Whop raises $200M at a $5.1B valuation to build businesses in the AI Era
Hey FinTech Fanatic!
What if, instead of worrying about AI taking your job, you could use it to build a business of your own? That’s the idea behind Whop, which has just raised $200 million at a $5.1 billion valuation, in a round led by Sequoia and Shopify Ventures.
Whop is building a platform where people can launch and run online businesses, manage payments and find customers. Around 25,000 business operators now generate $550 million on the platform every month, while more than 50,000 others earn income by providing services to those businesses.
What makes this particularly interesting is how Whop is bringing AI into the process. Its Business Blueprints have already helped launch more than 21,000 businesses, while its AI-compatible tools let operators manage their businesses through prompts. The company is also developing an intelligence engine that recommends the next moves most likely to generate revenue.
With AI reshaping traditional career paths, Whop is betting that more people will build their own sources of income rather than rely on conventional employment. And investors seem to believe there’s a huge opportunity in that shift.
Speaking of how technology could change the way we earn and manage money, Maple explores another potential disruption: how stablecoins, tokenised credit and AI agents could pull money away from traditional bank deposits.
Anyway, plenty more happened in FinTech today.
Let’s dive in, and I’ll be back in your inbox on Monday!
Cheers,
INSIGHTS
💡 Maple: Why banks will hold less of your money. Banks pay around 10 basis points on deposits, while stablecoins and tokenised credit products are opening up new ways to put money to work. Maple explores how onchain infrastructure and AI agents could shift funds away from traditional checking accounts, with as much as $1 trillion in potential deposit outflows modelled by the Fed if liquidity doesn’t flow back into the banking system. See why Maple believes the way we hold money could change.
FINTECH NEWS
🇺🇸 Incognia examines Apple’s new fraud-prevention features. Incognia’s Gabriel Falcone, Co-Founder and Head of Software Engineering, explains how Apple’s new trust signals can help flag scams but cannot confirm whether a transaction or identity is legitimate. He highlights why combining them with device, location and transaction data remains important for fraud prevention.
🇧🇴 Takenos completes incorporation under Bolivia's new ASFI framework, the first FinTech built from scratch. Takenos still awaits its operating license, while ASFI has brought 36 FinTechs into regulation.
🇮🇪 Central Bank of Ireland fines Coinbase Ireland €3.25 million over safeguarding and outsourcing failings. Coinbase Ireland admitted the findings and received a 30% discount under the settlement scheme.
🇦🇪 Ziina secures triple licensing from the Central Bank of the UAE. The new approvals make it the first homegrown UAE FinTech to hold permissions spanning stored value, retail payments, and digital currency exchange.
PAYMENTS NEWS
🇪🇺 Mastercard expands First-Party Trust across Europe to tackle friendly fraud. The programme helps merchants and issuers distinguish genuine fraud from disputed legitimate purchases using transaction insights and merchant-provided evidence. It aims to reduce unnecessary chargebacks and associated costs.
🇳🇬 EBANX becomes the first global payments company to launch recurring payments via OPay in Nigeria. Global subscription businesses can now reach OPay's 40 million monthly active users through OPay Direct Debit at checkout.
🌐 TerraPay integrates its Verify solution with Kinexys by J.P. Morgan's Liink network. Participants can now validate bank account and wallet details before sending payments. An estimated 10 to 15% of international payments fail over incorrect payee details.
🇺🇸 TreviPay expands Pay by Invoice to more Walmart Business customers. Following a pilot, eligible businesses can now access net 30-day payment terms, a dedicated credit line and detailed invoicing for purchases online and in Walmart stores.
🇦🇺 KPay wins an Australian Financial Services Licence for its local subsidiary. The licence lets KPay issue payment products and provide general advice on them. The company has signed more than 4,000 SMEs since launching in Australia a year ago.
DIGITAL BANKING NEWS
🌐 Nu welcomes its first customers to Nu Global, a new global account. The account pays 3.50% APY on USDC and 2.20% APY on EURC. Transfers to more than 35 countries in Latin America and Europe carry no fees.
🇬🇧 UK FinTech Revolut is expected to issue debt in 2027, S&P says. S&P assigned Revolut Ltd. a BBB+ long term rating with a positive outlook. It expects Revolut's holding company to start issuing senior unsecured debt.
🇵🇰 Mashreq launches NEO BIZ in Pakistan, a dedicated digital banking proposition built for SMEs and sole proprietors. The launch targets a market of about 7.14 million MSMEs, where access to formal financing remains limited.
🇪🇬 Souhoola secures FRA approval to offer consumer finance using financial technology. The licence covers electronic customer identification, contract execution, and digital records. Its application predated a February 2026 freeze on new applications.
🇺🇸 SoFi partners with Prudential to expand access to digital life insurance. More than 15 million SoFi members can explore, apply for and purchase Prudential's SimplyTerm coverage directly through the app, with eligible customers able to obtain coverage in minutes without a medical exam.
