Ralio raises pre-seed to enable AI agents to transact with auditable verification
This article covers Ralio, a fintech startup, which has raised £1.8m in a pre-seed funding round to build payments infrastructure that lets autonomous AI agents transact across bank transfers, cards and stablecoins with built-in verification and auditability. The development aims to provide a payments layer embedding identity verification, audit trails and programmable guardrails to support enterprises and fintechs experimenting with agentic finance and to improve compliance for autonomous transactions.
Ralio, a fintech startup, has raised £1.8m in a pre-seed funding round to build payments infrastructure that lets autonomous AI agents transact across bank transfers, cards and stablecoins with built-in verification and auditability. The cash will be used to accelerate product development and expand an engineering team in London — a sign that entrepreneurs are turning attention to the mechanics of "agentic" finance as AI systems move beyond assistants and into financial decision-making.
Why it matters
AI agents are increasingly able to act autonomously: procuring services, negotiating contracts and managing budgets. Existing payment rails and fraud controls were designed for human approval flows and identity checks. That mismatch creates practical and regulatory risk for businesses that want to delegate financial tasks to autonomous systems.
Ralio aims to provide a dedicated payments layer that embeds identity verification, audit trails and programmable guardrails into transactions. If successful, that layer would reduce friction for enterprises experimenting with agentic workflows and provide clearer trails for compliance and dispute resolution.
Inside the product
Ralio's platform connects AI-driven systems to multiple payment methods, including bank transfers, cards and stablecoins, while surfacing controls that make transactions auditable and policy-compliant. The product is positioned at the intersection of payments engineering and compliance: transaction orchestration, identity and verification, and machine-actionable audit logs are core features.
Leadership brings payments experience: CEO Ghali Bennani Laafiret previously led revenue operations at fintech Alan and B2B software firm LumApps, and CTO Leonardo Rosales worked on payment infrastructure for Tier 1 banks at Form3. The company says the funding will be used to further develop its core platform and grow its London engineering team.
Who are the investors?
Ralio’s pre-seed round was led by Sure Valley Ventures and included Seed X, Love Ventures, Plug and Play, rule30, Adeline Arts and Science, Endurance Ventures, Campus Fund, Alan Morgan and Antler.
The founders say the raise was three times oversubscribed within three months of founding, and the round has been described by the company as one of the largest agentic payments financings in Europe to date. Investors cite the combination of payments expertise and early commercial traction as the main rationale for backing the team.
In the announcement, Barry Downes, Partner at Sure Valley Ventures, said:
AI agents are increasingly executing autonomous transactions, but payment infrastructure still relies heavily on human oversight - creating real regulatory and financial risk. Ralio is building the payments infrastructure layer to address this - embedding verification and compliance directly into agentic payments. What stood out was Ghali and Leo's unique combination of deep payments expertise and proven commercial execution. This is category-defining infrastructure for agentic payments and exactly the type of opportunity we look for at SVV.
In the announcement, Adam French, Partner at Antler, said:
Ralio is tackling one of the most significant challenges in the next decade of AI adoption. For AI to reach its full potential, it must be able to move value safely. We backed this team because they have the domain expertise to bridge the gap between legacy payment systems and the future of autonomous finance. Their progress since founding just a few months ago has been exceptional, and we are proud to support them as they build a new category in fintech.
If you're researching potential backers in this space:
- Explore our list of fintech venture capital firms in the UK
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Founder perspective
In the announcement, Ghali Bennani Laafiret, Co-founder & CEO at Ralio, said:
AI agents are no longer just productivity tools, they are becoming autonomous economic actors capable of procuring services and managing capital. However, the world of finance is still built for human intervention. Ralio is building the missing layer that makes agentic finance safe and scalable for the enterprise. This funding will allow us to accelerate our product development and ensure that as AI begins to transact, it does so within a framework of total accountability.
The bigger picture
Payments infrastructure has long been a backbone problem for fintech innovation. As software systems take on more decision-making authority, the need for machine-friendly, auditable payment rails increases. Ralio is one of several early-stage companies trying to retrofit assurance and compliance into programmable payments rather than waiting for incumbents to adapt.
The deal reflects growing interest from UK fintech investors in infrastructure that enables new uses of AI in finance. For enterprises and regulators, the next questions will be how these systems perform in production, how easily they integrate with existing controls, and which standards emerge around liability and oversight.
This raise underlines London’s continued pull for fintech engineering talent and the wider European appetite for niche infrastructure plays that bridge legacy finance and next-generation AI workflows.
They've invested in Ralio
Get to know these fintech investors
| Investor | Sector | Stage | Activity | Team | Connect |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Sure Valley Ventures | 12 investments investments | 2 contacts contacts | |||
 Seed X | 5 investments investments | 1 contact contact | |||
 Love Ventures | 16 investments investments | 4 contacts contacts | |||
 Plug and Play | 16 investments investments | more info | |||
 Rule30 | 1 investment investment | more info | |||
 Endurance Ventures | 3 investments investments | 1 contact contact | |||
 Campus Fund | 1 investment investment | more info | |||
 Antler | 18 investments investments | 23 contacts contacts |
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