Coinbase plans to launch a “crypto operating account” for startups and small businesses later this year. The Coinbase Business platform will let these users send and receive payments, manage crypto assets and automate financial workflows. The company invited businesses to sign up on a waitlist for early access to the Coinbase Business alpha. Crypto and stablecoins offer “fast, global and low-cost money movement” that solves problems commonly faced by startups and small businesses, such as paying global talent; dealing with credit card fees, interest rates and chargebacks; and facing long settlement cycles. It’s why one in five small- and medium-sized businesses familiar with stablecoins already use them to streamline their operations. Coinbase Business will allow users to accept customer payments in crypto; pay vendors, employees and partners; trade and manage crypto; and earn rewards on their USDC stablecoins. The platform will also provide streamlined accounting reconciliation into platforms like QuickBooks and Xero.
Adflex’s straight-through processing tech to enable Coupa to fully automate the B2B spend management process by enabling virtual card numbers to be read automatically from within emails
Coupa has integrated Adflex’s straight-through processing service, Adflex STP, into its total spend management platform, saying this will fully automate the B2B payment process for Coupa customers and their suppliers. The Adflex STP service and virtual card reader technology enable virtual card numbers to be read automatically from within emails, allowing transactions to be processed without manual entry. This collaboration will simplify supplier acceptance and process integration, enabling suppliers to scale virtual card programs effectively, Bill Wardwell, senior vice president and general manager, Coupa Pay and Treasury, said. This new service is exclusively available through Coupa and Adflex partner Barclaycard Payments in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. Adflex also offers its automated virtual card payments service to all card issuers and their corporate clients. “Adflex STP levels the playing field of digital B2B payments by delivering the benefits of prompt, secure and pain-free transactions to both buyer and supplier,” Andy Downman, commercial director at Adflex, said.
Startup AuthZed ‘s open-source permissions system can scale to trillions of access control lists and millions of authorization checks per second to support RAG and agentic AI systems with real-time permissioning
Permissions management startup AuthZed announced new support for retrieval-augmented generation and agentic artificial intelligence systems, expanding its authorization infrastructure to address security challenges in enterprise AI. The expanded support is designed to give engineering teams the tools they need to ensure that AI systems respect permissions, prevent data leaks and maintain complete audit trails. AuthZed uses its open-source permissions system, SpiceDB, to support RAG and agentic AI. SpiceDB, based on Google’s internal permission system, Zanzibar, was built for scale and complexity and can scale to trillions of access control lists and millions of authorization checks per second. AuthZed says that supporting AI is a natural evolution for the system. AuthZed ensures that only authorized data is retrieved, embedded and displayed to users throughout the RAG process. Using AuthZed, teams can enforce access control by filtering documents before embedding them, post-filtering vector search results to exclude restricted content, and synchronizing permissions in real time with platforms such as Google Workspace and SharePoint. The controls allow organizations to build secure, high-performance RAG systems that minimize the risk of data leaks. On the agentic AI front, AuthZed’s Agentic AI Authorization Model is designed to manage what agents can do by aligning their capabilities with the permissions of the users they act on behalf of.
Klarna allows callers to provide feedback and suggestions about its products to “AI-Sebastian,” who has been trained using the real CEO’s voice, personal insights and experiences
Klarna has introduced an AI-powered hotline, enabling customers to engage directly with a digital version of CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski for product feedback. This initiative places technology at the centre of customer communication, enabling a more streamlined and efficient feedback process.This innovative approach allows callers to provide feedback and suggestions about Klarna’s products to “AI-Sebastian,” who has been trained using the real CEO’s voice, personal insights and experiences. The deployment of this technology aims to transform the way customer input is gathered and integrated into product development. The new service is initially rolling out in Sweden and the US. By leveraging advanced AI, Klarna’s customers can now submit ideas, ask questions and provide feedback simply through a regular phone call. This eliminates the need for traditional, often cumbersome methods of data collection. Each conversation is analysed and transcribed in real time using AI. This ensures that all customer interactions are captured and processed efficiently, providing immediate insights into customer sentiments and requirements. Upon completion of a call, the technology generates a summary which is immediately forwarded to an internal information flow, where it is assigned to Klarna’s product and development teams. This rapid dissemination of information ensures that relevant departments can quickly address customer feedback. Customer feedback, depending on the nature of the issue or suggestion, can lead to tangible product improvements within 24 hours. This rapid response capability highlights the agility and responsiveness enabled by integrating AI into the customer feedback loop. Klarna seeks to challenge conventional standards by offering customers a faster and more interactive way to contribute to the improvement of its products and services. The AI-driven hotline is designed to overcome the limitations of traditional feedback methods, ensuring a more engaging and insightful customer experience. The introduction of the direct line to “AI-Sebastian” builds on Klarna’s ongoing efforts to leverage AI for increased efficiency and improved customer experience. Klarna’s AI chatbot now handles two-thirds of all chats, representing over 1.3 million customer cases each month, and the work of 800 full-time employees. Simultaneously, the average handling time has decreased from 12 minutes to under two, while maintaining customer satisfaction. The company has recently replaced over 1,200 external SaaS solutions with a proprietary technical infrastructure. By implementing AI throughout the organisation, revenue per employee has increased by 152%, approaching $1m per employee per year.
