Builders in Fintech — Friday 16 October: Funding Souq raises $1B, 9 more rounds
The week closes with incumbents drawing lines around AI agents. JPMorgan Chase said external agents cannot act on retail customers' accounts, only read some data through authorised connectors, while Intuit agreed to buy Sequence to put AI-native revenue management inside its mid-market suite. LSEG confirmed talks to buy credit data provider Octus for about $3.5 billion. In funding, Fragment raised $12 million for agent-ready ledgers and Fission $10 million to give tokenised fund investors a faster exit.
The editor
The lead
JPMorgan Chase blocks outside AI agents from acting on retail customers' accounts
JPMorgan Chase will not let external AI agents operate retail customers' accounts, CEO Jamie Dimon said on the bank's third-quarter earnings call.
Anyone building agents that move consumer money now needs bank-sanctioned rails or partnerships, not scraped credentials, because the largest US bank has made account access a question of permission rather than capability.
Rounds · last 7 days: 22 · Funding Index (2026-W41): 236
Our news
LSEG confirms talks to acquire credit data provider Octus from Permira for about $3.5BLondon Stock Exchange Group has confirmed it is in discussions with Permira to buy Octus for approximately $3.5 billion, after Reuters and Bloomberg reported…
- Intuit agrees to acquire AI-native revenue management platform Sequence to extend Intuit Enterprise Suite
Intuit has signed an agreement to acquire Sequence, a Series A company that automates the quote-to-revenue process for businesses.
Image: fintech.global Noah secures MiCA CASP and PSD2 payment institution licences to offer stablecoin and fiat payments across the EUStablecoin payments infrastructure provider Noah has obtained a Markets in Crypto-Assets crypto-asset service provider licence and a PSD2 payment institution…
Image: fintechnews.sg KPay receives a Major Payment Institution licence from the Monetary Authority of SingaporeThe Monetary Authority of Singapore has granted KPay a Major Payment Institution licence under the Payment Services Act 2019.
The rounds
| Company | Round | Lead investor | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Funding Souq source | Crowdfunding | — | $1B |
| Clearinghouse CDFI source | — | — | $100M |
| Harmonic Security source | Series B | — | $50M |
| Reach Security source | Series B | — | $50M |
| Fission source | Series A | Pantera Capital | $10M |
| Multiliquid source | Pre-seed | — | $8M |
| RedOwl source | Seed | Tidal Ventures | $5.3M |
| Matters source | Pre-seed | — | $5M |
| Neonomics source | undisclosed | — | $4M |
| Fruga source | — | — | £1M |
Quick hits
Payments
- US Visa Direct has moved its stablecoin prefunding from pilot to production, with processor Inyo Global the first enabler letting businesses fund cross-border payouts with USDC in near real time. — Fintech News Singapore
Banking
- US Cross River is integrating Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin into its core operating system, with support for transactions on the XRP Ledger, so business clients can settle faster through a single platform. — Cross River
Insurance
- GB Fruga, a Manchester insurtech that turns open banking purchases into credits applied at insurance renewal, has raised £1 million from NPIF II – PXN Equity Finance and Haatch after bootstrapping until now. — FinTech Global
Lending
- GB iwoca has launched manda, an M&A marketplace that connects small business owners looking to sell with buyers and supports the transaction, alongside its SME loans and iwocaPay products. — iwoca
Other
- DE Quirin Privatbank and its digital platform quirion are migrating their investment business to Upvest's infrastructure, adding a German private bank to Upvest's client list after Plum, Satispay and Qonto this year. — Upvest
Number of the day
236
34 rounds this week · baseline 14.42
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