Harness, the AI Software Delivery Platform company, today announced a $240 million Series E financing round. The financing round is comprised of a $200 million investment led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives and a planned $40 million tender offer with participation from IVP, Menlo Ventures, and Unusual Ventures. This investment values Harness at $5.5 billion and reflects the accelerating demand for a unified, AI-native platform for software delivery.

Socure, the AI-first platform for global identity and risk decisioning, has named Matthew Thompson President and Chief Commercial Officer to partner with Founder and CEO Johnny Ayers to lead the company’s global expansion, commercial, public sector and workforce hypergrowth, and accelerate the building of the industry’s first decacorn.

martini.ai, a leader in AI-driven credit risk analysis, today announced the launch of Voice Typing, the industry’s first voice dictation capability purpose-built for real-time credit analysis. This feature enables credit professionals to speak naturally and receive immediate, data-driven answers on company health, peer benchmarks, and portfolio risk — transforming how analysts interact with complex financial data.

Today, myPOS announced its acquisition of LAVEGO, a Munich-based payments technology company with more than 30 years of experience in payment processing and financial technology solutions. Integrating LAVEGO’s Girocard acceptance into the myPOS ecosystem marks a key step in expanding the myPOS offering and presence in Germany. The move gives German merchants best-in-class payment solutions within a single, unified fintech platform.

ACI Worldwide ,  an original innovator in global payments technology, today announced that LLP Exotic Auto Finance (LLP), a leading automotive leasing company specializing in top-of-the-line luxury and exotic cars, has partnered with ACI Speedpay to drive strategic business growth, increase operational efficiencies and deliver exceptional customer experiences through its modern, intuitive and flexible payment solutions.

Mollie, one of Europe's fastest-growing financial service providers, has signed an agreement to acquire bank payment company GoCardless. The strategic combination creates one provider serving over 350,000 businesses that integrates card payments, local methods, and bank payments into a single solution.  

A payments powerhouse

EBANX, a global technology company specialising in payment services for emerging markets, has extended its operations with Network Tokens to five Latin American countries. The technology replaces the card's sensitive Primary Account Number (PAN) with a secure, dynamic token (DPAN), thereby protecting cardholder data whilst ensuring a smoother payment experience.

HBX Group (HBX.SM), a leading independent B2B travel technology marketplace, and Mastercard have announced the launch of a new virtual payment programme designed to bring greater efficiency, flexibility and security to travel payments worldwide.

Airwallex, a leading global financial platform for modern businesses, today announced it will inject $590 million [£436M] into its UK business across the next five years (2026 to 2030) to drive local and regional growth.

Prediction 1: The Year AI Goes to Work

The first few years of AI experimentation have passed and companies will shift from learning to measuring. Measuring the cost, benefits, and trade-offs associated with adopting innovation early. There is still plenty of room for exploration, but there will be increased pressure for exploitation to achieve positive ROI. 

Prediction 2: The Reckoning of AI Experiment Technical and Operational Debt