Spain’s Acoru Secures €10M to Pioneer Pre-Transaction Fraud Prediction in European Banking

European FinTech Investment Shifts to Proactive AI Fraud Prevention

In a significant move for Spain’s growing technology sector, Madrid-based cybersecurity platform Acoru has closed a €10 million Series A funding round to advance its predictive fraud detection system. The investment, led by 33N Ventures with participation from existing investors Adara Ventures and Athos Capital, positions the startup at the forefront of Europe’s battle against AI-powered financial crime.

The AI Fraud Arms Race Intensifies

According to Acoru CEO and Co-founder Pablo de la Riva Ferrezuelo, traditional fraud prevention systems are fundamentally unequipped for contemporary threats. “AI has changed the face of fraud and money laundering,” he stated. “You simply cannot expect technology built in 2010 to combat fraud happening in 2025.”

The funding arrives amid a notable surge in European investment targeting AI-driven financial crime prevention. This trend includes German platform Hawk’s €51.8 million raise, Italian company Trustfull’s €6 million funding, UK-based Innerworks’ €3.7 million round, and Czechia’s Resistant AI securing €21 million in Series B funding—all within 2025.

Acoru’s Consortium Model: A Paradigm Shift in Fraud Prevention

What distinguishes Acoru from transaction-focused competitors is its emphasis on pre-fraud detection and intent-based risk scoring. The company‘s platform identifies potential victims, money mules, and at-risk accounts by detecting early warning signals that conventional systems miss.

“With our innovative consortium model, banks can finally exchange account classifications through a centralized network that creates a truly collective defence,” explained de la Riva Ferrezuelo. “This is a paradigm shift in how fraud is fought.”, according to related coverage

The Growing Threat of AI-Enabled Financial Crime

Generative AI has dramatically escalated the fraud landscape, with deepfakes, voice cloning, and sophisticated social engineering schemes contributing to nearly $500 billion in global annual losses. Traditional solutions primarily focus on transactions, events, and sessions, leaving banks vulnerable to authorized push payment (APP) fraud—where victims are manipulated into voluntarily transferring funds to criminal accounts., according to further reading

Carlos Moreira da Silva, Partner at lead investor 33N Ventures, emphasized the severity of the situation: “Voluntary fraud has become one of the most damaging and underestimated challenges in today’s financial system. With the rise of AI, these scams will only become more frequent, more sophisticated, and more impactful.”, according to technology trends

How Acoru’s Technology Works

The Acoru Account Monitoring Platform employs continuous monitoring across all banking channels, evaluating not only the target account but every account it interacts with. The system identifies subtle patterns indicative of fraudulent activity, such as:

• Multiple micro-transactions suggesting AI automation
• Unusual interaction patterns across accounts
• Early signals of money mule recruitment
• Behavioral markers of authorized push payment fraud preparation

By building intelligent models of each account and classifying their risk levels, Acoru enables banks to intervene before transactions are initiated—a critical capability as new regulations mandate 50:50 cost sharing between sending and receiving banks for reimbursing fraud victims.

Founders with Proven Fraud-Fighting Credentials

Acoru represents the second venture for cybersecurity experts Pablo de la Riva Ferrezuelo and David Morán, who leveraged their extensive industry experience to address evolving fraud tactics. Since its 2023 founding, the company has grown to over 30 employees while establishing partnerships with financial institutions of varying sizes., as previous analysis

Moreira da Silva highlighted the team’s exceptional qualifications: “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.”

Regulatory Changes Driving Innovation

The timing of Acoru’s funding coincides with significant regulatory shifts in European banking. New requirements including PS23/4 and the forthcoming PSD3 directive mandate increased fraud loss reporting, victim reimbursement schemes, and enhanced collaboration between financial institutions on money mule detection.

These regulatory pressures, combined with the escalating sophistication of AI-powered fraud, create an urgent need for the pre-emptive detection capabilities that Acoru provides. As financial criminals increasingly leverage artificial intelligence, the banking sector’s defense mechanisms must evolve accordingly—making solutions like Acoru’s not just innovative but essential for financial security.

This comprehensive approach to fraud prevention represents a significant advancement in how financial institutions can protect customers while complying with evolving regulatory frameworks across Europe.

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