“£197bn of retail sales, or almost half of the UK’s annual retail sales in goods and services, are insurable. Amazon alone makes almost £1bn in insurance revenue, and most UK SMEs have never been offered the opportunity to distribute insurance. Bolt Cover exists to help retailer make incremental revenue and customer LTV through embedded insurance, which projects to grow 25% per year through 2028 (Munich Re, 2023), especially in the UK market which is growing 8% per year (Statista, 2023).”
This week we feature a Q&A with Jamie Hamer of BoltCover: embedded insurance revenue engine for retailers. Read on for our deal-highlights and more, and if you are building or backing “what’s next in finance” and want to spread the word with our network, reach out to Frank Schwab or Samarth Shekhar.
Deal Highlights
“According to The Watch Register, the value of stolen luxury goods has risen by 236 percent year-over-year.“ GRACE, a Franco-Swiss fintech specialising in luxury item protection has closed its €5.9M Seed round. The round was led by FinTech Collective and Speedinvest.
„During the COVID-19 pandemic, mortgage interest rates dropped to historic lows as low as 2.5%. Fast-forward a few years and rates soared to highs nearing 8% in 2023…But what if there was a way to still get the interest rates of years past? With assumable mortgages, there might be.“ Khosla’s Keith Rabois leads $11.5M Series A for startup Roam, calls it ‘the future of the housing market’
„Lack of cash returns has been especially troublesome for wealthy individuals or their small family offices- who manage the assets of the wealthy- that made substantial investments in VC funds…That experience gave Hurst the idea to create a credit product that would allow limited partners to borrow funds secured by their LP position in venture funds.“ Turbine raises $22M to help VC investors get cash without selling their stakes.
Q&A with Jamie Hamer of BoltCover
1. Tell us a bit about yourself / your co-founder(s)
I am a commercial entrepreneur with a significant exit (React News, now Europe’s largest paid commercial real estate news service). Tori Hutchinson worked with me there as an operational lead, and Richie Smith came onboard as a tech supplier who chose to invest into the business, work with us full-time and offer us engineering (and now full-time engineering employees) at cost. We complement each other well, and together have the commercial, operational and technical expertise to drive this business forward.
Q&A with Jamie Hamer of BoltCover: embedded insurance revenue engine for retailers
FUNDING ROUNDS
AI compliance platform Flagright raises $4.3 million
AI-native AML compliance platform Flagright has raised a $4.3 million Seed round to fund international expansion.
The raise was led by Frontline Ventures, with contributions from a series of notable angel investors, such as Rubin Ritter (ex-co-CEO of Zalando), André Silva (ex-global head of expansion at Revolut), Phillip Chambers (CEO of Orbex), Ahmed Badr (COO of GoCardless), Teng Sherng Lim (ex-CCO of Advance.AI), and Saqib Mirza (CEO of Sciopay). Existing investors, including Y Combinator, Pioneer Fund, and Moonfire Ventures, also doubled down in this round.
The Singapore-based firm provides an AI-native compliance operating system, including dynamic risk scoring, automated case management, real-time transaction monitoring, and AML screening…
Ozkan says Flagright’s 50 banking customers around the world report 90% fewer false positives, 87% less manual monitoring effort, and a sizeable improvement in overall compliance operations performance…
https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/45728/ai-compliance-platform-flagright-raises-43-million
Insurtech GRACE secures €5.9M Seed to protect luxury items
The value of stolen luxury goods has risen by 236 percent year-over-year.
GRACE, a Franco-Swiss fintech specialising in luxury item protection, has closed its €5.9M Seed round.
The round was led by FinTech Collective and Speedinvest, with participation from Firstminute Capital, Purple, Kima Ventures, Bpifrance, and others including a16z and Sequoia through their Scout Program.
GRACE aims to close the gap in luxury item insurance by offering complimentary coverage against theft and loss. This protection is automatically activated from the moment of purchase. According to The Watch Register, the value of stolen luxury goods has risen by 236 percent year-over-year.
