- Fraud and financial crime prevention platform Feedzai has secured $75 million in funding at a valuation of $2 billion.
- The company also announced that the European Central Bank (ECB) has selected it as the first-ranked provider for fraud and risk management for the digital euro, slated to be launched by 2029.
- Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Portugal, Feedzai made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2014.
In a big start to the month of October, fraud and financial crime prevention platform Feedzai has announced both a major funding round and a deal with the European Central Bank (ECB) to safeguard the digital euro.
First up, the funding. Feedzai has secured $75 million in a round that featured participation from new institutional investors Lince Capital, Iberis Capital, and Explorer Investments, as well as existing investors Oxy Capital and Buenavista Equity Partners. The funding, which takes Feedzai’s total capital raised to more than $352 million according to Crunchbase, gives the Portugal-based fintech a valuation of $2 billion.
In a statement, Lince Capital CEO Vasco Pereira Coutinho praised Feedzai for its use of AI and the company’s “end-to-end approach to risk operations.” Coutinho also underscored Feedzai’s ability to “execute across multiple product lines while scaling globally.”
Feedzai CEO and Co-Founder Nuno Sebastião spoke to the strong pace of innovation in the fraud prevention space, and pointed to the importance of future-proofing financial crime fighting technology. “This new investment round enables us to continue driving innovation to defend against whatever comes next, so that every form of payment, even those yet to be imagined, can be trusted and adopted safely,” Sebastião said.
Second, the ECB deal. The same day that Feedzai announced its major funding, the company also reported that the European Central Bank (ECB) has selected it as the first-ranked tenderer in its framework agreement to provide the central fraud detection and prevention solution for the to-be-launched digital euro. The framework agreement outlines the providers for five different digital euro components and related services: alias lookup, risk and fraud management, app and software development kit, offline solutions, and secure exchange of payment information. Feedzai is one of two providers in the risk and fraud management component; Capgemini Deutschland is the designated second provider. Service requests, according to the framework, will be initially directed to first-rank providers with second-rank providers contacted only as needed.
The framework agreement for the risk and fraud management component for the digital euro has been valued at €79.1 million ($92.8 million), with a maximum value of €237.3 million ($277.3 million). For its part, Feedzai is partnering with subcontractor PwC to deliver a state-of-the-art central fraud detection and prevention mechanism that complies with EU security, privacy, and data protection standards.
“Being selected as the first-ranked tenderer in the framework agreement to secure the digital euro is both an honor and a responsibility,” Feedzai’s Sebastião said. “With tens of billions of transactions expected across the eurozone, success depends on AI that can adapt as quickly as fraud evolves. Our role is to provide the intelligence that keeps even the most sophisticated fraud out, ensuring trust in every digital euro transaction from day one.”
Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Lisbon, Portugal, Feedzai made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2014. Today, the company defends 900 million people in 190 countries from fraud with an end-to-end financial crime prevention platform that features AI-native solutions. Over the past year, Feedzai has launched a number of key products including its Feedzai Orchestration and Feedzai IQ, which empower financial institutions to make better, faster risk assessments. Feedzai has also introduced the TRUST Framework to embed fairness, explainability, and security into every component of GenAI model development.
In April, Feedzai acquired data management platform and fellow Finovate alum DemystData in a deal valued at $157 million.
Photo by Vita Marija Murenaite on Unsplash