Hello Fintech Friends,

This week, Mary Ann Azevedo (who writes for TWIF as well), published a good article in Crunchbase about fintech funding in 2025.

The market is getting healthier. "Global venture funding to fintech startups increased by 27% in 2025 to its highest level in several quarters, boosted by later-stage deals."

So – after two years of difficulty for fintech venture, who actually still believes in the ecosystem?

The specialists such as Ribbit, QED, Portage, and Flourish continued to invest through the turndown.

And a few of the generalists like a16z, Lightspeed, and Sequoia retained their conviction.

Interestingly, corporates such as Citi and crypto funds including Pantera and Paradigm also got more active in seed+ fintech investing over the past couple years.

Elsewhere, I enjoyed jumping on the AI Risk & Reward podcast with Alec Crawford to talk about artificial intelligence in financial services. Thanks for hosting me!

Alec Crawford Interviews Nik Milanović on Fintech, AI, and Crypto | Artificial Intelligence Risk, Inc. posted on the topic | LinkedIn

🎙️ New Podcast Episode This week, Alec Crawford sits down with Nik Milanović — founder of This Week in Fintech and Stablecon, and General Partner at The Fintech Fund 🚀 — for a wide-ranging conversation on where AI, fintech, and crypto are colliding. Nik shares his unconventional journey from aspiring lawyer and Stanford philosophy major to fintech operator and investor, with lessons from Google Pay and building one of the most influential fintech communities in the world. They dive into: 💸 Why stablecoins are moving from niche to mainstream 🤖 How machine-readable, programmable payments will unlock AI agents ⚖️ The ethical and regulatory tradeoffs of rapid technological change 📉 What we owe workers displaced by automation 🚀 Practical advice for founders and investors navigating fast-moving markets The future of money is being written now — this episode helps you understand who’s holding the pen. 🎧 Listen here: ▶️ YouTube: https://lnkd.in/ejzKXA2B 🎙️ Spotify: https://lnkd.in/exENZW79 🌐 Website: https://lnkd.in/eUAe47mz #FinTech #AI #Crypto #Stablecoins #Startups #Investing #Payments #Podcast

LinkedInArtificial Intelligence Risk, Inc.

Please find another week of fintech financing events below.

Have feedback for us? Let us know. Find me at @nikmilanovic, @twifintech, and @ndm

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News coverage written and provided by Rachel Chang.

Stat of the Week

Visa's stablecoin settlement volumes hit $4.5 billion in annualized run rate, a fraction of the $14.2 trillion in annual payments, as of January 2026.

Venture Financing

• Varo Bank raised $123.9 million in series G to expand its digital banking and lending platform. 
• TRM Labs raised $70 million in series C to scale AI solutions to disrupt criminal networks and counter national security threats. 
• Neo Financial raised $68.5 million for its first securitization to expand its Calgary-headquartered consumer banking platform. 
• Talos raised $45 million in a series B extension to enhance its digital asset trading infrastructure across multiple exchanges and markets, increasing its valuation by 20%. 
• Memcyco raised $37 million in series A to scale its real-time digital risk protection platform safeguarding enterprises from brand impersonation scams and account takeover (ATO). 
• Jupiter raised $35 million from ParaFi, a blockchain and digital asset investment firm, to expand its decentralised finance platform on the Solana blockchain. 
• Sixfold raised $30 million in series B to modernize AI-powered underwriting for insurance decision-making. 
• Tapi raised $27 million in series B to grow its payment processing infrastructure for fintechs, banks, retailers, and businesses in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Mexico. 
• Bound raised $24.5 million in series A led by AlbionVC to automate its FX risk management platform across Europe. 
• EnFi raised $15 million in series A to expand the use of AI agents that analyze and make credit decisions at banks. 
• Mine raised $14 million to launch an AI money agent helping young adults manage and control their finances. 
• Veritus raised $10.1 million in seed funding to power voice-first AI agents for lenders. 
• Incard raised £10 million (~$13.5 million) to expand its financial platform for high-growth digital companies. 
• Spire raised $10 million in series B to scale its Pay-by-Bank solutions for merchants and consumers, redefining how people pay and earn rewards. 
• Jelou raised $10 million in series A to build AI apps that move money on WhatsApp for Latin American businesses. 
• Advance raised $8.55 million in seed funding to modernize how insurance intermediaries manage and move money.
• Paraglide raised $5 million in seed funding to develop an agentic AI product for accounts receivable (AR). 
• Mysa raised $3.4 million in pre-series A to enhance its AI features and banking product.
• Neem raised pre-Series A funding backed by Epic Angels to grow its "female-only" investment collective and digital banking services in Pakistan.

Debt Financing

• Propy raised a $100 million credit facility to accelerate building an AI-powered, end-to-end real estate transaction platform across the U.S. 
• MidOcean secured a $100 million revolving credit facility from Cross River Bank to support its home equity investment contracts. 
• Neo Financial raised $68.5 million for its first securitization to expand its Calgary-headquartered consumer banking platform. 
• GoCab raised $45 million in debt and equity to expand its fleet of electric vehicles with drive-to-own financial options to drivers and delivery couriers in Africa. 
• Wonder raised $12 million in venture debt from HSBC to fuel Asia-Pacific expansion of its omni-channel payments platform.
• Vennre raised $9.6 million in pre-Series A debt and equity to grow its wealth creation platform for high-earning individuals across MENA.