Fintech funding tops €600 million as Ingenico secures €150 million and Rillet becomes a unicorn

Fintech investment gathered momentum this week as companies across Europe, the United States, Latin America and Asia secured more than $700 million (€598 million) through equity rounds, credit facilities and mixed debt-and-equity transactions.

One of the largest deals came from Europe. France-based payments technology company Ingenico secured €150 million from an investor group led by PIMCO, providing fresh capital to recapitalise the business and support further product development. The transaction reinforces investor interest in established payments infrastructure at a time when the industry is being reshaped by artificial intelligence, digital commerce and new forms of automated transactions.

The week also produced a new fintech unicorn. AI-native accounting software company Rillet raised $100 million (€85.5 million) in a Series C led by ICONIQ, with participation from Sequoia and Andreessen Horowitz. The transaction valued the company at $1 billion, or roughly €855 million, highlighting the growing appetite for artificial intelligence applications designed specifically for corporate finance.

Together, the transactions illustrate two parallel investment trends currently reshaping financial technology: continued demand for established payment infrastructure and rapidly rising valuations for companies embedding AI into accounting, lending, compliance and financial operations.

Ingenico secures €150 million for its next growth phase

Ingenico remains one of Europe’s best-known payment acceptance technology providers, with its point-of-sale infrastructure widely used by merchants and financial institutions.

The new €150 million investment, led by PIMCO, is intended to strengthen the company’s capital structure while supporting product development. It comes as the payments industry faces another technological shift, with merchants preparing for transactions that could increasingly be initiated or completed by AI-powered agents rather than consumers interacting directly with conventional checkout interfaces.

That transformation is already beginning to influence merchant strategies. According to data cited by This Week in Fintech from a Merchant Risk Council report developed with Visa Acceptance Solutions and Verifi, 63% of online merchants are actively exploring or implementing technology capable of processing agentic AI payments, with roughly half already in the implementation stage.

The figures suggest that payment companies may be entering another period of infrastructure investment as artificial intelligence moves from assisting consumers with purchasing decisions to potentially participating directly in transactions.

Ingenico’s financing consequently comes at a moment when payment providers are under pressure to modernise their technology while maintaining the security, reliability and global scale required by merchants.

Rillet represents the other side of the current fintech investment cycle.

The accounting platform, led by former N26 US CEO Nicolas Kopp, uses an AI-native approach to financial operations. Its $100 million Series C lifted its valuation to the $1 billion threshold, placing it among the latest generation of fintech unicorns.

The involvement of ICONIQ, Sequoia and Andreessen Horowitz also signals continued investor confidence in specialised enterprise AI platforms despite a broader venture capital environment that remains selective.

Rather than competing directly with traditional consumer fintech companies, businesses such as Rillet are targeting financial departments themselves, where accounting, reporting and other repetitive workflows provide fertile ground for automation.

AI, lending and payments attract capital worldwide

The investment activity extended well beyond Ingenico and Rillet.

India’s digital lending, insurance and payments platform Navi secured $100 million (€85.5 million) from Prosus in its first institutional funding round, while Indian digital wealth-management company Centricity raised approximately $24 million in equity and secured an additional venture-debt facility.

Artificial intelligence appeared repeatedly across smaller transactions. New York-based Baselayer raised $20 million in a Series A for its AI-powered business verification and Know Your Business technology, while Rezolv secured $12.5 million for AI-native lending and collections technology.

Other rounds targeted AI-driven investment research, financial operations and wealth management, illustrating how artificial intelligence is moving beyond generic software tools and into specialised financial workflows.

Debt financing was another major component of the week’s activity.

Brazilian payroll-linked lending and employee-benefits platform Kesh raised R$550 million, equivalent to approximately $110 million, through a combination of equity and debt. Payments infrastructure startup Natural, which is developing technology specifically for AI agents, secured a credit facility of up to $100 million.

The presence of Natural alongside Ingenico is particularly significant. Both transactions point toward an emerging market for infrastructure capable of supporting a future in which autonomous AI systems can interact with financial networks and execute payments.

Latin America also attracted fresh venture capital beyond individual company rounds. Brazil’s Pátria Investments closed its fourth venture capital fund at R$550 million, with a strategy focused on technology companies across the region.

The broader funding picture therefore extends beyond a single blockbuster transaction. Capital is moving simultaneously into traditional payment infrastructure, AI-native financial software, lending, wealth management, business verification and the infrastructure needed for emerging forms of automated commerce.

For Europe, Ingenico’s €150 million financing stands out as evidence that mature fintech infrastructure continues to command significant investor attention even as venture capital increasingly gravitates toward artificial intelligence.

For the global fintech sector, however, Rillet’s rise to unicorn status may be equally indicative of where the next investment cycle is heading.

The combination of the two transactions captures a market undergoing a structural shift: the infrastructure that powered the first generation of digital payments is attracting new capital at the same time as investors bet heavily on AI-native companies seeking to redefine the next generation of financial services.