Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

StartupMafia – News from startup industryStartupMafia – News from startup industry

Veriff Acquires Vespia: Bringing KYB to the Next Level

FinTech February 5, 2026 Nastya Zelenovska

Popular Post

Recent Post

FinTech

FinTech
By Nastya Zelenovska February 23, 2026

Forecasterly raises SEK 6M angel round to bring AI-powered financial planning to modern organisations

FinTech
By Nastya Zelenovska February 23, 2026

Stockholm's Hybridity raises SEK 22M to automate EU regulatory compliance with its AI-native Hy5 platform

blockchain stratups Crypto / Blockchain / Web3
By Nastya Zelenovska February 20, 2026

Best blockchain startups 2026: infrastructure, DePIN, RWA & AI leaders

Veriff Acquires Vespia: Bringing KYB to the Next Level FinTech
By Nastya Zelenovska February 5, 2026

Veriff Acquires Vespia: Bringing KYB to the Next Level

London’s FALKIN raises €1.7M to fight scams before they happen As AI-driven scams surge across Europe, London-based digital safety startup FALKIN has raised €1.7 million ($2 million) in pre-seed funding to stop fraud before it starts. The round was led by TriplePoint Ventures, with backing from Notion Capital, BackFuture Ventures, Aviva/Founders Factory, Haatch, Found Capital, and Founders Capital. Individual investors include fintech veterans Pierre Decote, Group Chief Risk Officer at Revolut, and Ben Enckevort, CTO and co-founder of Metomic. Shifting protection from payments to persuasion “The new battlefield isn’t payments – it’s persuasion,” said Boaz Valkin, co-founder of FALKIN. “Protection has to move earlier, to the moment before someone clicks, replies, or transfers. We’re turning AI from a weapon of deception into a tool for defense.” Founded in 2024, FALKIN builds embedded AI tools that detect manipulation and deception before a transaction ever takes place. Instead of monitoring fraud after money moves, the company integrates real-time behavioral analysis directly into banking and customer-service apps, helping financial institutions prevent scams at the source. According to co-founder and COO Joel Frisch, “Modern scams are sophisticated, and no single red flag tells the whole story. The key is to analyze all the signals that reveal deception to build a complete picture. When we embed that intelligence inside the banking apps people already trust, protection becomes effortless.” A growing European battle against AI-enabled fraud FALKIN’s funding comes amid a broader wave of investment in anti-fraud innovation. Across Europe, startups like Hawk (Germany), Resistant AI (Czechia), and Acoru (Spain) have collectively raised over €80 million this year to tackle rising financial crime driven by AI. A recent EU-Startups report found that AI-related fraud losses in Europe have surpassed €1.3 billion, as deepfakes, voice cloning, and synthetic identity attacks become mainstream tools for scammers. “AI has blurred the line between what’s real and what’s fake, and traditional systems aren’t built for that reality,” said Sam Stone of TriplePoint Ventures. “FALKIN’s vision to make proactive safety universal has the potential to redefine digital trust.” The invisible enemy Scams now represent one of the fastest-growing financial threats worldwide. Deloitte projects that U.S. losses from authorized push payment fraud could hit €12.9 billion ($15 billion) by 2028, while the U.K. saw over seven million victims last year—most of whom never reported the crime. Despite heavy investment in fraud detection, most tools still activate after funds have left an account. FALKIN’s approach moves protection upstream, targeting the psychological manipulation that precedes scams. Early trials with bank innovation teams and tens of thousands of users across the U.S. and U.K. have shown promising results: 78% of users reported feeling safer online, and over half said prevention was more valuable than reimbursement. Next steps: embedding safety everywhere The fresh capital will accelerate hiring, product development, and financial-institution integrations, as well as support the launch of Safety Labs — a program helping community banks and credit unions deploy scam-prevention tools with minimal technical effort. FALKIN is also expanding its integration ecosystem, allowing financial institutions to embed digital safety layers across customer journeys and communication systems. “Scammers are using AI to scale deception,” Valkin said. “We’re using it to scale trust.” FinTech
By Gerald Miller November 11, 2025

London’s FALKIN raises €1.7M to fight scams before they happen

Grasp raises €6M to automate the manual grind in finance and consulting FinTech
By Gerald Miller October 28, 2025

Stockholm’s Grasp raises €6M to automate the manual grind in finance and consulting

Mike Southon

Chief Editor, StartupMafia. Co-author of 'The Beermat Entrepreneur'

Mapping the future of European tech. Join me as we uncover the founders and investors redefining the continent.

