22 startups to watch in 2025

Investors are exploring a multitude of fintech startups with the expectation that venture capital will bounce back in 2025 along with better macroeconomic conditions.  

While fintech funding this year may not match the $143 billion it reached in 2021, it is forecast to grow marginally higher than 2024, when funding fell 20% year over year to $33.7 billion.  

Easing interest rates and a rebounding IPO environment should give the market much needed liquidity, Benjamin Lawrence, senior lead analyst at CB Insights, said during the company’s “Venture Capital Outlook” webinar recently. 

“It will be interesting to see how this changes in 2025 with the new administration and improving macroeconomic conditions,” Lawrence said. 

Carey Ransom, managing director at Sandy, Utah-based VC firm BankTech Ventures, went further, telling Bank Automation News that 2025 could bring relief for the VC market. 

“The pent-up liquidity in the VC market has been a big, big issue for several years, and I do sense that we are going to get some relief in 2025,” he said. “It’s been a pretty challenging time, and that’s led a lot of the traditional VC investors, the foundations, endowments and others, to pause on making new investments.”

Investor strategy

As capital frees up, investors are hinting at the type of startups that are drawing their attention.  

BAN polled multiple VCs, financial institutions, analysts and industry experts on the fintech startups they are keeping tabs on in 2025, and why.  

Stephanie Foster, managing director of the ThinkTECH Accelerator at the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), said that when considering startup investments, her team asks: What are the problems that are keeping [our bankers] up at night?  

Bankers, according to ICBA, are looking at startups that offer: 

• Conversational AI; 

• Commercial lending; 

• Fraud prevention; 

• Vendor management;  

• Integration; and  

• Digital banking. 

BankTech Ventures’ Ransom agreed, noting that the firm’s bank clients are mainly looking for efficiency, which has pushed the firm to invest in robotic process automation and agentic AI.  

“Our job is to identify (startups) building real solutions to real problems to make banks better,” he said. 

The fintechs to watch

According to ICBA, BankTech Ventures, CB Insights, Y Combinator, Mastercard and others, the following fintech startups are ones to watch in 2025 for the solutions of the future for the financial services industry. 

1. 4Crisk.ai: The company provides advanced AI, predictive analytics and compliance services to financial services organizations.

Founded: 2019

Funds raised: $8 million

Major investors: Cloud Apps Capital Partners and Touchdown Ventures

2. Adept AI: This company is a machine learning research and product lab that builds general AI.

Founded: 2022

Funds raised: $415 million

Major investors: General Catalyst and Greylock Capital

3. Agentive: The AI-driven company helps accountants in audit testing, data extraction and documentation.

Founded: 2023

Funds raised: Unknown

Major investors: Y Combinator and Botware Ventures

4. Archetype AI: The AI-driven company helps create custom models to drive efficiencies within an organization.

Founded: 2023

Funds raised: $13 million

Major investors: Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs and Venrock

5. Bricklayer.ai: The Arlington, Va.-based company provides AI-driven autonomous agents for cyber security.

Founded: 2023

Funds raised: $2.5 million

Major investors: Dreamit Ventures and Virginia Venture Partners

6. Care.ai: The Orlando, Fla.-based company is an AI-powered ambient monitoring platform that delivers real-time behavior data for clinical and operational insights.

Founded: 2018

Funds raised: $27 million

Major investor: Crescent Cove Advisors

7. Cascading AI: The AI-driven company provides underwriting and loan origination systems for FIs.

Founded: 2023

Funds raised: $3.9 million

Major investors: Peterson Ventures and Y Combinator

8. Covariant: The Emeryville, Calif.-based company is an AI robotics company that develops AI that enables robots to see, reason and act on the world around them.

Founded: 2017

Funds raised: $222 million

Major investors: Amplify Partners and Index Ventures

9. Dropzone AI: The Seattle-based company provides autonomous AI security agents that work alongside human analysts on security operations.

Founded: 2023

Funds raised: $20 million

Major investors: Theory Ventures and Decible Partners

10. Flagright: The Berlin-based company uses AI to provide AML compliance to financial services companies.

Founded: 2021

Funding raised: $2.8 million

Major investor: Moonfire Ventures

11. FlowFi: The AI-driven company provides accounting services to businesses and FIs.

Founded: 2020

Funds raised: $9 million

Major investors: Blumberg Capital and Parade Ventures

12. Knot: The New York-based company provides B2B payments services.

Founded: 2019

Funds raised: $13 million

Major investors: Nava Ventures and Giant Ventures

13. Greenomy: The Brussels-based company uses AI software to provide sustainability reporting to businesses and financial institutions.

Funds raised: $14 million

Major investors: Eurocelator and Global Fintech Hackcelerator

14. Gynger: The AI-driven payments platform provides embedded payments technology and working capital to businesses.

Funds raised: $141 million

Major investors: Upper90 and PayPal Ventures

15. H: The Paris-based company provides agentic AI to financial services and businesses to automate processes and improve efficiency.

Founded: 2023

Funds raised: $220 million

Major investors: Aglae Ventures and Motier Ventures

16. Hawk AI: The Munich-based company develops AI-driven anti-money laundering and fraud detection tools for financial institutions.

Founded: 2018

Funds raised: $134 million

Major investors: Macquarie Capital and Rabo Investments

17. Imbue: The company trains foundational models to develop AI agents.

Founded: 2021

Funds raised: $232 million

Major investor: Astera Institute

18. Maven AGI: The gen AI company provides tools to improve customer interaction with companies.

Founded: 2023

Funds raised: $28 million

Major investors: Google and Stripe

19. Norm AI: The New York-based company provides AI-powered regulatory compliance chatbots for the financial services and legal industries.

Funds raised: $38 million

Major investors: Citi Ventures and Bain Capital

20. Posh AI: The Boston-based company developed a conversational AI platform for the banking industry.

Founded: 2018

Funds raised: $72 million

Major investors: Canapi Ventures and Curlq

21. Powder: The Los Altos, Calif.-based creates generative AI agents to automate laborious tasks. Use cases include summarizing meeting notes and document analysis.

Founded: 2023

Funds raised: $5.5 million

Major investors: Y Combinator and Elefund

22. Sierra: An AI-driven company that provides enterprise AI solutions to financial services companies.

Founded: 2023

Funds raised: $285 million

Major investors: Benchmark Capital and Sequoia Capital

Register here for Bank Automation Summit 2025, taking place March 3-4 in Nashville, Tenn. View the full event agenda here.