The Started Advisory Board Report was created to elevate how the financial technology industry communicates

iDenfy was recognized as a Finalist in the “ID Verification & KYC” category at the FF Awards 2025

Zand has achieved ISO certification for Information Security Management Systems and for Privacy Information Management Systems

OCR Studio, a developer of AI-powered document recognition systems, has adapted its OCR MRZ-scan solution in advance of the upcoming ICAO/ISO changes to the machine-readable zone (MRZ) format in identity documents. The system correctly handles IDs that follow the current ICAO Doc 9303 specification as well as those that will comply with the new standard once it is officially adopted. This helps banks, fintech companies, telecom operators, government agencies, and other regulated businesses maintain stable KYC and border-control workflows throughout the transition period.

As federal policymakers explore faster, more decentralized approaches to disaster relief, new research from Socure reveals that these programs are deeply vulnerable to fraud, and that bad actors possess the scale and sophistication to exploit existing weaknesses, as well as those introduced by proposed reforms.

Sequence today announced a $20M Series A led by 645 Ventures, alongside a16z, Firstminute Capital, Passion Capital, Dig Ventures and Vor Capital. A group of world class founders and execs including the CFOs at Decagon, Klaviyo and Wise also joined the round. The new financing comes after a year of 10x ARR growth, driven by mid-market and enterprise companies like Cognition, Legora, Bridge, 11x, and Incident.io choosing Sequence to automate revenue operations. Sequence has raised $40M to date and will use the new capital to accelerate investment on their agent roadmap to eliminate manual finance work, expanding both the engineering and go to market teams.

MANTL, an Alkami solution team and a leading provider of loan and deposit account opening technology, today announced a strategic partnership with Method Financial (Method), a provider of consumer permissioned financial connectivity. Through this partnership, Method’s real-time liability data will be integrated directly into the MANTL Loan Origination platform, empowering financial institutions to streamline decisioning, improve prequalification accuracy, and deliver a faster, more transparent refinancing and debt consolidation experience across their physical and digital banking channels.

Smartstream today announces the relocation of its North American headquarters in Manhattan’s Financial District

Montran officially launched Montran Africa, its regional headquarters based out of Kenya

Monzo today announces its agreement to acquire Habito as it moves to transform one of life’s most important financial moments — getting a mortgage

Engine by Starling opened its new London HQ this week, creating space for the SaaS business to hire more than 150 new colleagues

The Audi Revolut F1 Team has unveiled its official name, logo, and announced that its global launch will take place in Berlin

Finastra’s User Connect 2025 conference brought together Finastra team members, industry leaders, and customers to explore the future of retail lending

Apiture, a leading provider of digital banking solutions — now part of CSI — today announced the launch of My Data Exchange™, a new feature enabling financial institutions to offer account holders greater visibility and control over how their data is shared with third parties. With My Data Exchange, consumers and businesses can securely locate and link their financial accounts to budgeting, lending, accounting, and other apps directly within those third-party experiences.

myTU, the AI-native, cloud-first digital banking platform, has introduced SEPA Direct Debit to expand its payment capabilities for businesses across the European Union. The new feature enables companies to collect both recurring and one-off payments directly from customer bank accounts under the SEPA CORE scheme.