Venture Capital Veteran Brings Expertise to Help Technical Founders Go From Ideation to IPO

BOSTON, Oct. 28, 2025 — Encoded Ventures, a new early-stage venture capital firm founded by 20-year investing veteran Alex Benik, today announced its official launch and the latest in a series of investments focused on infrastructure software innovation.

Benik previously spent 22 years investing in infrastructure and security at Battery Ventures, a global, technology-focused investment firm, where he worked on investments in Habana Labs, Cumulus Networks, Nobl9, Opsgenie, and Guardicore. With Encoded, Benik sets his focus on infrastructure companies, targeting early-stage (inception, pre-seed, and seed) businesses in three critical areas: cloud infrastructure, data and AI infrastructure, and cybersecurity.

“Having known Alex for more than 20 years, I’ve seen firsthand his commitment to technical founders and early-stage businesses. Encoded is a natural extension of that passion. He’s a true mensch, and I’m proud to support him as a friend, investor, and advisor.” – Scott Tobin, Battery Ventures

In the investment community, Encoded Ventures sets itself apart by combining deep technical expertise with strong business acumen, which stems from Benik’s extensive background in infrastructure and enterprise software. Since establishing Encoded Ventures in 2024, Benik has invested in 10 early-stage businesses, including ConfigHub, DataFlint, Datum, Tenzai, Jazz Security, IPXO, and Atero AI, which was recently acquired by Crusoe. Half of Encoded’s investments to date are based in Israel where he has been deeply involved with start-ups for 15 years.

“Alex backed Atero at the earliest stage. After our first meeting at my prior company, I knew I wanted to work with him. His guidance, advice, and relationships in LLM infrastructure made him one of our most impactful investors. Now, with Atero’s acquisition by Crusoe, I’m eager to see as many of Encoded’s GPU-hungry companies running on our cloud as possible.” – Alon Yariv, Atero AI / Crusoe

“Modern infrastructure is undergoing radical transformation, and it’s vital that the founders get the help they need early on to successfully bring their products from idea to achieving early traction,” said Alex Benik, founder of Encoded Ventures. “Investing in the earliest stages of company formation, pre-product and often just the team, Encoded Ventures is seeking out next-generation companies that will provide the necessary infrastructure to drive continued growth and innovation across the infrastructure stack. Tapping decades of experience in working closely with technical founders from Day Zero, we understand what it takes to help them go from an idea to a company that scales with precision and purpose.” 

About Encoded Ventures

Encoded Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in the next wave of cloud, data, and security infrastructure companies. Founded by Alex Benik after more than 20 years at Battery Ventures, Encoded partners with technical founders at the very earliest stages—typically pre-product, pre-revenue. The firm takes a hands-on, thesis-driven approach and invests globally, with a growing presence in Israel and North America. For more information, visit https://encoded.vc/.

Media Contact:
Richard Lalosh
[email protected] 
+1(607) 287-9966
guyergroup.com

SOURCE Encoded Ventures

BOSTON and LONDON, Oct. 28, 2025 — Indico Data, the leader in AI-powered automation for insurance operations, today announced a strategic investment from Aviva Ventures, the corporate venture capital fund for Aviva plc, one of the UK’s largest insurers. The investment reinforces Indico’s growing leadership in the London Market and its expanding adoption among global property and casualty carriers.

As part of the investment, Arslan Hannani, Chief Innovation Officer at Aviva, will join Indico’s Board of Directors as a Board Observer and Advisor.

“This partnership underscores the increasing demand for intelligent automation that transforms how insurers handle the critical ‘front door’ of their business — from submission ingestion to claims intake to policy servicing and beyond,” said Tom Wilde, CEO of Indico Data. “Aviva’s investment and Arslan’s participation on our board validate Indico’s vision for the agentic insurance enterprise and our mission to help carriers turn unstructured data into competitive advantage.”

Aviva Ventures invests in companies driving transformation across insurance and financial services through emerging technologies and new business models.