LinkedIn All posts by Mike Southon

Latest posts by Mike Southon

How To Be A Local Hero From the Editor
By Mike Southon February 23, 2026
How To Be A Local Hero
GovTech
By Mike Southon February 6, 2026
Making Illegal Things Legal: How Accelerate Estonia are bringing their magic to the UK
entrepreneurial ethics From the Editor
By Mike Southon January 31, 2026
How to Be Good….and Leave a Lasting Legacy
Tallinn, Estonia From the Editor
By Mike Southon November 22, 2025
Welcome to Estonia!
On24 From the Editor
By Mike Southon November 21, 2025
The e-Commerce Elephant in the Room: Heikki Haldre
Liisa Pakosta the Minister responsible for delivering this complex brief From the Editor
By Mike Southon November 11, 2025
A Question Of Trust: Liisa Pakosta, Minister of Justice and Digital Affairs of Estonia
Picture of Alison Grade From the Editor
By Mike Southon November 5, 2025
A Safe Pair of Hands – Alison Grade
Entrepreneurship Part 1: My First Advice for Any Aspiring Entrepreneur From the Editor
By Mike Southon November 4, 2025
Entrepreneurship Part 1: My First Advice for Any Aspiring Entrepreneur

CleanTech

CleanTech
By Nastya Zelenovska February 23, 2026

Westra Materials secures €6.5M from EIC Accelerator to replace toxic battery materials with conductive polymers

environmental startups CleanTech
By Alex Nigmatulin February 20, 2026

Top 10 environmental startups: useful, trendy, profitable

Finnish CleanTech startup Sofi Filtration secures €900k to advance critical-mineral recovery technology CleanTech
By Nastya Zelenovska February 4, 2026

Finnish CleanTech startup Sofi Filtration secures €900k to advance critical-mineral recovery technology

Spark Plant Enhanced CleanTech
By Nastya Zelenovska February 4, 2026

Spark Cleantech Secures €30M Series A to Decarbonize Heavy Industry

CleanTech
By Gerald Miller September 25, 2025

How to make sure winter vacations stay active?

French startup Cosma raises €2.5 million for underwater imaging technology for marine biodiversity CleanTech
By Gerald Miller June 30, 2025

French Ocean Tech Startup Cosma Secures €2.5M to Map the Deep Sea's Hidden Biodiversity

HealthTech

HealthTech
By Nastya Zelenovska February 23, 2026

Rome's VoiceMed hits €1M in total funding and launches COPD pilot with Chiesi Group to detect respiratory disease via smartphone

HealthTech
By Nastya Zelenovska February 23, 2026

Basel's Axmed secures €5M Gates Foundation grant to scale affordable medicines access across low-income countries

mental health startups HealthTech
By Alex Nigmatulin February 20, 2026

Top mental health startups 2026: AI, pediatric & enterprise care

HealthTech
By Gerald Miller February 12, 2026

The Aesthetics Lounge and Spa in Wellen Park Opens, Elevating Med Spa Care in Venice, FL

Pharma Partnering Summit Photo BioTech
By Nastya Zelenovska February 3, 2026

Pharma Partnering Summit 2026 Unites Global Business Development & Licensing Leaders in Basel and San Diego.

healthcare startups HealthTech
By Nastya Zelenovska January 29, 2026

10+ best healthcare startups: inspiration and brave findings nearby

AITech

French Transport Tech Firm Acorel Launches AI-Powered Origin-Destination Solution to Reshape Public Transit Planning AITech
By Nastya Zelenovska February 27, 2026

French Transport Tech Firm Acorel Launches AI-Powered Origin-Destination Solution to Reshape Public Transit Planning

AITech
By Gerald Miller February 24, 2026

How an AI Startup is Helping Travelers with Flight Cancellation and Delays – TravelHelp

AITech
By Nastya Zelenovska February 23, 2026

Paris venture studio OSS Ventures hits €40M first close on €75M fund to scale factory-floor industrial software

AITech
By Nastya Zelenovska February 23, 2026

Paris VC Quantonation closes €220M second fund to back quantum and deep-physics technologies at scale

Stockholm's Agaton raises $10M to turn enterprise sales conversations into revenue growth AITech
By Nastya Zelenovska February 23, 2026

Stockholm's Agaton raises $10M to turn enterprise sales conversations into revenue growth

Norway and US-based Trener Robotics secures €26 million to expand industrial AI automation AITech
By Gerald Miller February 11, 2026

Trener Robotics raises €26M to make industrial robots think beyond rigid code

BioTech

UK Biotech Day 2026 BioTech
By Nastya Zelenovska February 25, 2026

Building the Future of Biotechnology — UK Biotech Day 2026

Bedford's Tozaro raises €6.9M to make life-saving cell and gene therapies affordable with Smart Polymer technology BioTech
By Nastya Zelenovska February 23, 2026

Bedford's Tozaro raises €6.9M to make life-saving cell and gene therapies affordable with Smart Polymer technology

BioTech
By Nastya Zelenovska February 23, 2026

ArgusEye awarded €6.25M from EIC Accelerator to make biomanufacturing smarter with real-time sensor technology

Pharma Partnering Summit Photo BioTech
By Nastya Zelenovska February 3, 2026

Pharma Partnering Summit 2026 Unites Global Business Development & Licensing Leaders in Basel and San Diego.

best biotech startups BioTech
By Nastya Zelenovska January 27, 2026

20+ best biotech startups: courageous innovation promotion

Rubio Impact Ventures has secured a third investment fund worth €70 million. BioTech
By Gerald Miller November 4, 2025

Rubio Impact Ventures Raises €70 Million for Third Fund to Back Climate and Social Innovators