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Beyond providing protection, the platform allows brands to collect customer data, which is often difficult to access through traditional distribution channels such as multi-brand partners, retail, gifting, or resale. They use this data to inform brands about their customers.
https://tech.eu/2025/04/04/insurtech-grace-secures-5-9m-seed-to-protect-luxury-items/
Fuse raises $6.6M to fix a payment problem for companies expanding to MENA
Expanding into the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) remains a costly and complex challenge for global businesses, thanks to fragmented regulations and banking systems. Dubai-based fintech Fuse aims to simplify that with a cross-border payments API and has raised $6.6 million in seed funding to make it happen.
Founded in 2023 by CEO George Davis (pictured above, right), former co-founder of BVNK, and CTO James Smith (pictured above, left), Fuse says it’s the first infrastructure-grade payments platform offering virtual International Bank Account Numbers (IBANs) in the region. This is a product Davis says is commonplace in Europe but nearly absent across MENA.
“We’re currently the only provider of virtual IBANs in the Middle East,” Davis told TechCrunch. “It’s a hyper-commoditized product in Europe, but here, it simply didn’t exist.”
Fuse’s core product includes USD virtual accounts for cross-border money movement and dirham-denominated IBANs for local UAE payments. That allows the startup to offer first-mile collections and last-mile payouts for international businesses without requiring them to set up a local entity, handle their own FX, or navigate licensing…
Northzone, the European multi-stage VC that has backed the likes of Klarna and Spotify, led the $6.6 million round, with participation from Flourish Ventures, Alter Global, and notable angels, including Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga “GB” Agboola and former Morgan Stanley MENA president George Makhoul…
Charm launches AI platform to help banks combat scams
Charm, an AI-powered security platform that protects organisations and their customers from scams, social engineering, and human-centric fraud, has emerged from stealth with $8 million in seed funding.
The round was led by Team8, a global venture creation firm that helped build Charm with its founders cyber intelligence expert Roy Zur and former Microsoft data scientist Avichai Ben.
Charm says that fraud tactics have evolved from system exploitation to sophisticated social engineering, making individuals the weakest link in security.
To tackle this, the startup uses AI, data analysis and psychological insights to assess human vulnerability exposure, analyse customer risk patterns, and deliver tailored mitigation strategies.
https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/45711/charm-launches-ai-platform-to-help-banks-combat-scams
Incentify Secures $9.5 Million Series A Funding To Revolutionize Tax Credit And Incentive Management
In a significant development for the tax credit and incentives (C&I) technology sector, Incentify has announced the successful closure of a $9.5 million Series A funding round. The investment, led by Innovent Capital Group, positions the company to accelerate the growth of its AI-powered platform dedicated to discovering and managing tax credits and incentives.
Strategic Investment to Fuel Expansion
The announcement revealed that alongside lead investor Innovent Capital Group, the funding round attracted participation from Ryan LLC, Gary Gilbert (co-founder of Rocket Mortgage and co-owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers), and other investors. This capital injection comes at a pivotal moment for Incentify, which has already established partnerships with major global organizations including Amazon, Kroger, Cargill, Tyson, Sony Pictures, and Paramount Studios, as well as thousands of small and medium-sized businesses.
Atomic Raises $10 Million in Strategic Round from Capital One Ventures, Citi Ventures, and F.N.B Corporation
Today, we’re excited to announce a $10 million strategic investment in Atomic, with participation from Capital One Ventures, Citi Ventures, and F.N.B. Corporation (NYSE: FNB). This milestone reinforces Atomic’s position as the market leader in growing account primacy and enabling the kind of financial connectivity that drives real action. The investment will fuel continued innovation and support our expansion as we deepen our partnerships across the financial services ecosystem. Read the full press release on Business Wire here.
Atomic currently works with 8 of the top 10 financial institutions and many of the leading fintech firms to deliver solutions around payroll connectivity, payment switching, bill management, and authentication. These products help Atomic’s clients to innovate and compete in an evolving financial landscape and deliver secure and seamless experiences to consumers. Funding will support Atomic’s growth across these solution areas and expansion into new products.
https://atomic.financial/insights/atomic-raises-in-stategic-round/
RapidClaims Raises $11M in Funding
RapidClaims, a NYC-based provider of an AI-powered revenue cycle management platform provider, raised $11M in funding.
The amount consisted of $8M Series A led by Accel with participation from Together Fund, and $3M in previously unannounced seed led by Together Fund with angel investors including Oscar Benavidez (Executive Director, Massachusetts General Hospital), Matthew Zubiller (ex-CEO, e4health), Ankit Jain (founder & CEO, Infinitus), and Sachin Jain (healthcare leader), among others.
