The Monday Roundup: what we are watching this week | May 26th

By Puja Sharma

The Monday Roundup sets the scene for the week’s biggest news stories, industry deals, and upcoming events. For Prime subscribers only.

Swift, seamless rollout

With an aim to accelerate the pace of digital transformation across the region, global payments infrastructure provider areeba has signed a strategic partnership with Codebase Technologies, a digital banking solutions firm headquartered in the UAE. The collaboration aims to deliver integrated Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) offerings designed to support banks and FinTechs in launching modern, scalable, and user-centric digital financial products.

By combining areeba’s advanced payments processing infrastructure with Codebase Technologies’ cloud-native Digibanc™ platform, the partnership will enable financial institutions to roll out comprehensive digital banking propositions and card issuance capabilities at speed and with reduced operational complexity.

Acrisure has entered into a definitive agreement to raise $2.1 billion through the issuance of new convertible senior preferred stock, in a round led by Bain Capital. The capital will be used to partially refinance its existing non-convertible preferred stock, support strategic, accretive acquisitions, and accelerate its growth as a tech-enabled financial services platform. The funding underscores Acrisure’s ambition to become a leading fintech solutions provider for small and mid-sized businesses globally.

Greg Williams, Acrisure’s Chairman, CEO, and Co-founder, described the deal as a key milestone that validates the company’s transformation from a traditional insurance brokerage into a technology- and AI-driven financial services powerhouse.

The round includes participation from Bain Capital Special Situations, Fidelity, Apollo Funds, Gallatin Point Capital, BDT & MSD Partners, and others. No existing investor exited the transaction, and BDT & MSD remains the company’s largest minority shareholder through affiliated funds.

Tailored business banking

Vertical banking FinTech Slash has secured $41 million in funding to expand its tailored business banking services. Originally focused on sneaker resellers, Slash pivoted after a major revenue drop—caused by the fallout from Kanye West’s controversy—to serve a broader range of industries. The company now offers customised financial tools for sectors like marketing, crypto, online travel, and property management. Unlike traditional banks and generalist FinTechs, Slash designs industry-specific banking products, addressing unique operational needs.

This funding round, led by Goodwater Partners, NEA, and Menlo Ventures, brings Slash’s valuation to $370 million. The company aims to become the largest commercial card provider in the U.S., building applications for dozens of verticals. Co-founder Victor Cardenas emphasised that most banking solutions are too generic, and Slash’s mission is to solve real problems with bespoke financial services tailored to each industry’s workflow.

KYC Portal CLM has introduced a new Field-Level Audit Trail feature, enhancing compliance teams’ oversight of client data. This functionality enables real-time auditing of individual fields within onboarding and company forms, offering granular visibility into every change. Whether a modification is made by a customer, an employee, or a third-party data source, the system logs it instantly—capturing the date, time, old and new values, and the identity of the user who made the change.

An audit icon next to each field provides quick access to a detailed, chronological history of updates. This added transparency strengthens internal controls, supports regulatory compliance with frameworks like GDPR and FATF, and reduces risk by enabling swift identification and correction of discrepancies.

What is the Buzz

Airwallex, a global payments and financial platform, has raised $300 million in a Series F funding round, valuing the company at $6.2 billion. The funding includes $150 million through secondary share transfers. This round brings the total capital raised by the company to over $1.2 billion.

Square Peg, DST Global, Lone Pine Capital, Blackbird, Airtree, Salesforce Ventures, and several Australian pension funds are among the investors in the round. Visa Ventures has also joined as a strategic investor.

As of March 2025, Airwallex reported annualised revenue of $720 million, reflecting a 90% year-on-year increase, and processed over $130 billion in annualised payment volume. The company grew its customer base by 50% in 2024 and now serves 150,000 businesses worldwide. Airwallex is targeting $1 billion in annual run-rate revenue by the end of 2025.