AI Startups: PayPal Ventures, Citi Invest in Corporate Treasury AI Startup

PayPal Ventures and Citi Ventures are investing in Finmo, a startup that uses AI and other technologies to develop what it describes as a next-generation treasury operating system.

PayPal Ventures and Quona Capital led the Series A round of $18.5 million, which was oversubscribed. Citi Ventures also participated in the round. Finmo said it will use the funds to accelerate product development, enhance artificial intelligence (AI)-driven capabilities and expand globally.

Finmo offers one scalable platform for corporate treasury operations, which features real-time payment capabilities, improved cash flow visibility, foreign exchange risk management, compliance automation and liquidity optimization.

“Today’s organizations are global players that demand integrated solutions to streamline their treasury functions,” Finmo said in a press release. “Finmo was developed with a first-hand understanding of what treasurers and CFOs need” to face real-world challenges.

Finmo Co-founder and CEO David Hanna is a former executive at PayPal and EY.

Separately, PayPal Ventures also said it invested in insurance technology company Olé Life, leading a $13 million Series B round. Mundi Ventures, AV8 and Advent Morro participated in the round.

The startup uses AI to offer insurance in Latin America. It has an insured portfolio value of $2 billion and 4,000 distribution partners in the region.

FinTech Sardine Raises $70 Million

Sardine, an AI startup whose platform aims to stop payments and other types of financial fraud, said it has raised $70 million in a Series C round led by Activant Capital.

Other investors include Experian Ventures, Moody’s Analytics, ING, Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Nyca Partners, Geodesic Capital, Cross Creek Capital and NAventures.

“Deepfakes have made synthetic identities nearly indistinguishable from real ones. Social engineering attacks have become industrial-scale operations globally,” founder and CEO Soups Ranjan wrote in a blog post. “The tools to fight these threats haven’t kept pace.”

Ranjan said Sardine plans to use the funds to scale AI infrastructure to make teams more efficient and better equipped to fight “modern financial crime.”

He said Sardine has doubled its customers in 2024, grown annual recurring revenues by 130%, expanded to more than 300 enterprises in 70 countries and launched AI agents to automate critical risk operations.

Artificial intelligence agents “automate the most time-consuming parts of risk operations, helping teams move faster, reduce false positives, and focus on stopping real threats,” the CEO said.

Sardine’s AI agents, which operate with human oversight, include:

KYC agent: It automates the “trickiest” parts of onboarding such as name mismatches, inconsistent date formats and document verification issues, according to Rajan.

Sanctions screening agent: It helps teams efficiently review sanctions, politically exposed persons and adverse media alerts. It learns standard operating procedures, provides detailed audit logs and enables compliance teams to validate decisions.

Merchant risk agent: With “tap to pay,” anyone can become a merchant. But existing systems were designed for fewer sellers. This agent verifies a merchant’s identity and screens for fraud at scale.

Dispute agent: It speeds up the entire chargeback and dispute process, from gathering data to preparing evidence.

OpenAI-Backed Harvey AI Raises $300 Million

Harvey, whose AI assistant automates and improves workflows at law firms, said it has raised $300 million in a Series D round.

The round was led by Sequoia, with participation from the OpenAI Startup Fund, Coatue, Kleiner Perkins, GV, Conviction, investor Elad Gil and REV.

Harvey said annual recurring revenue (ARR) quadrupled in 2024 and the number of clients expanded to 235 from 40 customers. The startup also said it counts the “majority” of the top U.S. law firms as clients.

“Lawyers are adopting technology at an unprecedented rate, centuries-old firms are experimenting with new business models, and enterprises are driving significant savings with AI-enabled workflows,” the startup said in a blog post.

The company plans to use the funds to continue improving its platform, scale agentic workflows, build out enterprise use cases and hire more people.

Harvey Co-founder and CEO Winston Weinberg was an associate in antitrust and securities litigation at O’Melveny & Myers LLP, while Co-founder and President Gabe Pereyra was a research scientist at Google DeepMind.

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