Autobook integrates Fundbox’s embedded capital infrastructure tech into its platform to enable small business owners to apply for and access funds without ever leaving their banking app
Autobook has launched Autobooks Capital, powered by Fundbox, the embedded capital infrastructure for small businesses. This new offering adds fast, flexible funding directly within the Autobooks platform—no redirects, no extra accounts—just seamless access to capital where businesses already manage their finances. By layering in embedded capital infrastructure from Fundbox, financial institutions can offer small businesses a seamless way to access working capital, right when and where it’s needed. Because Autobooks Capital is embedded directly within digital banking, small business owners can apply for and access funds without ever leaving their banking app. This direct-to-account experience simplifies cash flow management and reinforces the financial institution’s position as the primary operating hub for small businesses. Fully integrated into the Autobooks platform, Autobooks Capital offers fast underwriting, competitive rates, and flexible repayment options—allowing businesses to apply for and receive funding without ever leaving the platform. Whether it’s restocking inventory, expanding operations, or navigating cash flow challenges, capital is now just a few clicks away. Autobooks Capital compliments traditional lending programs by giving business owners convenient access to short-term working capital for everyday needs. This enables financial institutions to better retain primacy of the customer relationship and compete more effectively with online lending providers — delivering modern capital access without pushing business customers to third-party platforms.
Applicant trust platform Snappt offers automated, reliable verification of an applicant’s rent payment history delivering 25x more coverage than credit bureaus and over 80% verification success
Snappt, a leading platform for applicant trust in multifamily housing, has announced the addition of Verification of Rent (VOR) powered by Trigo. The platform also includes enhanced Verification of Assets (VOA) and bank account linking, supported by a new partnership with Mastercard’s open banking platform, Finicity. VOR enables property managers to automatically and accurately verify applicant rental payment history, eliminating the need for manual outreach to landlords. With less than 5% of rental history available through traditional credit reporting, VOR delivers 25x more coverage than credit bureaus and achieves over 80% verification success. Key features of Snappt’s Applicant Trust Platform: Verification of Rent (VOR): Automated, reliable verification of an applicant’s rent payment history. Bank Account Linking: Reduce friction for applicants by offering the option of instant verification and speed up application processing. Verification of Assets (VOA): Approve creditworthy applicants with significant assets who may not meet traditional income requirements, directly improving occupancy rates and NOI. Industry-Leading Fraud Detection: Snappt’s proven AI-driven detection technology and fraud forensics team have analyzed over 13 million documents, ensuring accurate results. Connected Payroll: Direct integration with 90% of US payroll providers instantly verifies income and employment status in real-time. ID Verification: Best-in-class biometric technology, complete with 30+ checks on an ID and the ability to scan 4,600+ global ID types.
Postman’s platform improves API discoverability by enabling any public API on its network of over 100,000 public APIs to be turned into an MCP server, with a verified domain, auth controls and good documentation
API discoverability has always been important, but it’s becoming increasingly more important as AI agents become more prevalent, says Abhinav Asthana, CEO and co-founder of Postman. Sterling Chin, senior developer advocate at Postman, said that the industry needs to get to a point where an API is so easy to digest that it’s just like building with LEGO. Postman launched a network for verified MCP servers. “We basically took all the remote MCP servers available, verified them, and put them on the public network because everybody’s gonna need a verified place soon.” Postman also released an update to its platform that enables any public API on its network of over 100,000 public APIs to be turned into an MCP server, making it more important than ever that API developers ensure their APIs are discoverable by the people that will want to use them. Chin said that what is typically seen of APIs is only the tip of the iceberg. “We only see the top maybe 10 percent. Those are the external APIs that get all the hype. The majority of services are internal to us, and those are the ones that when MCP starts to really take off, those are the APIs that are going to blow everyone away.” Allen Helton, ecosystem engineer at Momento, maker of reliability solutions and a customer of Postman, told that the most important benefit they get out of Postman is that it allows their APIs to be easily discovered by developers. Another recommendation is to make sure your public profile is filled out. The public profile includes everything an API publisher owns, including workspaces, collections, and API specs. He advises everyone to have a profile picture and links to their social media and website on that page. Getting verified by Postman will also help, as verified publishers get a badge that essentially proves that you’re the domain owner, increasing confidence among API consumers. Postman’s requirements for getting verified include things like having a verified domain, setting up authentication for public APIs, and having good documentation.
