Published:
Aug 09, 2025
Author:
Sarah Parsons Wolter
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The AI press has been obsessing over GPT-5’s new tricks, but what caught our eye was OpenAI’s spree of open-source releases. Officially, it’s about brand clarity, helping enterprises launch on-prem, and setting an “OpenAI standard” in the open-source world. Unofficially? It looks a lot like a market-shaping move! Dropping top-tier models, wrapped in OpenAI’s trust-and-safety armour, to leave rivals with less room to stand out or get paid. It’s hard to sell tickets to a footie match when the stadium’s letting everyone in for free.
For China’s AI ecosystem, which has been leading the open-source race by sheer volume, that could mean fewer global users, shrinking revenues, and less feedback to sharpen their models. In an era when AI is as much a geopolitical lever as an economic driver, that’s a calculated swing for the fences.
The fintech parallel now involves domain-specific AI agents embedded in workflows and teams such as fraud detection, compliance, and treasury optimisation, agents that learn quickly and adapt weekly, not yearly. With AI startups like Lovable hitting $100m in ARR in just eight months, incumbents and well-funded scale-ups may struggle to hire humans fast enough to keep pace. Instead, will they skip the humans entirely, deploy agents at scale (even give them away if they must), and keep monetization anchored in the hard-to-replicate parts of the stack: regulatory licenses, payment rails, and proprietary data.
Whether in AI or fintech, a “free” product is rarely an act of generosity. More often, it’s a way to set the rules, starve rivals, and own the profit-rich layers beneath. With the English Premier League kicking off next week, it’s like a “free agent”, say, Trent Alexander-Arnold, whose transfer fee for Real Madrid might be close to zero, but where the tactics, the league positioning, sponsorships, and the TV rights are where the real “wonga” is made.
Portfolio News
Monato secures $13m Seed funding to power a new era of financial infrastructure in Mexico - Mexican fintech Monato has announced a $13m Seed funding round led by Monashees and FinTech Collective, with participation from IGNIA Partners, Clocktower Ventures, Polymath Ventures, Angel Ventures, Kuiper, NOA Capital and prominent angel investors including Jesus Lanza Losa (Lottus, Mattilda), Eric Rosenthal (Rapyd), Fernando Casares (CxC), and Itai Damti (Unit). Read more
Octane closes $300m forward-flow deal with Moore Capital Management - The transaction – Octane's fourth forward-flow agreement to date – brings the Company's total value of forward-flow commitments signed in the past year to more than $2b. Octane has sold or entered into commitments to sell more than $2.8b since its first whole loan sale in December 2023. Read more
Carlos Alonso Torras featured in Startups Brazil - In an interview with Startups, Carlos Alonso Torras shared FinTech Collective’s plans to deepen its presence in Brazil, backing Seed and Series A startups with checks of up to $10m. After leading Tivita’s $6m seed round last year, the firm is actively seeking niche fintech opportunities in Latin America’s largest market. Read more
There’s No Such Thing as a Free Agent
OpenAI introduces gpt-oss - OpenAI released gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b - two state-of-the-art open-weight language models that were trained using a mix of reinforcement learning and techniques informed by OpenAI’s most advanced internal models, including o3 and other frontier systems. Read more
China is quickly eroding America’s lead in the global AI race - In Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, users ranging from multinational banks to public universities are turning to large language models from Chinese companies such as startup DeepSeek and e-commerce giant Alibaba as alternatives to American offerings such as ChatGPT. Read more
Industry News
Wall Street’s transition to faster trading is paying off for credit - A key measure of corporate bond trading costs is down 12% more than a year after the US adopted one-day settlement, according to Barclays Research. Margin requirements have dropped 29%, which is capital that can now be put back to work, and there are signs that those savings have boosted credit market liquidity. Read more
A generation is turning to ‘buy now, pay later’ for botox and concert tickets - The ease of approvals, which come in minutes after credit checks designed not to affect a borrower’s credit score, have appealed to borrowers and helped fuel growth. The availability of the new loan opportunity has led shoppers to buy things they might have otherwise avoided, according to a recent study from the National Bureau of Economic Research. Read more
Private-asset boom cools as hedge funds, crypto nab new billions - Hedge funds are seeing their biggest inflows in a decade, with investors allocating about $25 billion to hedge funds in the second quarter, and crypto is pulling in new waves of family office cash and institutional capital. Read more
JPMorgan’s asset management arm targets Europe retail investors in active ETF tie-up - JPM's asset management arm is partnering with Dutch online broker Bux, to provide elements of discretionary fund management services traditionally reserved for high-net-worth individuals. While active ETFs in the US are often bought directly by retail investors, distribution in Europe is dominated by banks and wealth managers. Read more