“Indico’s technology is reshaping how insurers operate by bringing AI deeper into core workflows,” said Arslan Hannani, Chief Innovation Officer at Aviva. “We’ve seen firsthand the impact Indico is having in streamlining operations and unlocking new efficiencies, particularly in complex markets like London and beyond. We’re excited to support its continued growth.”

This investment builds on Indico’s growing footprint among top global carriers, who leverage its Agentic AI platform to automate underwriting, claims, and operations processes that depend on unstructured data.  Aviva’s investment follows a strategic investment from Guidewire earlier in 2025.

About Indico Data

Indico Data is the leading provider of AI solutions that automate complex insurance operations by transforming unstructured data into actionable insights. Trusted by leading carriers across North America and the London Market, Indico’s Agentic AI platform enables insurers to streamline underwriting, claims, and policy operations while improving accuracy, speed, and compliance.
 www.indicodata.ai

About Aviva Ventures

Aviva Ventures is the corporate venture capital fund for Aviva plc, one of the UK’s leading insurance, wealth, and retirement businesses. Aviva Ventures invests in early- and growth-stage companies driving innovation across insurance, financial services, and sustainability.
 www.aviva.com

SOURCE Indico Data

Funding fuels platform expansion, helping the automotive ecosystem move vehicles faster and at lower cost through improved efficiency in loan payoff and title release 

DALLAS, Oct. 28, 2025 — EPIC™, a financial technology company transforming how the automotive industry manages the loan payoff and title release process, today announced it has raised $10 million in Series A funding. The round was led by FM Capital, with participation from Automotive Ventures and other strategic industry investors. The funding will support continued market expansion and platform innovation. 

“EPIC is eliminating one of the industry’s most stubborn bottlenecks,” said Chase Fraser, Managing Partner at FM Capital. “Its digital network for loan payoff and title release replaces outdated manual processes with the speed and precision today’s automotive ecosystem demands.”

Legacy processes for loan payoffs and title releases create friction, delay, and financial risk for the automotive industry. EPIC replaces that with a modern financial infrastructure — a secure, digital clearinghouse that streamlines every step, from payoff quote to title release. 

“Our investment in EPIC reflects a shared vision to digitize a key segment of the automotive transaction process that has been unsolved,” said Steve Greenfield, General Partner of Automotive Ventures. “The EPIC platform reduces errors, saves time, and moves the industry toward a unified, digital workflow, saving dealerships thousands every month in holding and processing costs.” 

“This funding lets us reach more partners and further improve how dealers, lenders, and insurers manage loan payoffs and title releases,” said Brandon Hall, CEO of EPIC. “Faster, more efficient processing helps our partners save time, reduce errors, and boost profit opportunities.” 

Today, EPIC is partnered with automotive dealers, vehicle lenders, and automobile insurers across the U.S. — helping them drive efficiency and improve overall profitability. EPIC plans to expand its reach to additional markets, such as powersports and RV markets in its next growth phase. 

For more information on EPIC, visit: www.withepic.com. 

About EPIC 

EPIC™ is the loan payoff clearinghouse for the automotive ecosystem. Powering digital connectivity to the industry’s largest network of financial institutions, its modern infrastructure enables secure financial transactions and reliable title releases — all within a single, unified platform. Learn more at www.withepic.com. 

For media inquiries, please contact:
Laurie Halter
Charisma! Communications
503-816-2474
[email protected]

SOURCE EPIC

The annual list highlights the private equity firms, venture capital firms, and lenders with track
records of backing founder-led companies.

NEW YORK, Oct. 28, 2025 — Vesey Street Capital Partners is proud to announce its recognition on the Inc.Founder-Friendly Investors list, honoring the private equity firms, venture capital firms, and lenders with a track record of backing founder-led companies. This year’s list recognizes Vesey Street Capital Partners among 248 firms.

The prestigious list celebrates the investors that believe in backing founder-led businesses and helping them thrive. All companies on the list have successful track records of collaboration and remaining actively involved with the businesses they invest in.

