European FinTech Investment Heats Up as Acoru Joins AI Fraud Prevention Wave
Madrid-based cybersecurity platform Acoru has successfully closed a €10 million Series A funding round to advance its pioneering approach to predicting and preventing AI-enabled fraud and money laundering. The investment, led by 33N Ventures with participation from existing investors Adara Ventures and Athos Capital, positions the Spanish startup at the forefront of Europe’s growing RegTech sector., according to technology trends
Table of Contents
- European FinTech Investment Heats Up as Acoru Joins AI Fraud Prevention Wave
- The AI Fraud Epidemic Demands New Defenses
- Proactive Prevention Through Pre-Fraud Detection
- The Consortium Model: A Paradigm Shift in Collective Defense
- Meeting Regulatory Challenges Head-On
- Experienced Leadership Driving Innovation
- European Context: AI Fraud Prevention Gains Momentum
- Looking Ahead: The Future of Fraud Prevention
The AI Fraud Epidemic Demands New Defenses
According to industry estimates cited by Acoru, fraud scams and bank fraud schemes now generate nearly $500 billion in global losses annually. The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence has created unprecedented challenges for financial institutions, with generative AI-driven scams including deepfakes, voice cloning, and sophisticated social engineering techniques fueling this alarming trend.
“AI has completely transformed the fraud and money laundering landscape,” explained Pablo de la Riva Ferrezuelo, CEO and Co-founder of Acoru. “Technology developed over a decade ago simply cannot combat the sophisticated threats we’re facing in 2025. Our team recognized that the industry was failing to keep pace with these evolving criminal methodologies.”
Proactive Prevention Through Pre-Fraud Detection
What distinguishes Acoru from traditional fraud prevention solutions is its focus on pre-transaction detection and intent-based risk scoring. While conventional systems primarily monitor transactions, events, and sessions after they occur, Acoru’s platform identifies potential fraud before any money movement takes place., according to market trends
“Today’s scammers have more powerful tools at their disposal than ever before,” de la Riva Ferrezuelo emphasized. “Our unique approach predicts future victims, money mules, and accounts at risk of being used for laundering by detecting the earliest warning signals that other systems miss.”, according to related coverage
The Consortium Model: A Paradigm Shift in Collective Defense
Central to Acoru’s strategy is its innovative consortium model, which enables banks to exchange account classifications through a centralized network. This creates what the company describes as “a truly collective defense” against financial crime—a significant advancement over the isolated approaches that have traditionally dominated the industry.
The platform continuously monitors bank accounts, evaluating events across all channels and examining not only the target account but every account it interacts with. Through this comprehensive monitoring, Acoru builds intelligent models of each account, scoring, classifying, and predicting future risk through pre-fraud detection., according to recent studies
Meeting Regulatory Challenges Head-On
Acoru’s timing appears strategic as new financial regulations come into force across Europe. Recent mandates require that victims of authorized push payments and unauthorized fraud be reimbursed through cost-sharing arrangements between sending and receiving banks. The platform helps institutions comply with these requirements while minimizing their exposure., according to recent research
The Acoru Account Monitoring Platform specifically addresses compliance with banking regulations that demand:
- Shared scam reimbursements to victims
- Reporting of fraud losses (PS23/4, PSD3)
- Money mule reporting and inter-institutional collaboration
Experienced Leadership Driving Innovation
Founded in 2023 by cybersecurity and fraud prevention experts Pablo de la Riva Ferrezuelo and David Morán, Acoru represents the founders’ second venture in the security space. Despite its relatively recent establishment, the company has rapidly built a global team exceeding 30 professionals while demonstrating significant revenue growth through partnerships with financial institutions of varying sizes.
Carlos Moreira da Silva, Partner at lead investor 33N Ventures, highlighted the team’s exceptional capabilities: “Voluntary fraud has become one of the most damaging and underestimated challenges in today’s financial system. What impressed us about Acoru is not just their vision, but the rare combination of deep domain expertise and execution excellence of the founding team. Only an exceptional team could design a platform this comprehensive, easy to deploy, and intelligent.”
European Context: AI Fraud Prevention Gains Momentum
Acoru’s funding round reflects a broader European trend of investment in AI-driven fraud and financial crime prevention solutions. The €10 million Series A places the Spanish company within a cohort of European startups addressing similar challenges:
- Germany’s Hawk secured €51.8 million for its explainable-AI AML platform
- Italy’s Trustfull raised €6 million to expand its fraud-prevention platform
- UK’s Innerworks collected €3.7 million for AI-powered fraud intelligence
- Czechia’s Resistant AI recently secured €21 million in Series B funding
This mid-range investment highlights Spain’s growing participation in Europe’s FinTech and RegTech investment landscape, demonstrating the continent’s collective response to the escalating threat of AI-powered financial crime.
Looking Ahead: The Future of Fraud Prevention
As financial criminals increasingly leverage artificial intelligence, the industry must evolve beyond transaction-centric approaches. Acoru’s focus on criminal intent detection and pre-fraud signaling represents what many experts believe is the necessary direction for effective financial crime prevention., as comprehensive coverage
Built by veteran fraud fighters with extensive experience tracking criminal networks, Acoru’s platform connects pre-fraud signals with contextual information across channels within individual banks and across the entire consortium network. This enables financial crime teams to selectively block fraudulent transactions in victim accounts while freezing complicit mule and money laundering accounts before funds can be moved—potentially saving billions in fraudulent transfers and regulatory penalties.
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