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Veriff Acquires Vespia: Bringing KYB to the Next Level

Veriff Acquires Vespia: Bringing KYB to the Next Level

Veriff, a global leader in identity verification, has announced the acquisition of Vespia, a KYB (Know Your Business) startup focused on fast, scalable business...

Nastya ZelenovskaFebruary 5, 2026

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

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

London-based digital safety startup FALKIN has raised €1.7 million ($2 million) in pre-seed funding to stop scams before they start, as banks and consumers...

Gerald MillerNovember 11, 2025

FinTech

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

Stockholm-based AI startup Grasp has secured €6 million in Series A funding to accelerate development of its multi-agent platform that automates the analytical and...

Gerald MillerOctober 28, 2025

Notion Capital expands focus on AI-driven software and FinTech

AdTech

Notion Capital Closes €114M Growth Fund to Double Down on AI and FinTech Scaleups

London-based VC firm Notion Capital has closed a new €114 million fund as it sharpens its focus on AI-driven software and FinTech startups across...

Gerald MillerSeptember 30, 2025

FinTech

Does entrepreneurship in Poland mean boxing with the state?

Bureaucracy is a challenge for startups The Startup Poland Foundation prepared a report “Polish Startups 2021″, in which it asked founders, among others, about...

Gerald MillerFebruary 25, 2022

AgriTech

Startup News KW 33 | How much time does a German citizen spend on the Internet?

In calendar week 33, we talk about application deadlines for upcoming events, chocolate that isn’t chocolate, financing rounds, and we answer the question of...

Gerald MillerFebruary 25, 2022

E-commerce

Startup News week 32 | Refurbed receives $54 million

Startup Kickdown takes off Kickoff for Schenker Ventures Refurbed receives $54 million in Series B funding GoCardless doubles new business Henkel invests in fund...

Gerald MillerFebruary 25, 2022

FinTech

Envolve Award Greece 2022: Competition for start-ups with funding up to €50,000

Innovative start-ups that apply for the Envolve Award Greece 2022 entrepreneurship competition, run by Envolve Entrepreneurship, will have the opportunity to apply for funding...

Gerald MillerFebruary 24, 2022

FinTech

Wide field of glory for Greek technology companies

It is obvious that something is changing in Greek business, for the better. The so-called start-ups dealing with new technologies, digital applications and software,...

Gerald MillerFebruary 24, 2022

FinTech

Equity Release arrives in Germany – as a partial sale for seniors

Enjoy your retirement in Your Own Four Walls Without financial worries Retirement is accompanied by a number of changes. The newfound free time offers...

Gerald MillerFebruary 24, 2022