“Raising capital is no small feat for today’s entrepreneurs. That’s why discovering investors who offer more than just financial backing—those who bring mentorship, resources, and a true spirit of partnership to your growth journey—is both rare and invaluable,” says Bonny Ghosh, editorial director at Inc. “The 2025 Founder-Friendly Investors are collaborators and dedicated to helping their portfolio companies succeed.”

“We’re proud to once again be recognized by Inc. as a top Founder-Friendly Investor. We remain focused on being a great partner to founders of lower middle-market healthcare companies,” said Adam Feinstein, Founder & Managing Partner at Vesey Street Capital Partners.

Mike Doyle, Managing Partner at Vesey Street Capital Partners, noted, “Supporting founder-led businesses is at the core of what we do. We remain committed to helping them scale while staying true to the vision that makes them exceptional.”

To compile the list, Inc. went straight to the source: entrepreneurs who have sold to private equity and venture capital firms. Founders filled out a questionnaire about their experiences partnering with private equity, venture capital, and debt firms and shared data on how their companies have grown during these partnerships.

For more information or to view the complete list of honorees, visit https://www.inc.com/founder-friendly-investors

ABOUT VESEY STREET CAPITAL PARTNERS

Vesey Street Capital Partners is a private equity firm specializing in buyouts of lower middle-market healthcare services businesses. VSCP invests on behalf of a wide array of Limited Partners, including asset management firms, family offices, pension funds, and other institutional investors. Since its inception, VSCP has consummated 44 transactions across twelve platform businesses and deployed over $1 billion of equity capital. For more information, please visit www.vscpllc.com.

ABOUT INC.

Inc. is the leading media brand and playbook for the entrepreneurs and business leaders shaping our future. Through its journalism, Inc. aims to inform, educate, and elevate the profile of its community: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters who are creating the future of business. Inc. is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with fellow leading business publication Fast Company. For more information, visit www.inc.com.

About the 2025 List of Founder-Friendly Investors

The 2025 List of Founder-Friendly Investors was created by Inc. and was based on references shared by Vesey Street Capital Partners in July 2025. The full extent of the scope of firms considered for this award is unknown. The fee to apply for this award was $1,990. There was no compensation paid for winning the award. Inc. is not affiliated with Vesey Street Capital Partners or is an investor in an investment vehicle sponsored by Vesey Street Capital Partners. There can be assurance that other firms or surveys would reach the same conclusion.

Media Contact:
Tiffany Laing
646-847-2474
[email protected]

SOURCE Vesey Street Capital Partners

GREENWICH, Conn., Oct. 28, 2025 — ECP Growth, a leading growth stage investment firm that partners with entrepreneurial businesses creating products, solutions, and technologies across the consumer value-chain, today announced it has been named to Inc.’s Founder-Friendly Investors list for 2025 for the third consecutive year. The annual list honors investment firms with strong track records of partnership with founder-led companies to support long-term growth.

For nearly 15 years, ECP Growth has taken a tailored, hands-on approach to working with founders and entrepreneurs building the next generation of consumer-focused businesses. The firm provides capital and operational support to meet the unique needs of each portfolio company across a range of industries, including consumer packaged goods, e-commerce, consumer tech, supply chain, SaaS, healthcare, and more.

“We are honored to be recognized on Inc.’s list of Founder-Friendly Investors for the third year in a row,” said Marcel Bens, CEO of ECP Growth. “At ECP Growth, we take pride in partnering with founders and management teams to drive long-term value creation and innovation in response to evolving consumer needs. This recognition is a testament to our collaborative approach and commitment to supporting entrepreneurial growth.”

In May 2025, ECP Growth closed its Fund IV with $100 million in committed capital to invest in growth-stage businesses across North America. The fund expects to partner primarily with fast growing companies, emphasizing businesses that are profitable or demonstrating a clear short-term path to profitability.

“Raising capital is no small feat for today’s entrepreneurs. That’s why discovering investors who offer more than just financial backing—those who bring mentorship, resources, and a true spirit of partnership to your growth journey—is both rare and invaluable,” says Bonny Ghosh, editorial director at Inc. “The 2025 Founder-Friendly Investors are collaborators and dedicated to helping their portfolio companies succeed.”