10 years that changed European VC: trends, sectors, and the road ahead - The latest Invest Europe report highlights a major leap: €143b invested in more than 26,000 startups, a million new jobs, and a new sense of optimism about homegrown innovation. Read more
Figure plans IPO for blockchain-based lending platform - The company, which employs blockchain technology for home loans and offers cryptocurrency-backed loans, announced Monday that it had filed confidentially for an initial public offering with the SEC. The company’s new IPO plans are happening amid a rebound in digital asset lending. Read more
dLocal debuts solution for recurring Pix payments - dLocal launched SmartPix, a tokenized Pix-based solution that enables Brazilian merchants to process recurring and on-demand payments without requiring customers to manually authorize each transaction. With Pix now processing +6b monthly transactions and surpassing debit and credit card volumes, SmartPix offers a frictionless way for merchants to tap into Brazil’s rapidly scaling real-time payments ecosystem. Read more
UK crypto investors hail regulatory changes as ‘pivotal moment’ - The Financial Conduct Authority’s decision to lift the ban on offering crypto exchange traded products to retail investors has even been likened to the modernising “Big Bang” reforms of the 1980s. Read more
Inside the AI race: Can data centres ever truly be green? - Energy demand for training machines and running apps is driving a surge of investment into fossil fuels. Data centres’ climate problem goes well beyond new gas infrastructure. Just as relevant is the added pressure on existing electricity grids still in large part powered by coal, oil and gas. Read more
Trump to sign order easing path for private assets in 401(k)s - The order will direct the Labor Department to reevaluate guidance around alternative asset investments in retirement plans and clarify the government's position on fiduciary responsibilities. The initiative aims to offer savers more investment options and greater potential upside, but also comes with greater risk and higher fees that may leave retirement plan administrators vulnerable to lawsuits. Read more
China tests out stablecoins amid fears of capital outflows - China plans to launch its first stablecoins in a bid to internationalize the renminbi and compete against the dollar, but concerns about capital flight are slowing the technology’s growth in the country. Read more
Developer of crypto mixer Tornado Cash found guilty on one criminal charge - Roman Storm, co-founder of the crypto mixer Tornado Cash, was convicted on one charge in a landmark case that tested the legal limits of open-source crypto software. Read more
The fate of a little-known company behind Goldman’s Apple Card is in limbo - A fun WSJ profile of Leland Strange, the 84-year-old Waffle House regular behind CoreCard, the obscure tech platform powering Apple Card, now facing existential risk as Chase circles Goldman’s role as the card issuer. Read more
eToro leverages AI to redefine social investing - eToro is launching a suite of AI-tools that will transform social investing by creating a community-built marketplace for investing built on top of eToro’s new public API. This marks a significant leap forward in the democratization of investing, arming retail traders and investors with sophisticated, AI powered capabilities previously only accessible to quantitative hedge funds. Read more
Private credit fuels a ‘buy now, pay later’ lending boom in Asia - The booming $1.7t private credit industry has filled the BNPL gap. These lenders, which make loans outside both traditional banking and the world of publicly traded bonds, initially catered primarily to small and medium-size companies but have been expanding into consumer finance. Read more
Cryptocurrency group Ripple buys stablecoin platform in $200m deal - Ripple has agreed to acquire Rail, a stablecoin infrastructure company, in a move that will bolster Ripple’s stablecoin ambitions and follows the passing of landmark US rules for the stablecoin market. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year. Read more
Select Financings
Blue J - Toronto based generative AI tax research platform raised $122m in Series D funding led by Oak HC/FT. Read more
Clay - New York based sales automation startup raised $100m in Series C funding led by CapitalG. Read more
Grasshopper - New York based digital bank services company raised $46.6m in growth funding led by Patriot Financial Partners. Read more
Lyric - California based AI powered supply chain platform raised $43.5m in Series B funding led by Insight Partners. Read more
NG.CASH - São Paulo based digital bank raised $26.5m in Series B funding led by New Enterprise Associates. Read more
OLarry - California based AI powered tax firm raised $10m in Series A funding led by TTV Capital. Read more
Pantomath - Ohio based data operations platform raised $30m in Series B funding led by General Catalyst. Read more
QuamCore - Israel based quantum computing company raised $26m in Series A funding led by Sentinel Global. Read more
Resolvd AI - New York based reconciliation automation company raised $1.6m in pre-Seed funding led by Spice Capital. Read more
Rillet - New York City based enterprise resource planning company raised $70m in Series B funding led by a16z. Read more
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