Lakestar vs redalpine

Yapily CEO Prefers Sidelines amid Open Banking Consolidation

Yapily, a UK-based open banking infrastructure startup backed by Lakestar, reported improved financials for 2025, with turnover rising from £6.7m to £16.7m and a swing from a £16.2m loss to a £355,000 profit. CEO Stefano Vaccino attributes growth to a lean operation and increased revenue from existing customers including Revolut, Intuit, Adyen, and Google. The company, profitable since 2025, last raised a $51m Series B in 2021 led by Sapphire Ventures. Amid expected consolidation in the open banking sector, Vaccino stated a preference to remain on the sidelines and focus on organic growth. He highlighted upcoming catalysts such as Commercial Variable Recurring Payments (CVRPs) and the EU's Financial Data Access (FiDA) framework, while noting recent acquisitions like Paypoint's purchase of obconnect and TrueLayer's acquisitions of in3 and Zimpler.

• Yapily increased 2025 turnover from £6.7m to £16.7m and swung from a £16.2m loss to a £355,000 profit.
• Yapily is profitable since 2025 and has not raised funding since its $51m Series B in 2021.
• Yapily customers include Revolut, Intuit, Adyen, and Google.

Modulate raises $25M for voice intelligence platform

Boston-based voice intelligence startup Modulate has raised $25 million in new funding. The round was led by Future Ventures, with participation from Hyperplane and Lakestar. Modulate uses over 100 small models to offer enterprises transcription, emotional analysis, deepfake and AI music detection, and policy enforcement for voice agents in regulated industries. The company was founded in 2017 by Mike Pappas and Carter Huffman, initially focusing on voice modulation for gaming, before pivoting to voice-based moderation and now AI audio detection and intent analysis. With the funding, Modulate plans to expand its on-premises and on-device deployment capabilities for increased privacy and hire around 10 additional employees to bolster model building. The startup currently has 40-45 employees.

• Modulate raised $25 million in new funding
• The round was led by Future Ventures with participation from Hyperplane and Lakestar
• Modulate operates more than 100 models for voice analysis and detection

ZBD unveils embedded financial platform for games

ZBD (Zebedee) revealed a platform of embedded financial infrastructure for video games, including products named Embedded Accounts, Embedded Payouts, Embedded Rewards and Branded Debit Cards. The offering is designed to support money flowing into games, through player economies, and back out to players and creators — enabling deposits, real-money peer-to-peer marketplaces, creator-economies, compliant cash-outs, and payouts via bank accounts, Cash App, gift cards and push-to-card. ZBD said it has raised $90 million from investors including RAINE, Square Enix and Lakestar, and is a licensed payment provider across most US states and the EEA. Gordon Thornton, ZBD chief commercial officer, framed the move as enabling two-way financial relationships between players and publishers.

• ZBD revealed an embedded financial infrastructure platform for games with multiple products.
• Products announced include Embedded Accounts, Embedded Payouts, Embedded Rewards and Branded Debit Cards.
• Embedded Accounts supports direct deposits, real-money P2P marketplaces, creator economies and compliant cash-outs.

Calliora raises $6M for AI hospital billing accuracy

Munich-based startup calliora has raised $6 million (approx. €5.1 million) in a pre-seed round led by Bertelsmann Healthcare Investments (BHI) and Swiss VC redalpine. The company's AI platform helps hospitals find billing errors before invoices are sent to health insurers. This comes as German hospitals face stricter audit quotas from 2027 under the GKV contribution rate stabilization law, where high error rates could lead to 100% of invoices being audited. The platform integrates with existing hospital systems, covering coding, case review, MD audit management, and controlling. According to calliora, the platform is already in regular operation in hospitals across five German states, reducing per-case workload by over half and closing more than 90% of identified gaps before billing. The funds will be used to grow the AI, engineering, and product teams. The startup was founded in 2023 by Frederik Träuble and Jonas Wildberger.

• calliora raised $6 million (€5.1 million) in a pre-seed round led by Bertelsmann Healthcare Investments and redalpine.
• The startup's AI platform detects billing errors in hospitals before invoices are sent to insurers.
• From 2027, German hospitals face higher audit quotas up to 100% under the GKV contribution rate stabilization law.

A market that punishes narrative and rewards fundamentals: our current market view

Redalpine published a new market view article on September 29, 2026, discussing the current market dynamics.

Arlequin AI Raises €28M for Topological Neural Networks

Arlequin AI, a Paris-based company, has raised €28 million in Series A funding to accelerate the development of its topological neural network architecture and expand international deployment. The round was co-led by redalpine and OTB Ventures, with participation from Bpifrance's Defence Innovation Fund, existing investors Vsquared Ventures, 10x Founders, and Xavier Niel. Founded in 2024 by Hugo Micheron and Antoine Jardin, Arlequin develops AI systems for analyzing large, fragmented datasets used in security, defense, fraud detection, and AI safety. The company's topological neural network architecture captures complex interactions between data points, requiring less compute than traditional large-scale AI. The funding will support team expansion, model development, and opening offices in London, Berlin, and a planned AI lab in Silicon Valley.

• Arlequin AI raised €28 million in Series A funding.
• The round was co-led by redalpine and OTB Ventures.
• Bpifrance's Defence Innovation Fund participated in the round.