To compile the list, Inc. went straight to the source: entrepreneurs who have sold to private equity and venture capital firms. Founders filled out a questionnaire about their experiences partnering with private equity, venture capital, and debt firms and shared data on how their companies have grown during these partnerships.

For more information or to view the complete list of honorees, visit https://www.inc.com/founder-friendly-investors.

About ECP Growth
ECP Growth is a growth stage investment firm that partners with entrepreneurial businesses creating products, solutions, and technologies across the consumer value-chain. Based in Greenwich, Connecticut, ECP Growth takes a thematic approach to investing in companies that sit within resilient categories and have attractive growth fundamentals, with a goal of long-term value creation. ECP Growth was founded in 2011 in partnership with the Tengelmann Group, a 150-year-old family-owned company that today is one of the world’s largest private consumer goods holding companies and an experienced growth investor. For more information, please visit www.ECPgrowth.com.

About Inc. 
Inc. is the leading media brand and playbook for the entrepreneurs and business leaders shaping our future. Through its journalism, Inc. aims to inform, educate, and elevate the profile of its community: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters who are creating the future of business. Inc. is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with fellow leading business publication Fast Company. For more information, visit www.inc.com.

Contacts:

ECP Growth
Marissa Foray
ECP Growth
[email protected]
203-321-5461

Kate Thompson / Heather Milke
Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher
212-355-4449

SOURCE ECP Growth

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28, 2025 — Halifax Group, a middle market private equity firm that partners with management to invest in market-leading companies, today announced that it has been named to Inc.’s 2025 Founder-Friendly Investors list. The list recognizes private equity, venture capital, and debt firms with the best track records of backing entrepreneurs.

This year’s list, Inc.’s seventh annual Founder-Friendly Investors list, features 248 firms that support entrepreneurs to drive growth in their businesses. All the firms on the Inc. list have remained actively involved with the businesses in which they invest.

Chris Cathcart, Managing Partner at Halifax, said, “Halifax is honored to be recognized once again by Inc. This recognition underscores the enduring strength of our partnerships with entrepreneurs. We view each investment as a collaboration — working closely with founders to help them realize their ambitions, strengthen their organizations, and build lasting value for their communities. Our team is committed to earning their trust through consistency, transparency, and practical support as we work together to position their businesses for long-term success.”

Halifax has invested more than $850 million in 22 founder- and family-owned companies since the firm was founded in 1999. The firm invests in companies across Health & Wellness, Outsourced Business Services, and Franchising.

“Raising capital is no small feat for today’s entrepreneurs. That’s why discovering investors who offer more than just financial backing—those who bring mentorship, resources, and a true spirit of partnership to your growth journey—is both rare and invaluable,” says Bonny Ghosh, editorial director at Inc. “The 2025 Founder-Friendly Investors are collaborators and dedicated to helping their portfolio companies succeed.”

The Inc. 2025 Founder Friendly Investors award is given to investors who back founder-led businesses and help them thrive. Winning firms are selected based upon their track record, reputation, leadership and founder references. For investments to qualify, portfolio company founders must have remained actively involved in their business for at least one-year post-investment. Halifax submitted stories of founder-led investments and our value creation and paid a fee to Inc. for submitting an entry. Inc. compiled its list by directly surveying entrepreneurs who have sold to private equity and venture capital firms and worked with lenders. Inc. then examined data on portfolio company growth during those partnerships. This award is not to be construed as indicative of future performance. To see the complete list, go to: https://www.inc.com/founder-friendly-investors.

About Halifax Group
Founded in 1999, Halifax Group is a private equity firm that partners with managers and entrepreneurs to recapitalize and invest in lower middle-market businesses with total enterprise values generally between $100 million and $300 million. Halifax specializes in equity recapitalizations, corporate carve-outs, and management buyouts and invests across a variety of industries, including health and wellness, outsourced business services, and franchising. The firm is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and maintains an office in Raleigh, NC.