The company intends to use the funds to accelerate its go-to-market efforts and enhance its technology.
Led by CEO and Founder Dushyant Mishra, RapidClaims provides an autonomous coding solution, RapidCode, which is live in more than 20 specialties and processes millions of charts. It delivers 100% chart coverage, and reaches 98% accuracy in specialties such as radiology, anesthesia, and labs, while maintaining 94%+ accuracy in more complex fields like surgeries…
https://www.finsmes.com/2025/04/rapidclaims-raises-11m-in-funding.html
Khosla’s Keith Rabois leads $11.5M Series A for startup Roam, calls it ‘the future of the housing market’
During the COVID-19 pandemic, mortgage interest rates dropped to historic lows — as low as 2.5%.
Fast-forward a few years and rates soared — to highs nearing 8% in 2023, with the national average 30-year fixed mortgage APR as of April 1 still at 6.84%.
The whiplash has left many people seeking to buy homes shut out of the market.
But what if there was a way to still get the interest rates of years past? With assumable mortgages, there might be. An assumable mortgage is one where an outstanding loan is transferable to the buyer.
Enter Roam, a New York-based startup with the mission of providing access to “thousands” of homes with assumable mortgages across the country.
CEO Raunaq Singh — who worked in product for three years at Opendoor — founded Roam in September 2023. Roam helped facilitate $200 million worth of home sales for “several hundred” buyers in 2024. And more than 200,000 buyers have registered on its platform in the last 12 months. While Singh did not disclose hard revenue figures, he told TechCrunch that Roam charges each buyer 1% of the purchase price. Doing the math, 1% of $200 million translates to Roam making $2 million in revenue in 2024.
Singh claims that assumable loans can save buyers up to 50% on their monthly payments compared to purchases with current mortgage rates.
A seller’s equity must be cashed out, Singh acknowledges, noting that Roam has built a product that makes it possible “for buyers to bring as little as 5% down so they can get a 5% (or less) blended rate.”
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Codex raises $16 million to build a blockchain just for stablecoins
Stablecoins, or cryptocurrencies pegged to fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar, are all the buzz in crypto. After fintech giant Stripe acquired stablecoin startup Bridge for more than $1 billion in February, investors have argued that the tokens are crypto’s first “killer app.” It’s no surprise, then, that venture capitalists are willing to make big bets on fledgling stablecoin founders.
On Friday, Codex, a startup that’s building its own blockchain designed specifically for stablecoins, announced that it’s raised $15.8 million in a seed round led by Dragonfly Capital. Other investors include the venture arms of Coinbase and Circle, which filed to go public on Tuesday. Crypto market makers like Cumberland, Wintermute, and Selini Capital also contributed.
Dragonfly put in about $14 million to the round, general partner Rob Hadick told Fortune. The raise was for equity and token warrants, or promised allocations of a yet-to-be-released cryptocurrency, Haonan Li, the 30-year-old cofounder and CEO of Codex, said.
https://fortune.com/crypto/2025/04/04/codex-seed-round-dragonfly-coinbase-circle-15-8-million/
Y Combinator neobank Djamo raises $17M with 1M users across Francophone Africa
Djamo is one of several digital banking startups targeting Africa’s underbanked. But unlike many that focus on large markets like Nigeria, Egypt, or South Africa, Djamo has carved out a niche in Francophone West Africa, specifically the Ivory Coast and, more recently, Senegal. It now serves over 1 million customers across both countries.
The Y Combinator-backed fintech just raised $17 million to expand its product suite for these retail customers and the thousands of small businesses it has onboarded in the last two years.
The equity round, the largest ever for an Ivorian startup, surpasses Djamo’s $14 million Series A in 2022 and reflects continued investor confidence in its mission to make banking accessible and affordable.
Co-founder and CEO Hassan Bourgi declined to share the new valuation but said it has doubled since the last raise.
Bourgi founded Djamo with chief product and technical officer Régis Bamba in 2020 to close the financial access gap in French-speaking African countries, where few adults have bank accounts. Traditional banks in the region often cater to the affluent, leaving most of the population reliant on mobile money, a cheaper method that includes using phone numbers to make financial transactions…
Now a 250-person team, Djamo is betting that its new round of funding, led by Pan-African, gender-focused VC Janngo Capital, will help it scale those services across French-speaking Africa.
