Nuvo has raised $45 million to extend its B2B trade infrastructure into new verticals and deepen its reach in its core markets. Nuvo is building the infrastructure to transform how businesses connect, trade, and grow. By enabling companies to exchange verified profiles with potential partners, Nuvo provides instant access to critical trust signals, including verification status, creditworthiness, banking information, and trade history, allowing businesses to activate new partnerships quickly and confidently. With identity, connectivity, and trade data in one place, businesses can expand their customer and vendor networks more easily, scale faster with less risk, and unlock growth and resilience. The company’s infrastructure is used by more than 50,000 businesses to activate new partnerships with customers and vendors and manage their trade relationships. With the new funding, Nuvo will deepen its reach across core markets such as alcohol and beverage, building materials, chemicals, food service, distribution, and manufacturing, while extending into new verticals. As the network grows, modern payments infrastructure and AI systems will power the intelligent foundations needed to connect and coordinate trade between 50 million global businesses. “Continued innovation, growth and accessibility of goods in the global economy require a new kind of technology infrastructure, and that’s what we’re building at Nuvo,” Sid Malladi, co-founder and CEO of Nuvo, said.
Visa will enable developers to add an AI-ready card to APIs for agents-led ‘intelligent commerce’- shielding account data, eliminating the clunky step of keying in card numbers every time the agent hops to a new site
Visa unveiled the Visa Intelligent Commerce program which opens the network’s rails to developers building AI agents that search, recommend and now pay on behalf of consumers. “This is going to transform shopping and buying — we’re letting AI developers and engineers use the Visa network to allow AI agents to find, and buy, on [the consumer’s] behalf in a seamless and safe way,” Mark Nelsen, Visa’s global head of consumer products, told. At the center of the effort is an AI-ready card, a credential developers can spin up through a bundle of Visa application programming interfaces (APIs). As Nelsen put it: “The APIs will have an AI-ready card. In a hypothetical search for the cheapest flight to Cancún, for example, a traveler uploads an existing Visa credential, while in the background Visa authenticates the cardholder with payment passkeys, tokenizes the 16-digit number and seats the token inside the AI agent.” That behind-the-scenes swap shields account data, eliminating the clunky step of keying in card numbers every time the agent hops to a new site.
Affirm opens AI-powered POS promotion platform to merchants dynamically matching the right benefit to the right consumer at exactly the right moment
Buy now, pay later network Affirm is introducing its artificial intelligence-powered platform, AdaptAI, to its merchant partners. Merchants can provide shoppers with personalized, targeted, real-time promotions and credit offers at the point of purchase via the offering. “Unlike conventional credit card rewards — which are opaque, static and subsidized by the financially vulnerable — AdaptAI dynamically matches the right benefit to the right consumer at exactly the right moment,” Affirm Senior Vice President of Product Vishal Kapoor said. “Consumers no longer need to spend more, keep track of, or wait months to recoup their rewards. Now, they can immediately receive tailored, transparent value at the time of purchase. This is only made possible with Affirm’s AI-powered technology and real-time underwriting, and [it] builds on what we do best: delivering customized payment options that help consumers take their money further.” Consumers expect individualized experiences, particularly when paying, leading Affirm — and now its merchants — to offer payment solutions customized to consumers’ purchase and financial profiles.
Stripe’s Radar now protects ACH and SEPA payments from fraud- reporting a 42% reduction in SEPA fraud and a 20% reduction in ACH fraud
Stripe announced an expansion of Radar, Stripe’s AI-powered fraud prevention product, for ACH and SEPA payments. Radar assesses more than 1,000 characteristics of a potential transaction in order to determine, in less than 100 milliseconds, the likelihood that it’s fraudulent. On average, Radar users see a 42% reduction in SEPA fraud and a 20% reduction in ACH fraud. Ben Winfield, Radar product manager, wrote “Over the last year, we’ve seen a 40% increase in noncard payment volume on Stripe. Now, we’re extending Radar fraud protection to ACH and SEPA payments. We’ve applied the same AI architecture Radar uses for cards to new models that automatically screen and help block risky ACH and SEPA transactions.”