iOS 26 update allows users to deploy Visual Intelligence on anything on their iPhone’s screen, without requiring them to point the iPhone camera at anything
Apple has made the smallest update to Visual Intelligence in iOS 26, and yet the impact of being able to use it on any image is huge, and at least doubles the usefulness of this one feature. Visual Intelligence involved pointing your iPhone camera at whatever you were interested in. What Apple has done with iOS 26 is take that step away. Everything else is the same, but you no longer have to use your camera. You can instead deploy Visual Intelligence on anything on your iPhone’s screen. This one thing means that researchers can find out more about objects they see on websites. And shoppers can freeze frame a YouTube video and use Visual Intelligence to track down the bag that influencer is wearing. There is an issue that this means there are now two different ways to use Visual Intelligence, and they involve you having to do two different things to start them. The new version is an extra part of Visual Intelligence, not a replacement. Visual Intelligence is replete with different ways to use it, one of which provides a very different service to the rest. Yet being able to identify just about anything on your screen is a huge boon. And consequently Apple increased the usefulness of Visual Intelligence just by not requiring the step where you point your iPhone camera at anything.
1Password’s secrets syncing integration with AWS allows organizations to consolidate secrets management and embed secure credential handling directly into AI development workflows and CI pipelines
1Password announced a strategic collaboration agreement with AWS that puts the firm in position to capitalize on surging enterprise demand for security tools designed for AI and cloud-native environments. Monica Jain, 1Password’s head of go-to-market partnerships, told that the AWS collaboration has delivered explosive growth over the past 18 months. Contracts sold through AWS average four times larger than typical deals, with win rates exceeding 50 percent across all customer segments from small businesses to large enterprises. As part of the expanded partnership, 1Password introduced a new secrets syncing integration with AWS Secrets Manager. The integration allows organizations to consolidate secrets management, enforce role-based access controls, and embed secure credential handling directly into development workflows including command-line interfaces, continuous integration pipelines, and AI-powered automation. The technical integration addresses a critical pain point for developers who traditionally have struggled to manage secrets securely without slowing down development velocity. By embedding secure access directly into existing workflows, the platform eliminates the trade-off between security and productivity that has plagued many organizations. 1Password now secures more than 165,000 businesses and millions of consumers, with 75 percent of revenue coming from business customers compared to just 25 percent from consumers — a dramatic shift from the company’s consumer origins. The AWS partnership accelerates 1Password’s evolution from a password manager into what the company calls an Extended Access Management platform. This new category addresses security gaps that traditional identity and access management, identity governance and administration, and mobile device management tools cannot reach.
NuBank’s feature for paying recurring bills lets users search upcoming bills and choose between automated and approval-based payment while receiving alerts and simple one-click approvals directly in-app
Nubank announces the launch of Automated Pix, a new option to pay recurring bills with convenience and security. The new feature will be accompanied by the ‘Search Upcoming Bills’ feature, which will give customers complete freedom to choose how and when to pay – whether fully automatically or in a facilitated manner, with alerts and simple one-click approvals directly in the app. The “Search Upcoming Bills” feature is ideal for customers who prefer to review their bills before each payment, helping them maintain financial control throughout the month with autonomy. The tool notifies customers about bills that follow the recurring billing model. With Automated Pix, customers can easily set up payments for recurring bills using Pix. The security of Automated Pix follows the high standards already adopted by Nubank for other Pix features, including confirmation via PIN for each manually authorized payment, real-time fraud and suspicious key alerts, Street Mode (Modo Rua), which limits transactions outside secure networks, daily Pix limits controls and a “trusted contacts list” that can be set up. The billing company will provide a QR Code or the option to copy and paste the Pix key for payment. By scanning the code or pasting the key into the Nubank app, the customer will automatically identify if the payment is enabled for Automated Pix. There will be two options: Enable Automated Payment and Pay upon approval.