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Other investors participating in the round include SANAD Fund for MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises), managed by Finance in Motion; Partech; Oikocredit; Enza Capital; and Y Combinator.
https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/03/djamo-raises-17m-and-has-1m-users-across-francophone-africa/
Turbine raises $22M to help VC investors get cash without selling their stakes
Since IPOs slowed to trickle a few years ago, limited partners who invest in venture capital funds have had one giant problem: a dearth of liquidity.
Lack of cash returns has been especially troublesome for wealthy individuals or their small family offices — who manage the assets of the wealthy — that made substantial investments in VC funds.
Having funds locked up in venture capital was a big issue for entrepreneur Mike Hurst. After selling Exactuals (a payments startup he founded) to City National Bank in 2018, he invested a good portion of the proceeds from the exit into tech stocks and venture funds.
Then the tech stocks crashed in 2022 and Hurst told TechCrunch that he didn’t have enough free cash to support his VC fund commitments.
“Firms kept coming for capital calls and new investments. I wanted to make them, but I didn’t want to mortgage the house, take a margin line or sell Amazon at $90 when I knew it was going back to $210,” he said.
That experience gave Hurst the idea to create a credit product that would allow limited partners to borrow funds secured by their LP position in venture funds.
Hurst turned his vision into Turbine, a debt platform for limited partners in private equity and VC. The company is coming out of stealth on Friday and announcing that it has raised a total of $22 million in equity funding co-led by Alpha Edison and TTV Capital with the participation of Fin Capital, B Capital, and Sozo Ventures.
The company has also secured up to $100 million in debt from Silicon Valley Bank to support its loan making.
WeeFin Raises €25M for ESG data management platform
WeeFin provides financial services companies with a SaaS platform that centralises data needed to deploy and manage sustainability strategies, encompassing ESG, impact, and climate.
Sustainability fintech WeeFin has raised €25 million. The funding round, which was completed 15 months after WeeFin’s Series A, is led by BlackFin Capital Partners, alongside existing investors IRIS, Asterion Ventures, and Ring Capital. It brings the company’s funding to over €34 million.
WeeFin, launched in 2021 by Grégoire Hug (former R&D product manager at BNP Paribas), Marion Aubert, and Guillaume Klech, provides financial services companies with a SaaS platform that centralises all the data needed to deploy and manage ambitious sustainability strategies, encompassing aspects such as ESG, impact and climate.
The company currently has more than 40 customers across Europe, including Generali Asset Management, Caisse des Dépôts Asset Management, Groupe BPCE, and Malakoff Humanis.
https://tech.eu/2025/04/01/weefin-raises-eur25m-for-sustainability-fintech-expansion-in-europe/
Dubai Fintech Startup YAP Raises $41 Million to Expand Regionally
The digital banking platform will use the funds to grow operations in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Ghana, and Egypt.
Dubai-based digital banking startup YAP has secured $41 million in funding to support its ongoing expansion across the Middle East and Africa, with new market entries planned for Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Ghana, and Egypt. The funding round was led by Saudi Arabia’s AlJazira Capital, with participation from Abu Dawood Group, Astra Group, and Audacia Capital.
Founded in 2021, YAP offers a digital banking platform that provides tools for budgeting, spending analytics, card controls, and real-time transaction notifications. Since launch, the app has attracted over 130,000 users. The start-up operates without a banking licence, instead partnering with traditional financial institutions to deliver its services.
As part of its expansion into Saudi Arabia, YAP is collaborating with Bank AlJazira to roll out consumer and business banking services. The company has also secured regulatory approval in Pakistan and Ghana, and is preparing to enter the Egyptian market. YAP’s product offering includes physical debit and prepaid cards, as well as virtual cards, tailored to streamline financial access in its target markets.
The company expects to close its Series A funding round by the end of 2025.
https://cairoscene.com/Business/Dubai-Fintech-Startup-YAP-Raises-41-Million-to-Expand-Regionally
Thatch raises $40M to give employees more control of their health care choices
Thatch, a startup that aims to transform the health insurance experience for employers and employees alike, has raised $40 million in a Series B round of funding, it tells TechCrunch exclusively.