Contact:
Lambert by LLYC
Caroline Luz
(203) 570-6462
[email protected]

SOURCE Halifax Group

The funding comes less than a year after Sublime’s Series B, driven by growing demand for its AI-native email security solutions

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28, 2025 — Sublime Security, the agentic email security platform, today announced that it has raised $150M in Series C funding led by Georgian to accelerate its agentic AI capabilities and bring new levels of proactive, automated defense to email security. Other participants include new investors Avenir and 01A, and existing investors Index Ventures, IVP, Citi Ventures, and Slow Ventures.

This investment comes at a critical time, as phishing and other email-based attacks grow in speed, scale, and sophistication thanks to generative AI. Unlike legacy vendors who offer a rigid, one-size-fits-all solution, Sublime provides a novel approach to email security: a team of specialized AI agents that protect, triage, and adapt defenses in real-time. This new approach frees security teams to focus on their organization’s unique needs, dramatically reducing the resources traditionally required to secure their email environment.

“Our adversaries have constraints, like budgets and time, just like defenders do. AI is changing this dynamic, enabling more sophisticated attacks with less effort at scale,” said Josh Kamdjou, CEO and Co-founder of Sublime. “We built Sublime to stop this next generation of attacks by giving security teams an autonomous defense that detects, triages, and adapts at adversary speed, with the transparency and control that enhances work instead of creating friction.”

“We believe that Sublime’s use of agentic AI to counter adversaries is redefining how organizations defend themselves – with more context, precision, speed, and transparency than has been possible before,” said Russell Moore, Partner at Georgian. “We’re proud to partner with Sublime as it builds the next generation of proactive and programmable autonomous defenses.”

The Series C funding round follows a period of tremendous growth for the company. In the last six months, Sublime launched its first two AI agents to automate critical security work: its Autonomous Security Analyst (ASA) investigates and triages threats in seconds, freeing teams from manual review, while its Autonomous Detection Engineer (ADÉ) deploys new, tailored defenses to combat novel threats in hours, ending the vendor bottleneck delays that leave organizations exposed.

Due in large part to these innovations, the company experienced 100% growth in annual recurring revenue in the first half of 2025. This coincides with stellar customer retention, as Sublime has retained 100% of its enterprise customers since its inception, including industry leaders such as Spotify, Snowflake, Zscaler, Anduril, Centrica, Benteler, British Gas, Elastic, SentinelOne, Compass, and more.

“Sublime continues to push the boundary of what we think is possible in email security,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, Co-founder & Former CTO of CrowdStrike and early Sublime investor. “They are a true industry disruptor, and as they continue to develop new agentic AI capabilities, legacy solutions will struggle to keep pace.”

“What makes the biggest difference is that we’re catching more threats with far less manual work,” said Indu Sajeev, Chief Information Security Officer, ASOS. “For a team like ours, having an autonomous platform that adapts to new threats is invaluable.”

In addition to doubling down on platform enhancements and adding to its team of AI Agents, Sublime will use this latest funding round to grow its global footprint and make life harder for adversaries worldwide.

About Sublime Security
Sublime’s agentic platform stops more email attacks with less work. Our AI agents work like a digital SOC team, automating threat triage in seconds and deploying new defenses in hours. The platform provides full transparency and automatically adapts to stop the unique attacks targeting your organization while eliminating the vendor bottlenecks and one-size-fits-all limits of legacy tools.

Sublime empowers security teams with tailored detections, explainable alerts, and automation to prevent, detect, and respond to threats in real time. Learn more at https://sublime.security

SOURCE Sublime Security

The company empowers architects and builders to go from plan to permit in days, not months—accelerating the construction of more affordable homes across the U.S.

PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 28, 2025 — Spacial, creator of an AI-powered platform automating residential engineering and permitting, announced a $10 million seed round led by TLV Partners, with participation from Mango Capital, Re Angels, and HTV. The investment will be used to accelerate AI development and expand its sales and customer success teams in order to scale adoption among architects, builders, and design professionals—all helping grow the company’s footprint in the trillion-dollar U.S. housing market, one of the least digitized sectors in the economy.

