Date: 2026-05-13
Brief: AI, fintech and Web3 companies that raised <$10M in the last 3–6 months across US, UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, plus active PR / marketing / comms roles.
What's new vs Run 6: Five fresh raises surfaced from the Apr 13 – May 7 window not covered earlier (Seapoint, Ralio, Dex, Nava, Marloo). Singapore remains thin on sub-$10M raises (Level3AI's Jan 2026 round at $13M is just above ceiling). Hong Kong's only fresh sub-$10M Web3 raise remains Stockcoin.ai from May 6 — carried over. Recommend pulling DealStreetAsia + Cyberport portfolio next run for deeper SG/HK coverage.
| Company | Sector | Round / Amount | Date | Location | What they do | Key investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seapoint | Fintech AI | Seed — €7.5M (~$8M) | Apr 21, 2026 | Dublin + London, UK / IE | AI-native financial home for European startups — automates bookkeeping, payroll, expenses, treasury + FX in one platform | 13books Capital (lead), 40+ angels including Claire Hughes Johnson (ex-Stripe COO), Laurence Krieger (ex-Tide UK CEO / ex-Revolut COO), Des Traynor (Intercom) |
| Ralio | Fintech / AI payments | Pre-seed — $2.5M | Apr 14, 2026 | London, UK | Trust layer for agentic business payments — guardrails, identity + audit trails so AI agents can move money across cards, bank rails + stablecoins | Sure Valley Ventures (lead), Seed X, Love Ventures, Plug and Play, rule30, Endurance Ventures, Antler, Alan Morgan |
| Dex | AI / talent + recruiting | Seed — $5.3M | Apr 28, 2026 | London, UK | AI talent agent matching AI researchers + ML engineers to roles — voice / text agent that surfaces openings + preps candidates; ~$1.8M ARR | Notion Capital (lead), a16z Speedrun, Concept Ventures, OpenAI angels |
| Nava (Nava Labs) | AI / Web3 — AI agent guardrails | Seed — $8.3M | Apr 14, 2026 | United States (remote) | Verification + escrow layer for autonomous AI financial agents — compares user intent vs transaction before money moves on-chain, in trading, treasury | Polychain Capital + Archetype (co-leads), FalconX, Hack VC, Seed Club Ventures, Sreeram Kannan (EigenLayer), Ethereal Ventures, AltLayer angels |
| Marloo | Fintech AI | Seed — $10M (at ceiling) | Apr 28, 2026 | Sydney AU / London UK / Wellington NZ | AI operating platform for financial advisers — replaces AI notetakers with a full client-management + compliance assistant; 650+ firms across 6 countries | Blackbird Ventures (lead, also in pre-seed) |
| Astrada (carried) | Fintech AI / data infra | Seed — $3.8M | May 5, 2026 | New York, US | Data layer for autonomous finance — unified API for real-time card transaction data across networks | Bain Capital Ventures, QED, Nyca (co-leads), Mastercard, Visa |
| Altara (carried) | AI / physical sciences | Seed — $7M | May 5, 2026 | San Francisco, US | Agentic AI for R&D in semis, batteries, advanced materials | Greylock (lead), Neo, BoxGroup, Liquid 2, Jeff Dean + OpenAI / AMD angels |
| Round (carried) | Fintech AI | Seed — $6M | Apr 13, 2026 | London, UK | AI finance automation for treasury, AP, FX, payroll — serves Cleo, PostHog | Alstin Capital (lead), Backed VC, Love Ventures, Passion Capital, Paul Forster + Monzo / Tide angels |
| Checkstep (carried) | AI Trust & Safety | Seed extension — £3M (~$3.8M) | Apr 29, 2026 | London, UK | AI content moderation + DSA / Online Safety Act compliance; serves Trustpilot, JustGiving, Daily Mail | Alea Capital Partners (lead), Slow Ventures, LookAI |
| Manifest (carried) | AI / ad agency ops | Pre-seed — A$2M (~$1.3M) | Apr 29, 2026 | Sydney AU / Auckland NZ | AI ops platform for ad agencies — auto-captures workflows, time, tool use | Brand Fund (lead), Antler, Icehouse Ventures, Techstars |
| Stockcoin.ai (carried) | Web3 / AI trading | Seed — undisclosed | May 6, 2026 | Hong Kong / Asia | AI trading OS bridging on-chain signals with stocks + crypto futures; adding HK IPO + US pre-IPO access | Amber Group (lead), crypto + TradFi angels |
Coverage notes: Singapore had no fresh sub-$10M raise this window. Level3AI's $13M Lightspeed-led January round is above ceiling. Excluded: Helical (London, $10M but ceiling), Casimir (Houston, $12M), Davis (Paris — outside geo), Elastics (Warsaw — outside geo), Pit (Stockholm — outside geo), CopilotKit (Seattle, $27M — too big).