🇬🇧 Barclays plans to cut 5,000 jobs as it increases its use of AI. The cuts represent about 5% of its workforce, with 1,000 roles already eliminated and another 4,000 expected by year-end. The bank is using AI and other technology to simplify operations and reduce costs
🇺🇸 Lead Bank expands its role as a banking infrastructure partner to major FinTechs. Under investor Jackie Reses, the Kansas City-based bank has built relationships with companies including Nubank, Stripe and Affirm, providing regulated banking infrastructure for their financial products.
BLOCKCHAIN/CRYPTO NEWS
🇺🇸 Underdog brings crypto and stablecoin account funding to prediction markets, powered by ZeroHash. Users can fund prediction market accounts with crypto and stablecoins through Zero Hash's infrastructure.
🇺🇸 SoFi launches SoFi Earn, the first national bank-issued tokenized deposit for consumers. Each SOFIE earns 4.40% APY with FDIC insurance up to applicable limits. Members can convert it 1:1 to SoFiUSD to buy crypto or move funds 24/7.
🇵🇭 GCash users can now trade up to 55 cryptocurrencies around the clock through GCrypto. Powered by PDAX, the service lets users fund trading wallets with no cash in fees and transfer assets to external wallets.
🌍 Mercuryo launches fixed-rate cross-chain crypto swaps. The service supports 38 tokens across 21 blockchains, offering more than 1,400 trading pairs. Users can swap assets at a fixed quoted amount without slippage, with no manual bridging required.
🇨🇭 FINMA approves BIT Asset Management's Bitcoin Fund ETF, Switzerland's first and Europe's only spot bitcoin ETF. The fund is open to retail investors and expected to begin trading on SIX Swiss Exchange in November.
🇦🇪 Bybit secures a VARA licence for exchange services in Dubai. The VASP licence authorises Bybit FinTech FZE to offer spot trading. Bybit hopes to add derivatives in time, subject to the necessary regulatory approvals.
🇨🇳 China rolls out an upgraded digital yuan system at a Beijing forum. The rollout adds DCEPS, a central bank payment system, and the e-CNY SMART Contract framework. Participating areas logged 4.3 billion transactions worth about 31 trillion yuan.
🌐 Ant International uses HSBC tokenized deposits to sweep idle cash into a tokenized fund. The move swept surplus treasury cash into a tokenized money market fund from Franklin Templeton via WhaleRTP. It is Ant's second such deal in four months.
🌐 Remittix plans to add 41 fiat currencies to its crypto payments platform. The company says the expansion will support more crypto-to-bank payment routes ahead of its planned November launch. The announcement also promotes its RTX token presale.
🇦🇪 Robinhood chooses DIFC as its regional headquarters for Middle East expansion. The DFSA authorisation allows trading and custody across all 10 approved asset classes, including equities and crypto. Launch is planned for 2027.
🌍 Grayscale expands direct crypto subscriptions to 10 funds and trusts. Eligible investors can exchange crypto directly for fund shares without converting to cash. Minimum investments range from about $80,300 to $364,800.
PARTNERSHIPS
🇰🇼 Boubyan Bank and Mastercard partner to support Kuwait’s FinTech ecosystem. The agreement will help eligible FinTechs build and scale financial products through Boubyan’s Banking-as-a-Service platform, offering card issuance, cardless ATM withdrawals and virtual IBANs.
🌎 Klarna partners with FreshBooks to bring flexible payments to small businesses. U.S. and Canadian FreshBooks users can now offer Klarna payment methods directly in invoices. The integration is powered by Stripe and requires no extra setup.
🇸🇬 Moom Health scales globally with Airwallex Business Accounts. The Singapore-based wellness brand has streamlined cross-border payments, payroll and employee expenses through Airwallex, saving up to two days a month in manual work and eliminating hidden transfer charges.
🇩🇪 Quirin Privatbank selects Tuum as its new core banking platform. The Berlin bank will run Tuum's Accounts, Deposits, Payments and Loans modules. The move targets client onboarding in minutes and SEPA Instant payments.
🇦🇪 etisalat money partners with Visa to expand cross border money movement. The deal uses Visa Direct to enable transfers to eligible cards and recipients' phone numbers for UAE consumers and businesses.
🌍 Ecommpay partners with Dolphin Dynamics to simplify travel payments. The integration gives travel agencies and tour operators access to multi-currency payments, local payment methods and fraud-prevention tools
🌍 Teya and finmid partner on SME financing in Croatia and Hungary. Merchants can access personalised financing based on their real time performance data, with funds disbursed in about three minutes. Over 500 merchants have received financing so far.
🇦🇺 Adyen partners with TFE Hotels to unify payments and launch UNICEF donations. TFE Hotels will activate Adyen Giving across 35 Adina properties for charity donations at checkout. New properties can now go live in as little as four weeks.
🌍 Flutterwave partners with Techdollar to give employees liquidity against their equity. Staff can borrow against their shares without selling them, with Nuvion providing the accounts that receive loan proceeds.
