Global fintech funding has bounced off the floor, not back to “anything goes”.Â
After slumping to a seven‑year low of about US$95.5 billion in 2024, it rebounded to roughly US$116 billion in 2025 across fewer deals, meaning investors are writing bigger cheques but backing fewer, more credible stories.Â
For US community banks, fintech sponsorship is a bit like going to the gym.Â
Everyone agrees it is good for you, the success stories are everywhere, but most people are still staring at the treadmill from a safe distance.Â
The benefits of a partnership between US community banks and fintechs are immense, with fintechs fast‑tracking US market entry while community banks gain liquidity, new revenue, and an expanded client base, enabling fintechs to be US‑ready in around three months via sponsor‑bank partnerships instead of long licensing.
How the sponsor-bank model offers a faster, fully supervised path to the US market - and why compliance is the price of admission.
For a non-US fintech, the US banking licence process is the regulatory equivalent of dial-up internet: slow, expensive, and completely out of sync with how the rest of your business moves.
As global financial institutions grapple with a staggering $206 billion annual bill for financial crime compliance, a new firm founded by Wall Street veterans has entered the fray, hitting seven-figure revenue in its first year.
Redefining compliance for the digital age. Ravi de Silva, Founder & CEO of de Risk Partners, joins Grafa to unpack cutting edge solutions.
de Risk Partners took the spotlight, sharing an insightful vision for transforming compliance into a strategic engine at the heart of financial services, enabling institutions to adapt quickly, innovate safely, and maintain regulatory confidence in complex markets.
Crypto founders are getting a lifeline as de Risk Partners unveils a new Compliance as a Service platform designed to slash the compliance costs that crush early-stage exchanges.
de Risk Partners has launched a new Compliance-as-a-Service platform for crypto startups, promising 70–85% cost savings by combining agentic AI with fractional compliance leadership.