| Company | Founder / CEO | Founder LinkedIn | Marketing / Growth lead | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seapoint | Sean Mullaney (Founder + CEO, ex-Stripe European CIO, ex-CTO Algolia, ex-Google) | linkedin.com/in/seanmullaney | Founder-led; 20+ Stripe / Tide alumni on team | Company: linkedin.com/company/seapointfinancial |
| Ralio | Ghali Bennani Laafiret (Co-founder + CEO, ex-RevOps Alan + LumApps); Leonardo Rosales (Co-founder + CTO, ex-Form3 payments) | Company: uk.linkedin.com/company/ralioai; search founder names on LinkedIn | Founder-led; hiring growth post-pre-seed | 3x oversubscribed round in 3 months from founding |
| Dex | Paddy (Patrick) Lambros (Founder + CEO, ex-Atomico talent partner) | linkedin.com/in/patricklambros | Founder-led; product growth via Lovable, ElevenLabs, Synthesia accounts | Company: meetdex.ai |
| Nava (Nava Labs) | Vyas Krishnan (Co-founder + CEO, ex-first employee + Product Lead at EigenLayer); Brianna Montgomery (Co-founder + COO, ex-Strategy + Growth EigenLayer) | Vyas Krishnan: linkedin.com/in/vyaskrishnan | ||
| Company: linkedin.com/company/nava-ai-labs | Founder-led; Carnegie Mellon research talent on team | Strong crypto + AI cross-pollination thesis | ||
| Marloo | Shakeel Lala (Co-founder + CEO, Sydney, ex-Partnerships Sharesies); Hardy Michel (Co-founder, London, ex-Head of Ops Sharesies); Ben Robertson (Co-founder, Wellington, ex-Roadtrip + Upstock) | Search "Shakeel Lala Marloo" + "Hardy Michel Marloo" on LinkedIn. Company: marloo.com | Founder-led; 45% MoM growth, 650+ firms in 6 countries | Trans-Tasman team + active UK expansion = Sifted / Money Marketing fit |
| Astrada | Salman Syed (Founder + CEO, ex-CEO Fidel API, ex-Marqeta North America lead through IPO) | linkedin.com/in/salmanhsyed | Founder-led; no public head of marketing yet | Visa + Mastercard co-strategics = press multiplier |
| Altara | Eva Tuecke (Co-founder + CEO, ex-Fermilab, ex-SpaceX Starlink); Catherine Yeo (Co-founder, ex-Warp / IBM Research / Harvard / MIT) | Search founder names on LinkedIn | Founder-led; deeply technical team | Greylock + Jeff Dean signal opens doors |
| Round | Pac O'Shea (Co-founder + CEO); Hayyaan Ahmad (Co-founder) | Pac: linkedin.com/in/pac-o-shea | ||
| Hayyaan: linkedin.com/in/hayyaan | Founder-led; hiring growth / marketing post-seed | Entrepreneur First alum; UK fintech adjacency | ||
| Checkstep | Guillaume Bouchard (Co-founder + CEO, ex-Bloomsbury AI → Meta AI Integrity) | linkedin.com/in/guillaume-bouchard-2494882 | Founder-led; serves trust + safety leaders at Trustpilot, JustGiving, Daily Mail | DSA enforcement = 12-month earned-PR moment |
| Manifest | Freddie McKenzie (Co-founder + CEO); Henry Collinson (Co-founder + CPO); Tom Reid (CTO, ex-Microsoft AI) | Henry: linkedin.com/in/henry-collinson-shutterspeed | Founder-led; agency vertical wedge | AdAge / Campaign / B&T are the buying outlets |
| Stockcoin.ai | Founders not publicly indexed in English-language press yet | Company on X: @stockcoinai; LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/stockcoin-ai | Founder-led; Amber Group portfolio support | HK + Asia axis |
Each message is short, anchored to the founder's actual raise + narrative gap, and ends with a soft CTA pointing to shilikajain.com.
Seapoint — Sean Mullaney
Hi Sean, congrats on the €7.5M seed with 13books + Claire Hughes Johnson + Des Traynor — that's an insider lineup most fintech CEOs would kill for. "AI financial home for European founders" is a category that lives or dies on founder credibility, not paid demand-gen. Your Stripe + Algolia background plus a Stripe-alum team is a story Sifted / Tech.eu / Financial Times will keep wanting to tell if you feed it consistently. Founder-led organic PR (LinkedIn cadence on agentic finance, podcasts like 20VC / Riding Unicorns / Fintech Insider, op-eds in Sifted + Irish Times) compounds far better than retainer PR for a seed-stage fintech. Happy to share a 90-day plan tuned for European fintech: shilikajain.com.
Ralio — Ghali Bennani Laafiret + Leonardo Rosales
Hi Ghali and Leonardo, congrats on Europe's biggest agentic-payments pre-seed — 3x oversubscribed in 3 months is the kind of signal that buys you a 6-month window to own the narrative before Visa / Stripe build their own version. Agentic-payments trust + audit is a category that hasn't been claimed yet; the founder voice that lands in The Block, Fintech Futures, Finextra, and a16z's blog wins it. Founder-led organic PR + a sharp POV on AI agent accountability is far cheaper than spend-heavy growth at pre-seed. Happy to share a tailored 60-day plan: shilikajain.com.