Welcome to the June installment of Fin Capital's Monthly Wave. It’s been a busy month for the team and our portfolio companies.

Visa Drops Anchor on New Protections for Pay-by-Bank: Visa’s latest account-to-account (A2A) update brings card-style buyer protections to pay-by-bank transfers, offering U.K. consumers and merchants a layer of security that’s been largely missing from existing open banking infrastructure. This move aligns the protection levels of A2A payments more closely with traditional card transactions—ensuring consumers can recover funds in case of errors. Overall, it’s a promising development for open banking in the U.K., enhancing merchant liquidity and boosting consumer confidence in bank-based payments. Meanwhile, we’re closely watching for the CFPB’s guidance on the future of Rule 1033 in the U.S. and we believe A2A payments, with appropriate payment certainty and fraud controls. We also believe companies like our own, Circle, and stablecoins will play a critical role in these flows and use cases.  

Full Sail Ahead with On-Chain Payments: Coinbase has unveiled its new Commerce Payments Protocol, introducing on chain Auth+Capture functionality through an Escrow smart contract. When a customer initiates a transaction, funds are first transferred from the buyer to the Escrow, ensuring the merchant can be paid. The payment is finalized when the funds are moved from Escrow to the merchant. This streamlined two-step process enables scalable on chain commerce payments. The protocol also includes a “reclaim” feature that allows funds to be returned to the buyer if the merchant does not capture the payment before the authorization period ends. Developed in close collaboration with Shopify, the protocol is now integrated directly into Shopify’s checkout, allowing merchants to accept USDC via Coinbase Wallet. Currently rolling out across 34 countries where Shopify supports crypto payments, the protocol offers added incentives: merchants in the U.S. and other eligible regions can receive up to 0.5% cashback for accepting USDC, and shoppers paying with USDC will also earn a cashback reward, with details to be announced later this year. By embedding consumer protections such as escrow, dispute resolution, and fraud prevention into the protocol itself, Coinbase and Shopify are paving the way for secure and programmable commerce transactions. We believe that agentic commerce and payments will represent significant ripple effects driving meaningful use cases at the intersection of AI and digital assets/blockchain.

Catching the AI Current: Generative AI is advancing more rapidly than any major technological breakthrough in the past five decades. Traditional models like Moore's Law and Metcalfe's Law may no longer adequately describe the intricate and multidimensional pace at which AI is evolving. In her latest AI Trends Report, Mary Meeker argues that AI isn't replacing established technologies such as the internet, mobile, or cloud computing—instead, it's acting as an augmenting layer that enhances their functionality. Additionally, a powerful feedback loop between model performance, user engagement, and developer innovation is fueling exponential growth in usage. To check out more trends from her most recent report, read here.

New GTM Navigator  

Check out our latest episode on Defining ARR for Your Startup with Matthew Mann, Managing Director of Corporate Development at Fin & Greg Capitolo, Founder & Partner at Attivo Partners!

We hope in this edition you’ll gain insights into how to calculate ARR, the advantages and disadvantages of different pricing models, and other financial metrics that are vital as your startup grows. 

Events

• June 25th at 11AM PT // 2PM ET: Portfolio Webinar with Blend

  • Through our partnership, Fin portfolio companies get preferred access to Blend’s network of 500+ top-tier data scientists and engineers to support F1000 client implementations, custom product development and integrations, AI-powered B2B marketing, and more! Join us for a tactical session on how to accelerate your go-to-market and scale operations with AI. Reach out to [email protected] to secure your spot.

• July 24th at 10AM PT // 1PM ET: Inside Circle Payments Network - Unlocking the Power of Stablecoins for Financial Institutions

  • Join us for an exclusive webinar with Circle, where we'll discuss the future of digital asset payments, key financial institution use cases, emerging stablecoin infrastructure, and an overview of Circle Payments Network (CPN). Reach out to [email protected] to request a spot, this session is for banks only.

Portfolio Spotlight

Congratulations to Circle & Chime on their historic IPOs!

Portfolio News

It’s been a busy month, sharing some of the latest moments from across portfolio…

• Congratulations to Aiera on their Series B funding, with ten of Wall Street’s largest research firms joining their board! 

• Bridge announces partnership with Red Roof Franchising which will empower entrepreneurs with smarter access to capital. 

• Carefull announces strategic partnership with the Alzheimer's Association to protect families against elder fraud.  

• Certa is deploying the next generation of agents and a new operating system, OS3, to operationalize AI agents in Third Party Risk Management.  

• Elevate & Gusto announce successful partnership to expand consumer benefit account products 

• Figure achieves industry first with S&P AAA Ratings for blockchain assets. 

• Healthee announces partnership with Vensure Employer Solutions to serve all the clients and employees across Vensure’s businesses. 

• Navro has acquired a money transmitter license in the US, enabling them to offer its cross-border payments solutions to US businesses. 

• Poolside partners with BAM Corner Point to work towards building the most capable AI for software development. 

• Selfbook is empowering PayPal to add hotel bookings to their app. 

What We’re Reading

INDUSTRY RESEARCH 

• Benchmarkit: 2025 B2B SaaS Performance Benchmarks (Read More) 

• Artemis Analytics: Stablecoin Payments from the Ground Up (Read More) 

• HSBC: Coverage, Emergence, and Resurgence – The 2025 Fintech Report (Read More) 

• Cornerstone Advisors: The Journey Towards Becoming a Smarter Bank (Read More) 

• Boston Consulting Group: Global Fintech Report 2025 (Read More) 

• Bond Capital: Trends in Artificial Intelligence (Read More) 

• Bank Director: Crafting Your Data Strategy (Read More)  

BLOGS, PODCASTS AND VIDEOS 

• OpenYield: Current State of Regulatory Fees in Fixed Income (Read More) 

• Articul8: Unleashing the Next Frontier of Enterprise AI (Read More) 

• Fintech Business Weekly: Interview with Luke Voiles, CEO of Pipe (Listen Here)

• Cornerstone Advisors: Money Isn’t Everything Podcast (Listen Here) 

• MRR Unlocked: How SaaS Founders Grow from 0-1M ARR (Read More)  

• Only CFO: State of GTM from ICONIQ Report (Read More)

Thanks for reading!

We are grateful for your partnership and support, and welcome any feedback you have. We’ll see you next month with more!

-The Fin Capital team

_Disclaimer

_{This material is provided for informational purposes, and it is not, and may not be relied on in any manner as, legal, tax or investment advice or as an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy an interest in any fund or investment vehicle managed by Fin Venture Capital Management LLC (“Fin”) or its affiliates. Content obtained from third-party sources, although believed to be reliable, has not been independently verified as to its accuracy or completeness and cannot be guaranteed. Fin has no obligation to update, modify or amend the content of this post nor notify its readers in the event that any information, opinion, projection, forecast or estimate included, changes or subsequently becomes inaccurate.}