Hello Fintech Friends,
AI automation dominated this week's venture activity, a signal investors are betting on tools that streamline rote tasks. Payments firm Airwallex secured new funding at a $12 billion valuation amid IPO speculation. Scapia, an India-based travel fintech, raised $64 million. Daloopa raised $47 million in Series C to structure financial data for analyst workflows, and Saris closed $28.8 million in Series A to bring agentic automation to bank and credit union back offices.
Construction finance, health benefits, and emerging market credit filled out the mid-tier. Handle raised $27 million in Series B for lien and receivables management, BenefitBay closed $18 million for its broker-first ICHRA platform, and Scapia's $63 million raise pushed its valuation past $500 million as the India-based travel fintech keeps building its combined card and mobile payments model.
On-chain infrastructure also had a strong week. PopDex raised $30 million in seed led by Foresight Ventures to bring institutional-grade execution to perpetuals trading, TownSquare pulled in $16.25 million for its Monad-based DeFi money market, and IOTrader secured $3.8 million from Animoca Brands for automated trading infrastructure on BNB Chain.
Please find another week of fintech financing events below.
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Stat of the Week
Adjusted stablecoin transaction volumes grew 91% last year to $10.9 trillion, nearly rivaling Visa's $14.2 trillion in annual payments volume, according to research from Bessemer Venture Partners.
Venture Financing
Payments firm Airwallex secured undisclosed new funding at a $12 billion valuation.
Scapia, an India-based travel fintech combining credit cards and mobile payments, raised $63 million.
Pace, an AI platform automating insurance back-office workflows, secured $46 million in Series A funding.
Daloopa, an AI platform that extracts and structures financial data for analyst workflows, landed $47 million in Series C funding,
PopDex, a decentralized exchange for perpetuals trading built to deliver institutional-grade execution on-chain pulled in $30 million in seed funding led by Foresight Ventures.
Handle, a construction finance platform managing liens, waivers, payments, and receivables for enterprise suppliers and contractors, closed $27 million in Series B funding.
Saris, an agentic automation platform for bank and credit union back-office operations, secured $28.8 million in Series A funding.
BenefitBay, a broker-first ICHRA platform simplifying individual health reimbursement account administration, raised $18 million in Series A funding.
TownSquare, a Monad-based DeFi money market protocol targeting RWA tokenization and stablecoin yield, raised $16.25 million in pre-Series A funding.
CasaPerks, an AI-powered rewards and loyalty platform, raised $15.8 million in seed funding.
Harmoney, a compliance and counterparty risk platform for European financial institutions covering KYC, AML, and ESG, raised €10 million (approximately $11 million).
Robbin, an AI-native trade credit and payments infrastructure platform, raised $8 million in seed funding.
Kubera Health, a platform connecting health payor-provider contracts to claims and payment data, raised $6.5 million in seed funding.
Iconic, a platform combining AI software with human M&A advisors to help small businesses get sold, raised $6 million.
Squid, a cross-chain routing and settlement platform, raised $6 million.
IOTrader, an on-chain automated trading infrastructure platform for limit orders and DCA on BNB Chain, raised $3.8 million led by Animoca Brands.
Jia, a crypto-native credit platform targeting the $221 billion SME financing gap in Southeast Asia, raised $3 million in seed funding led by Coinbase Ventures.
Deeptree, an AI workspace for private markets covering origination, company analysis, and buyer discovery, raised €2 million (approximately $2.2 million).
Otomato, a real-time intelligence and automation layer for DeFi users to manage positions and risks, raised $2 million.
FlexPrice, an AI-powered dynamic billing platform for Indian businesses, raised $1.5 million in seed funding.
ONO, an agri-lending and post-harvest supply chain platform in India, raised $1.2 million.
Debt Financing
Capchase, a B2B buy now pay later platform that lets software and hardware vendors offer flexible payment terms while getting paid upfront, raised $200 million ($26 million equity and $174 million credit facility).
NALA, a Tanzanian-founded stablecoin payments infrastructure platform connecting emerging markets to Europe and the U.S., secured a $50 million credit facility to pre-fund transfers and expand payment corridors.
First Circle, a Philippine fintech providing credit to small businesses, secured a $4.9 million sustainable finance facility from Cathay United Bank.
Venture Funds
BAI Capital, a growth-stage investor backing Asian technology companies expanding globally, announced an $800 million fund targeting cross-regional expansion, with a first close at $600 million.
