Fintechs Secure Fresh Funding for Payments and AI

- Rhythmic's approach to embedded finance involves providing stored-value accounts and co-branded cards to large brands, with stablecoins managing the infrastructure in the background. This model abstracts away the complexity of crypto for the end-user, who only interacts with the brand they trust. The seed round was led by Dragonfly, a notable investor in the crypto space. - Stacks is targeting the $100 billion Office of the CFO software market with its agentic AI, aiming to automate foundational finance workflows like accounting and the month-end close. The platform has onboarded over 30 enterprise customers and claims to have saved them more than 100,000 hours annually by automating reconciliations and journal entries. The company's new "AI Flux Analysis" tool identifies drivers of variance and generates explanations, reducing analysis time from days to minutes. - Alfred's strategy in Latin America focuses on providing foreign businesses with virtual local accounts in markets like Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina, using stablecoins for real-time settlement in local currency behind the scenes. This unified API approach tackles the region's fragmented B2B payments landscape, where cross-border trade exceeds $2.5 trillion annually but is hampered by high fees and slow traditional banking rails. - The concept of "agentic AI," as employed by Stacks, involves AI that learns directly from the actions of accountants rather than being bound by preset rules, allowing it to handle dynamic and complex workflows. This is a key differentiator from traditional automation and is seen as the next phase of AI adoption in enterprise functions, following transformations in customer support and legal departments. - For product leaders, influencing without direct authority is a critical skill that relies on building trust, communicating a clear vision, and using data to build a compelling case. This involves understanding the motivations and constraints of cross-functional partners to foster collaboration rather than relying on command-and-control tactics. - The global embedded finance market was estimated at over $111 billion in 2024 and is projected to exceed $1.7 trillion by 2034, driven by consumer demand for convenience. For businesses, embedding financial services can increase customer retention and transaction volumes. - Institutional adoption of stablecoins is growing for use cases like 24/7 cross-border payments and treasury operations, with the total stablecoin market capitalization reaching $300 billion in September 2025. Regulatory developments, such as the GENIUS Act in the U.S., are providing greater clarity and are expected to accelerate adoption by mitigating risks for corporations and financial institutions.