Index Ventures led the financing, which included participation from existing backers Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), General Catalyst, SemperVirens, PeopleTech Partners, The General Partnership, and new investor ADP Ventures. In total since its October 2021 inception, Thatch has raised $84.5 million in equity funding.
While the San Francisco-based startup declined to reveal its new valuation, co-founder Adam Stevenson told TechCrunch that it was about three times higher than its Series A (Thatch raised $38 million in a Series A round led by General Catalyst in February of 2024).
Thatch helps employers offer Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangement (ICHRA) to employees. ICHRA is a relatively new insurance option, in effect as of 2020.
So what’s the difference between an ICHRA and HRA? A typical HRA exclusively covers out of pocket medical expenses such as therapy, braces, and prescriptions.
The ICHRA allows employers to also use the funds to cover individual medical insurance…
Felix Pago’s $75M raise proves money talks on WhatsApp
Chat-based remittance platform Felix Pago has announced its $75 million Series B fundraise led by QED Investors. The company, which lets users send money via WhatsApp, has processed over $1 billion in transfers and now plans to scale into new countries and financial products.
The round drew participation from Monashees, Switch Ventures, Castle Island, and HTwenty Capital Innovation. While the company declined to disclose its valuation, it confirmed it’s nearing the $1 billion mark. That milestone is less of a priority for the team than building products users actually need.
“Although we appreciate Bloomberg’s faith in us becoming a ‘unicorn’ in future rounds, here at Félix, we don’t care about that,” co-founder and CEO Manuel Godoy wrote on LinkedIn. “We focus on what matters: positively impacting the lives of hundreds of thousands of our users every day.”
Felix Pago is aiming to become the go-to financial platform for Latino families sending and receiving money across borders. With its new funding, the company will expand operations to Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, and begin offering services like savings accounts and credit alongside its core remittance product.
“We want to move from only offering remittances to becoming a complete platform to use that money,” Godoy told Bloomberg. That could include future acquisitions, he added, to help speed up product development.
https://refreshmiami.com/news/felix-pagos-75m-raise-proves-money-talks-on-whatsapp/
Zepz Secures $165 Million in Growth Financing Led by HSBC Innovation Banking and HSBC Private Credit
Zepz, the global payments group behind WorldRemit and Sendwave, has secured a total of $165 million in revolving and term facilities. The $110 million revolving credit facility was led by HSBC Innovation Banking while HSBC Private Credit was the sole underwriter of the $55 million term facility. The financing strengthens Zepz’s financial position and equips Zepz with the resources needed to capture new market opportunities.
Led by HSBC, these facilities replace a previous $80 million arrangement. The financing builds on a decade-long partnership between Zepz and HSBC Innovation Banking UK.
Zepz powers two major remittance brands, WorldRemit and Sendwave, which together serve more than 9 million users and facilitate over 8 million monthly transactions. For customers, the financing means continued investment in faster transactions and improved reliability when sending money across borders. By enhancing its financial flexibility, Zepz will further optimize transfer fees, ensuring an even better experience for its customers.
Plaid raises $575M at a $6.1B valuation as it tracks toward IPO
Twelve years ago, Plaid set out to bring financial services into the digital age at a time when most interactions still required physical presence, creating barriers for millions who needed better access. The company believed that by building the right infrastructure, it could bridge that gap and offer a seamless, digital-first experience that made financial products more open, intelligent and accessible.
That vision has only grown stronger. Today, more than 1 in 2 Americans with a bank account use Plaid to manage their financial lives and its platform powers thousands of fintechs, banks and enterprises.
As it gears up for its next chapter, Plaid secured $575 million in an oversubscribed funding round, pushing its valuation to $6.1 billion.
A strategic raise
The round was led by Franklin Templeton, alongside Fidelity Management and Research and BlackRock. Longtime backers NEA and Ribbit Capital doubled down, reinforcing confidence in Plaid’s trajectory. The proceeds of the round will be used to convert expiring RSUs into shares and offer liquidity to employees.
This raise follows a breakout year, marked by record-breaking revenue growing at 25% YoY, a return to positive operating margins, an expanded product suite in alternative credit data, anti-fraud and banking payments as well as a surge in companies building with Plaid…
https://www.thisweekinfintech.com/plaid-raises-575m-at-a-6-1b-valuation-as-it-tracks-toward-ipo/