Since launching in 2024, Spacial’s booked revenue has grown by 300%, supporting more than 140 active projects across the U.S. The company has grown its team to over 20 employees, with headquarters in Palo Alto, CA, and an R&D center based in Tel Aviv.

Traditional residential construction remains slow, fragmented, and costly, plagued by manual drafting, redundant reviews, and long coordination cycles that inflate budgets and delay projects. Outdated planning workflows create inefficiencies and waste, leaving vast potential for AI-driven innovation to transform how homes are designed and built. Coordination problems endemic to home design account for up to 30% of project waste, while rework adds another 12% in costs.

As a result, producing permit-ready plans can take up to 27 weeks and costs on average $30,000 per project, making homeownership, long considered at the heart of the ‘American Dream,’ increasingly out of reach. These inefficiencies impact everyone in the process: Architects face creative bottlenecks, builders lose valuable time, engineers spend hours on repetitive tasks, and families endure rising costs and delays.

Spacial is transforming this process by developing a platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of engineering and permitting—developing dedicated AI models for residential construction plans which automatically convert 2D architectural drawings into detailed 3D, code-compliant structural and MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing) plans with built-in design conflict detection, automatic local code validation, and engineering oversight and approval. By combining AI precision with human oversight and streamlining the handoff between architects, engineers, and permitting authorities, Spacial shortens cycles, reduces risk and waste, and enables teams to build faster according to local code while improving building (and living) quality.

Spacial was co-founded by CEO Maor Greenberg, a real estate and construction executive with over 19 years of experience. He is the founder of Greenberg Group, a vertically integrated real estate company based in Palo Alto, encompassing development, construction, and architecture; and Chief Product Officer Ami Avrahami—a seasoned technology entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience. He previously co-founded Reali, a real estate fintech company, and Veev, a prefab construction tech startup backed by top-tier investors. At Spacial, Maor and Ami combine deep domain and product expertise to lead the development of an AI-powered platform that simplifies and accelerates the design-to-permit workflow.

“The residential construction process has been stuck in the same slow, manual loop for decades,” said Maor Greenberg, Co-Founder and CEO of Spacial. “Spacial brings the art of AI automation to building—transforming how plans are engineered, coordinated, and approved. By eliminating obstacles and reducing costly errors, we’re giving builders and architects the control, speed, confidence, and time for creativity they need to deliver quality housing faster, while helping communities make homeownership more affordable.”

“We invest in teams that rethink how legacy industries operate, and Spacial is a prime example,” said Yonatan Mandelbaum, Partner at TLV Partners. “Spacial is taking one of the slowest, most fragmented parts of construction and turning it into a streamlined, connected, and scalable process. By doing so, they’re not just improving workflows, they’re redefining how homes get built.”

Spacial’s technology integrates directly with the tools architects and engineers already use, catching potential design conflicts (i.e., plumbing lines intersecting with structural beams) before submission. By resolving such issues early, Spacial helps reduce material waste and rework, contributing to greater sustainability and faster municipal approvals. The company is also partnering with local authorities to help streamline permit reviews, ensuring that plans are code-aligned from the get-go, reducing the back-and-forth revisions that slow development.

“Our mission is to future-proof the construction industry,” added Ami Avrahami, co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Spacial. “We’re building technology that connects design, engineering, and permitting in one seamless process, making residential construction smarter, faster, and more accessible for everyone.”

About Spacial

Spacial is an AI-powered engineering platform that delivers fast, accurate, and permit-ready structural and MEP plans for residential construction. The platform converts 2D architectural drawings into 3D, code-compliant construction documents with built-in design conflict detection, architectural detailing, and local code validation. Every plan undergoes a thorough evaluation and professional approval by licensed engineers to meet permitting standards. Architects, builders, and developers rely on Spacial to reduce delays, lower costs, and streamline the path from design to permit. With over 140 active projects across the U.S., Spacial is redefining how residential projects get built. Visit https://spacial.io for more information.

