April 27, 2026 @ 3:27 am By Tony Zerucha  |  

This week, Lise (Lightning Stock Exchange) announced the successful closing of what it claimed is the world’s first IPO executed on a fully regulated, natively tokenized market infrastructure. As the first exchange in history to achieve this, Lise demonstrates that DLT-native equity offerings can meet… Read More

April 27, 2026 @ 2:25 am By Tony Zerucha  |  

DOJO AI, an AI marketing system, this week announced a $6 million seed round at a $30 million valuation. The round was led by Armilar, with participation from Heartfelt VC. The funding will support continued product development and accelerated expansion in the United States. DOJO… Read More

April 26, 2026 @ 10:21 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

OS and AI technology company Banma Intelligence and Alipay this week launched a new AI cockpit solution integrating Alipay AI Pay, enabling drivers to complete purchases by voice command directly from their vehicle. “In the past two years, smart cockpits have achieved rapid advances in… Read More

April 26, 2026 @ 12:33 am By Tony Zerucha  |  

This week, Prove launched the Prove Identity Platform, a unified platform that transforms identity from a one-time verification event into a persistent foundation of trust, built for a world where people, businesses, and AI agents must all be verified and trusted in real time. AI… Read More

April 24, 2026 @ 5:26 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

This week’s Web3 Thoughts of the Week tackles DoorDash and stablecoins, spot Bitcoin ETFs, and DeFi’s tattered image. DoorDash stablecoin use “It hasn’t ever been about DoorDash adopting crypto. It’s about the fact that money is finally starting to behave like the Internet. “Stablecoins are… Read More

April 24, 2026 @ 2:17 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

Derivative Path, a derivatives and risk management platform serving financial institutions, is collaborating with Baton Systems, a real-time risk, liquidity, collateral and settlement orchestration platform, to deliver a fully integrated FX payments and nostro management solution for regional and mid-market financial institutions. Many regional and… Read More

April 22, 2026 @ 1:07 am By Tony Zerucha  |  

OpenGradient, the compute layer for verifiable AI, this week announced $9.5 million in total funding to scale its network for open, auditable model execution. Major investors include a16z crypto, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, SV Angel, Foresight Ventures, Pragma, SALT, Symbolic Capital, Canonical Crypto, Black… Read More

April 22, 2026 @ 12:08 am By Tony Zerucha  |  

Slash Financial is now valued at $1.4 billion following a $100m Series C funding round led by Ribbit Capital. New investor Khosla Ventures and Goodwater Capital, who led Slash’s Series B 16 months ago, co-led the round. New Enterprise Associates and Y Combinator also participated… Read More

April 21, 2026 @ 8:00 am By Tony Zerucha  |  

NeoCurrency, a provider of digital rewards, incentives and payout solutions, is expanding its U.S. cash-like payment options to include Cash App and ACH Deposits. Cash App is an increasingly popular mobile payment platform with over 50 million monthly users in 2026. Automatic deposits to personal… Read More

April 20, 2026 @ 9:11 am By Tony Zerucha  |  

Geopolitics has Web3 thinking about Bitcoin and ETH price movements this week. Strait of Hormuz blockade effects “Bitcoin is becoming one of the most accurate barometers of geopolitical shocks when markets are closed. This weekend, BTC went on a rollercoaster ride as hopes for US-Iran… Read More

April 20, 2026 @ 8:12 am By Tony Zerucha  |  

Gr4vy, the cloud-native payment orchestration platform, is now fully ready to support agentic payment transactions through its orchestration layer, allowing merchants to manage and process transactions within AI-driven environments. In addition, Gr4vy is launching its Agentic Development Kit (ADK), designed to equip and guide merchants… Read More

April 20, 2026 @ 1:18 am By Tony Zerucha  |  

Polymath, a provider of institutional-grade digital asset infrastructure, is working with Africa123, a pan-African land and infrastructure platform, to explore the tokenization of large-scale land assets across Africa. Africa123 controls a strategic landbank exceeding 400 million square meters across multiple jurisdictions, with a 25-year pipeline… Read More

April 20, 2026 @ 1:03 am By Tony Zerucha  |  

Paxos Labs, the financial utility stack for digital assets incubated within Paxos, has closed a $12 million strategic funding round, led by Blockchain Capital, an early investor in Paxos, with participation from Robot Ventures, Maelstrom and Uniswap. Paxos Labs provides platforms the tools to turn… Read More

April 19, 2026 @ 8:55 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

payabl. has launched Click to Pay with Visa, a card payment experience to help merchants reduce checkout friction, improve authorisation rates, and deliver a faster, more secure online payment journey. Click to Pay replaces manual card number entry with a token-based checkout experience. Once a… Read More

April 19, 2026 @ 7:43 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

Payward, a unified financial infrastructure platform, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Bitnomial, a CFTC-licensed derivatives company in the United States built for digital assets, for up to $550 million payable in cash and stock, in a transaction that values Payward’s equity at… Read More

April 19, 2026 @ 9:40 am By Tony Zerucha  |  

DataSnipper, an agentic automation platform for audit and finance teams, is partnering with Armanino, a top 20 U.S. accounting and consulting firm, to accelerate the adoption of AI across internal audit and risk functions. As internal audit and risk teams expand coverage and face growing… Read More

April 19, 2026 @ 2:31 am By Tony Zerucha  |  

This week, Vertafore introduced its Velocity AI Platform and six AI agents for everyday insurance workflows. The Vertafore Velocity AI Platform Purpose-built for insurance, Velocity AI brings artificial intelligence directly into the core systems agencies, MGAs and carriers already use. The platform serves as the… Read More

April 18, 2026 @ 6:20 am By Tony Zerucha  |  

Neato, a 2P e-commerce accelerator that partners with consumer brands as their exclusive online retailer, has raised $25 million in growth capital led by Advantage Capital, allowing the company to expand its online retail partnership model. The investment will support the launch of two new… Read More

April 17, 2026 @ 6:26 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

Zenskar, an AI-native billing and revenue automation platform, this week announced a $15 million Series A led by Susquehanna Venture Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Shine Capital and Rho, with participation from Rocketship, J-Ventures, Future Back Ventures by Bain & Company, and Converge. The funding will… Read More

April 17, 2026 @ 5:30 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

Artemis, an AI-native protection platform that delivers real-time detection and automated response, emerged from stealth this week with $70 million in combined seed and Series A funding, six months after founding. The Series A was led by Felicis with First Round Capital and Brightmind returning… Read More