our goal is to make every customer more profitable. On average, companies that switch to Ramp spend 5% less and grow 12% faster—results that outpace nearly every benchmark. The most disciplined and fastest-growing teams choose Ramp because it helps them scale more efficiently. We are working hard to bring that advantage to every business.”

Ramp’s upward trajectory shows that corporate card fintechs are now competing on more than simply card issuance. In order to win in this space, fintechs must create value beyond cards and expense management to materially improve operational outcomes throughout a client’s organization. As procurement, treasury, travel, and automated accounting converge, Ramp is staking its claim as a leader in the space while raising competitive pressure on both incumbents and newer players alike.

Photo by nappy

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Trulioo Expands into Credit Decisioning

Trulioo Expands into Credit Decisioning
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Trulioo
  • Trulioo is launching a new credit decisioning tool, adding financial, credit, and risk insights to its global identity platform.
  • The update unifies identity, fraud, risk, and credit intelligence into one workflow, enabling faster, more accurate onboarding powered by AI-driven models.
  • With this expansion, Trulioo shifts from ID verification to full-stack onboarding and risk assessment, putting it in direct competition with Alloy, Prove, Experian, Equifax, and Bureau.

Digital identity platform Trulioo is launching credit decisioning this week. The new capability offers financial, credit, and risk insights through Trulioo’s global identity platform, its tool that connects to hundreds of international data sources to instantly verify people and businesses in nearly every country.

Trulioo’s credit decisioning tool will facilitate smarter evaluation, routing, and decision-making during the onboarding process by bringing identity, fraud, risk, and credit intelligence into a single workflow. The company will leverage its global identity platform to bring these insights into AI-driven models that not only accelerate onboarding but also improve decision accuracy.

“Trulioo is the only solution global enterprises need for KYB,” said Trulioo Chief Product Officer Zac Cohen. “We continue to push the boundaries of innovation, building the most sophisticated engine for onboarding businesses, understanding their risk profiles and driving faster, more confident growth. With credit decisioning, we’re uniting identity, fraud, and credit intelligence to redefine what streamlined, trusted onboarding looks like on a global scale.”

Adding credit decisioning to its identity and fraud intelligence suite, Trulioo is extending itself beyond identity verification. It’s positioning itself as an end-to-end onboarding and risk-assessment platform. This move pushes Trulioo into more direct competition with global decisioning and underwriting players such as Alloy, Prove, Experian, Equifax, and Bureau, while differentiating itself through its broad international coverage.

The credit decisioning tool sits alongside Trulioo’s existing identity verification and fraud intelligence solutions that cover 195 countries and can verify more than 14,000 identity documents and 700 million business entities while checking against more than 6,000 watchlists.

Headquartered in Canada and founded in 2011, Trulioo has raised $475 million. The company has demoed at 10 Finovate events, most recently showcasing its identity platform at FinovateEurope 2023.

Photo by cottonbro studio

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