Media Contact
Justine Rosin
Headline Media
Email: [email protected]
Phone: US:+1 917 724 2176

SOURCE Spacial

• DRUO is a global direct-debit payment network enabling businesses to accept payments directly from bank accounts.
• The company connects 10,000 financial institutions and services almost 1 million users in the United States and Latin America.
• The seed round led by Global PayTech Ventures positions DRUO to expand to over 30 countries in 2026 and drive further user adoption.

MIAMI, Oct. 28, 2025 — Global direct-debit payment method DRUO has secured seed funding to scale its global proprietary network and increase service availability for more merchants and end users. The round was led by Global PayTech Ventures (GPT) and marks a milestone moment in DRUO’s rapid growth, positioning the Miami-based powerhouse to expand its network to several countries in 2026.

Despite modern innovation, the global payments infrastructure still relies on complex, 50-year-old systems. With up to 12 intermediaries involved in every transaction, individuals and businesses are forced to give up 3–5% of their revenue in fees while navigating fraud risks and operational friction. But the real cost is exclusion: Complexity and fees limit access to the global payment system for billions of businesses and consumers.

DRUO’s proprietary global debit network enables businesses to accept payments directly from bank accounts, even internationally. By connecting directly with financial institutions, this new infrastructure substantially reduces transaction costs to 0.5%, improves fraud protection by up to 25x compared to traditional pull payment systems, and expands coverage to any customer with a bank account.

“We’re giving the world a radically better way for businesses to accept payments,” says DRUO CEO Alejandro Pinzon. “We removed almost a dozen middlemen and built a new system to replace an antiquated process. DRUO gives merchants what they never had — secure, near-free payments. It now works with more than 1 billion bank accounts.”

DRUO is already the preferred payment method for almost 1 million end users across several countries including the United States, Mexico, Colombia, and Peru. Its proprietary network enables direct charges to more than 1 billion bank accounts across approximately 10,000 financial institutions. In September, DRUO reached approximately $294 million USD in total transaction volume processed since its 2022 launch, including $57.8 million USD in Q3 2025 alone, representing 188% year-over-year growth.

The growing demand for DRUO is rooted in its breakthrough solution to a fundamental gap in the global payments system: The ability to charge any bank account directly, even internationally. Although this capability should be elemental, it hasn’t previously been available at scale. DRUO is the first to make global direct-debit payments a reality. By cutting fees, fraud, and complexity out of the equation, DRUO is making businesses more profitable overnight.

DRUO’s commitment to driving economic growth by evolving the payments acceptance market  — along with its planned global expansion — recently captured the attention of Global Paytech Ventures, which led the seed round.

“DRUO’s direct-debit network creates a new category in the global payments system,” says Javier Perez, Founder and Managing Partner of GPT and former President of Mastercard Europe and Latin America. “By eliminating the friction associated with charging bank accounts directly, DRUO reduces the complexity and cost of accepting payments. DRUO’s end-to-end network powers every step of the payment journey, ensuring safer and faster transactions for all. The brilliance of DRUO lies in its utter simplicity: Direct, secure access to the source of funds.”

DRUO is expected to be available in Europe in 2026 as it continues expanding its global network. The seed funding will primarily be invested in building out DRUO’s global infrastructure and accelerating access to DRUO for both merchants and consumers. “Partnering with GPT is both an enabler and a validation of our vision to redefine global payments. Their paytech ecosystem expertise and global reach make them the perfect partner for this next stage,” says Alejandro Pinzon.

About DRUO

DRUO is a direct-debit payment method that enables businesses to get paid directly from bank accounts. The company’s proprietary international debit network allows merchants to accept payments from 3x more customers while substantially reducing incurred fees and fraud risk. DRUO is creating the backbone of a new, inclusive financial ecosystem that’s built for driving global commerce.

About Global Paytech Ventures

Global PayTech Ventures (GPT) is a venture capital firm focused on groundbreaking paytech platforms with global potential. Founded and led by Javier Perez, former President of Mastercard Europe and Latin America, along with his sons Daniel and Kristofer Perez, GPT brings unparalleled industry expertise and a powerful network to help next-generation payment companies scale worldwide.

Press contact
Melissa Zehner
949.639.9547
[email protected]

SOURCE DRUO