🇺🇸 Kalshi Prime and BitGo launch HODL Margining, allowing eligible customers to fund futures margin without selling their crypto. Kalshi Katalyst provides U.S. dollar loans secured by BTC, ETH or eligible stablecoins. BitGo Bank & Trust is the first custodian to join the network.
🇪🇺 Ondato and Trinsic expand digital identity verification amid EUDI transition. Trinsic will provide the infrastructure to verify customers using EUDI wallets and national digital IDs, integrating the capability into Ondato's existing identity verification and risk management platform.
DONEDEAL FUNDING NEWS
🇺🇸 Whop raises $200 million in a Series D at a $5.1 billion valuation. Sequoia and Shopify Ventures led the round, which will accelerate global expansion and R&D efforts. About 25,000 business operators generate $550M on Whop each month.
🇺🇸 New York startup Coast raises $35 million to track employee spending on company cards. Thomvest Ventures led the growth equity round, which will expand spend controls, vendor payments, and automated accounting.
🇨🇴 Colombian FinTech Bold secures about $11.3 million in financing from BBVA Spark. The bilateral credit will expand lending capacity for Colombian SMEs, and Bold already serves over 700,000 merchants in Colombia and Peru.
🌐 Weflayr raises $2.5 million to reinvent how companies route AI inference. 13books Capital led the round, backing a platform that benchmarks models on customer data. The funding will expand its engineering and AI research teams.
🌐 Dataline raises $10.6 million in seed funding for its AI agent data network. Lattice and Dispersion Capital led the round, and the company plans to launch a token for network payments and data access this year.
🇮🇳 Karta AI raises $3 million to scale agentic voice AI for financial services. PeerCapital and Cedar Hill Capital led the round. The platform handles two million customer conversations monthly across 25+ languages, with funding supporting product development and expansion.
M&A
🌐 Fireblocks denies report of $2.5 billion acquisition talks with Visa. The company called the claim "not true at present time," while Visa declined to comment. Axios reported talks with the custody firm, last valued at $8 billion in 2022.
🇬🇧 London Stock Exchange Group agrees to acquire Octus for $3.535 billion. The deal will strengthen LSEG's credit and private-market intelligence capabilities, adding Octus's specialist data and workflows to its existing analytics business. The acquisition is expected to close in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approval.
AI DEVELOPMENTS
🇧🇷 Mastercard launches AI benefits assistant Mastercard Max, initially with C6 Bank in Brazil. Issuers can embed contextual benefit recommendations tailored to eligibility and location within banking applications.
🌐 Stripe launches Treasury for agents, letting startups run finances through ChatGPT and Claude. Agents can check balances, pay invoices, and convert currencies, with spending limits for agents arriving in the coming weeks.
🌏 Anthropic integrates Stripe’s Link wallet and Stripe MCP into Claude Duet. The AI agent lets small business owners make purchases using approved virtual cards, send invoices, analyse revenue and issue refunds. Each purchase requires the owner's approval before payment is completed
🇺🇸 Kira launches Agentic POBO, an AI service to pay overseas suppliers for third parties. An AI agent matches payer names to invoices, and Kira compliance approves each payment. Kira says payments settle by SWIFT the same day versus 72 hours.
🌐 Finom launches Finom MCP, letting users ask questions inside Claude and ChatGPT. The MCP integration brings Finom into both AI assistants. Users can ask questions in either assistant without switching apps. Read more
🇪🇸 BBVA explores AI agent security with NVIDIA. The bank is evaluating NVIDIA's OpenShell architecture to strengthen security and governance as it deploys more AI agents. The collaboration focuses on monitoring agent activity and enforcing security boundaries.
🌍 European banks and FinTechs turn to NVIDIA's open AI models. Revolut, Starling, Lloyds and bunq are among the firms building proprietary AI systems using NVIDIA technology. Stripe also reported 42x faster data pipelines and 92% cost savings in offline fraud-detection tests.
🌐 Deel launches Pangaea AI models and Emet research lab for global payroll. Pangaea answers hiring, payroll, and compliance questions across 150+ countries, while Emet develops expert-led training data and benchmarks to power AI across Deel’s platform
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
🇬🇧 Griffin appoints banking veteran David Jenkins as its new CFO. With nearly 30 years of financial services experience, Jenkins previously held CFO roles at Vemi Money and Recognise Bank. He will oversee financial strategy, treasury, capital and liquidity at the UK banking-as-a-service provider.
🌐 Appcharge appoints Ronen Morecki as Chief Operating Officer. Morecki joins from monday.com, where he was Vice President of Payments. He will oversee payments strategy and operations for its Merchant of Record platform.
🇺🇸 Verisave appoints payments veteran Chris Lefebvre as CEO, succeeding founder Jeremy Layton. Lefebvre joins from Fiserv with more than 30 years of executive leadership. Layton will transition to Founder and Chief Commercial Officer.
Trusted reach among senior decision-makers in FinTech, Payments & Banking.
👉 Explore Partnership here
Comments ()