Cross River’s new International Payments platform for businesses is rail-agnostic, dynamically selecting the most relevant payment rails based on transaction size, currency, and corridor
Cross River Bank launched its new International Payments solution, now processing transactions with Aion, a modern business finance platform designed to simplify financial management. Leveraging Cross River’s proprietary banking core, API technology, and industry-leading compliance and AML/CFT integrations, this new International Payments solution offers seamless, efficient, and cost-effective cross-border transactions for businesses. Cross River’s International Payments platform is rail-agnostic, dynamically selecting the most relevant payment rails based on transaction size, currency, and corridor. This ensures businesses and consumers benefit from faster processing times so consumers receive their money when and where they need it. “Our goal is to simplify cross-border payments by removing technical barriers that limit global scalability,” said Luca Cosentino, Head of Product at Cross River. “Our International Payments capability uses a flexible, rail-agnostic approach to enable fast, cost-effective, and secure transfers—whether through SWIFT or local bank rails. Aion, an early adopter in B2B and B2C use cases, enables businesses to modernize cross-border transactions Satish Palvai, Founder and CEO at Aion said, “With Cross River’s International Payments, we’re leveling the playing field by giving growing businesses access to the same speed and efficiency once reserved only for large enterprises.” With strict adherence to regulatory standards, Cross River’s International Payments platform integrates advanced AML tools and compliance solutions. Fully routable subledgers and detailed customer records allow businesses to monitor transactions on a sub-entity level, ensuring security and reliability.
Humanoid robot mass adoption will start in 2028, says Bank Of America- annual shipments could hit 1 million by 2030, with a production cost of just $17,000 per unit
Humanoid robots will begin a mass adoption trend for commercial use as early as 2028, according to a new Bank of America research report. Annual shipments could hit 1 million by 2030, with a production cost of just $17,000 per unit. “BofA Global Research believes the adoption of humanoid robots will follow a three-stage development trajectory in the coming decade, starting from industrial and logistic applications, then on to business services, and finally to household use,” a company representative told me via email. “In the long run, BofA Global Research expects the total units in ownership for humanoid robots to reach an estimated three billion units globally by 2060.” That three billion unit projection is based on three assumptions:
- Humanoid robots can replace 20% of the world’ industrial sector human employees
- Humanoid robots can replace between 1.5 and 2.5 works in the industrial and service sectors
- Humanoid robots will reach a penetration rate of .7 units per household
According to the report, the first mass commercializations period for humanoid robots will be from 2028 to 2034, and it will focus on commercial use. The second mass adoption period will be for home and all other uses, and will run from 2035 onwards. Futurists like Peter Diamandis have speculated that robots will help us in our homes with laundry, vacuuming, dishes, and all other tasks, and serve multiple purposes in healthcare, elder care, manufacturing, transport, and the service industry. Bank of America says that humanoid robot manufactures will ship 18,000 units this year, in 2025. By 2030, researchers expect that shipments will reach up to 10 million units globally per year. Interestingly, the report suggests that the vast majority of humanoid robots will be household tools, with about two billion of the three billion shipped by 2060 in use in private homes, versus about a billion in the service industry, and only a few hundred million in industrial settings. If so, that could be good news for human workers: many of the household robots will be replacing unpaid work that people do for themselves, rather than paid work by employees.
Pillar Security’s tech auto-maps all AI-related assets across the organization and uses real-world threat intelligence to address AI-specific risks such as evasion attacks, data privacy and intellectual property leakage
AI security startup Pillar Security has raised $9 million in seed funding to expand its research and development (R&D) and go-to-market efforts. Pillar Security’s solution is designed to meet the needs of a new age in which “software has gained agency and data itself has become executable,” Pillar Security CEO and Co-founder Dor Sarig said. “Pillar’s technology, backed by real-world AI threat intelligence, is built with this understanding, delivering a new class of protection designed explicitly for AI-related security risks,” Sarig said. “We are redefining application security to match the agentic and autonomous software of the Intelligence Age.” The company’s security platform is specifically designed for AI-integrated software systems and addresses AI-specific risk areas like evasion attacks, data poisoning, data privacy and intellectual property leakage. The platform integrates with an organization’s existing code repositories, data infrastructures and AI/ML platforms, automatically maps all AI-related assets across the organization, tests AI models and deploys guardrails that proactively prevent failures.
