Hi there and welcome to Funded, where we spotlight the early-stage bets on the future of tech. This week, we’re looking at Paraform’s $20 million Series A, a sharp counterpoint to the wave of AI-first recruiting tools focused on outreach automation and resume screening. Paraform is doubling down on the value of human expertise, and […]
As a massive omnibus makes its way through the US Congress amid massive cuts to government programs, care-adjacent fintechs weigh their options–and futures In its current iteration, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” — an all-encompassing omnibus projected to add $2.4 trillion to the US budget deficit over the coming decade — includes substantial cuts […]
AI startups are dumping per-seat pricing from the SaaS era in favor of outcome- or usage-based models. The terms “customer support for financial services” and “sweepstakes” don’t typically go hand in hand, but, alas, here we are: In May, London-based Gradient Labs, which builds AI agents for customer support teams in financial services, announced the […]
Federal judge William Alsup has issued what might be the most significant legal precedent for the AI era yet: AI training is fair use, meaning Anthropic didn’t violate copyright law by training its AI on books — so long as those books were purchased legally. It calls to mind the landmark decision in favor of […]
As emerging countries take on a more prominent role in shaping the global agenda, the need to strengthen a movement that has advanced significantly over the past decade becomes even more evident: strategic cooperation among these nations. In two weeks, at the 17th BRICS Summit, rising economies will gather for another round of collaboration. It […]
Hi there and welcome to Funded, where we spotlight the early-stage bets on the future of tech. Today, we look at Payabli, a Miami-based payments infrastructure company that supplies APIs for payment acceptance and issuance solutions, as well as operations tools. The co announced a $25 million Series B round this week led by Fika […]
AI avatars are crashing the C-suite—is this a scalable fix for exec overload, or a shortcut that chips away at trust? If you tuned into Klarna’s Q1 2025 earnings call in mid-May — curious, perhaps, about the BNPL giant’s IPO-launch status — you encountered a stoic introduction by CEO and Co-Founder Sebstian Siemiatkowski, donning a […]
Are we scaling productivity, or faking it? While genAI is omnipresent, its value remains elusive. Recently dubbed in a McKinsey study as “the genAI paradox,” nearly eight in ten companies use generative AI… yet just as many confess they’ve seen no real change to their bottom line. Often described as a “scalable” solution, genAI is […]
“From a reliability standpoint, when you think about the product integration, the fact that we can power financial operations for a company of McLaren’s scale, if we can do it for them, trust me, we can do it for you too.” Fintechs have entered the arena, literally, as they kick off sports sponsorships across leagues […]
Hi there and welcome to Funded, where we spotlight the early-stage bets on the future of tech. Today, we look at Maze, a London-based AI-native security platform that is building AI agents to investigate, triage, and resolve the small number of cloud vulnerabilities most likely to cause a breach. The co announced a $25 million […]