Etsy promotes ‘shopping domestically’ amid tariff concerns, offering curated shopping pages and local seller spotlights; sellers gain handbook on how tariffs are collected and the definition of the de minimis exception
Etsy is making it easier for buyers to find and purchase items from domestic sellers as a way to blunt potential tariff-related price increases on imports. These include features for customers such as curated shopping pages and local seller spotlights. For sellers, Etsy is providing an online tariff handbook that provides information such as how tariffs are collected and the definition of the de minimis exception. According to Etsy data, 89% of its sellers work from home by themselves without complex overseas production lines and fulfillment requirements, and most source supplies domestically, which can help them remain “agile and resilient” even when there are shifts to global supply chains. Etsy said it is also “elevating seller voices” to advocate for public policies that reflect the “unique needs” of small businesses and protect their ability engage in global commerce. Etsy has been attempting to improve its search experience for customers and sellers. The e-tailer recently began letting customers browse by curated collections on its app, based on trends, aesthetics and occasions. The retailer, which also provides set of creativity standards for products sold on its site, optimizes its search results to showcase a broader range of items from more sellers. Etsy has also launched a search visibility page that provides specific actionable tips, including insights on listing image quality and quantity, return policies, message response times, and shipping prices, for certain seller listings.
Brandlight’s tech measures and optimizes how brands are interpreted across reputation management, partnerships, content strategy and SEO to enhance their visibility in AI-generated search results
Brandlight, the first-of-its-kind AI Insights and Influence System, has emerged from stealth with $5.75 million in funding to help brands measure and shape their visibility in AI-generated search results. Brandlight provides businesses with the intelligence and tools they need to thrive in a digital landscape reshaped by AI-driven search. Brandlight’s system enables businesses to track, optimize, refine, and improve their AI-driven presence, ensuring they remain competitive in this new frontier. Brandlight’s system goes beyond traditional SEO. It is a strategic AI influence platform that enables brands to proactively shape AI-generated answers, ensuring their messaging accurately reflects and aligns with business objectives. The platform transforms AI search from a passive experience into a high-impact marketing channel, offering predictive insights that help businesses maintain a competitive edge. Imri Marcus, CEO of Brandlight says “Our system creates a baseline of how AI perceives a specific entity, giving you visibility into the AI black box, and actively improves on it.” In other words, it goes beyond surfacing AI-driven search results; it measures and optimizes how brands are interpreted across reputation management, partnerships, content strategy, SEO, and more. Underpinning this capability is a team of repeat entrepreneurs, marketing leaders, and top AI experts from the Israeli IDF’s elite tech units. Brandlight’s technology identifies the strategic data sources AI engines rely on, uncovering opportunities for optimization. It then refines this data for optimal AI processing, empowering brands to cut through the noise, gain visibility, and consistently deliver impactful outcomes.
Vanguard is launching the firm’s first dynamic asset allocation fixed income model portfolios with streamlined investment manager research and ongoing portfolio construction and monitoring
Vanguard is launching the firm’s first dynamic asset allocation fixed income model portfolios. Vanguard Fixed Income Risk Diversification and Vanguard Fixed Income Total Return join the firm’s lineup of model portfolios that provide financial advisors with access to broadly diversified, low-cost, and high-quality Vanguard-managed solutions. “Model portfolios empower financial advisors with streamlined investment manager research and ongoing portfolio construction and monitoring, so they can spend time on the things that really matter to their clients—like ensuring they’re meeting their investment goals,” said Brent Beardsley, Head of Advisor Solutions for Vanguard. Built to serve a variety of investment time horizons and risk profiles, Vanguard’s model portfolios support financial advisors’ portfolio construction needs so they can spend more time scaling their practice and deepening client relationships. Deeper client relationships lead to improved client loyalty and trust, according to Vanguard’s Advisor’s Alpha research, which can then assist with asset retention and referrals. Vanguard Fixed Income Risk Diversification and Vanguard Fixed Income Total Return model portfolios seek to outperform a market-capitalization-weighted benchmark—the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Index and Bloomberg U.S. Universal Index respectively—and allocations are recalibrated throughout the year to align with the Vanguard Capital Markets Model® (VCMM) 10-year forecasts. Vanguard’s Investment Strategy Group oversees the asset allocations for the models and Vanguard’s Fixed Income Group manages the fixed income funds included in each portfolio. The Vanguard Fixed Income Risk Diversification model portfolio features a weighted average expense ratio of 0.05% and is constructed for advisors and their clients in search of a highly diversified fixed income portfolio with exposure to global investment grade bonds intended to provide ballast against equity market volatility. Vanguard Fixed Income Total Return model portfolio is designed for advisors and clients seeking wealth accumulation and risk diversification from the fixed income sleeve of their portfolio. This model portfolio contains exposure to global investment grade and high yield bonds at a weighted average expense ratio of 0.08%.