- Key insight: Slash Financial is the latest large funding round in the private venture capital market for fintechs.
- Expert quote: "Deal sizes are climbing at earlier stages, and median valuations are at record highs across the board." —Pitchbook's Rudy Yang
- Forward look: The business banking fintech will use the funds to invest in distribution and marketing and support the launch of its new AI agent.
Business banking fintech Slash Financial has reportedly reached unicorn status through its latest funding round.
The fintech, which offers bank accounts, corporate credit cards, global payments and digital asset offerings to business customers, announced on Thursday that it raised $100 million via a Series C funding round and that it is now valued at $1.4 billion.
The announcement comes as venture funding over the last few months has consolidated behind AI and the overall market has weathered geopolitical uncertainty.
The funding round was led by Ribbit Capital, with Khosla Ventures and Goodwater Capital co-leading. New Enterprise Associates and Y Combinator also participated in the round and are investing in Slash for a fourth time, according to the company.
Sarah Lamont, a senior associate at global venture capital firm F-Prime, told American Banker that Slash represents the largest U.S.-based fintech fundraise in the second quarter of 2026 so far, according to data sourced from Pitchbook.
"There [have been] several $100 million-plus mega-rounds over the last few months," she said. "Although Slash is not an outlier, it's great momentum in the fintech world."
Pitchbook fintech analyst Rudy Yang confirmed the fintech funding trend.
"Slash's deal stands out, but it also reflects patterns we have been observing in fintech fundraising over the past few months," he told American Banker. "Deal sizes are climbing at earlier stages, and median valuations are at record highs across the board."
Slash also used the fundraise to debut its latest product: an AI-powered agent called "Twin." Twin, according to a company statement, acts as an "AI Chief of Staff" by accessing a business client's Slash account to find and analyze financial or operational tasks and take action on those findings via direct card or bank payments.
"The underlying premise is that businesses shouldn't have to operate their financial tools manually if an intelligent agent can do it for them," the company said in a statement. "All activity runs through a secure agent layer that keeps sensitive account and card details protected."
Slash CEO Victor Cardenas told American Banker that although the new AI agent was announced at the same time as the Series C fundraise, the funding round is not exclusively dedicated to the product launch.
"Twin will continue to deepen, but it's not a particularly capital-intensive product for us to build," he said. "The majority of this funding is really about distribution and marketing as we scale."
Cardenas went on to say that the company will use its newly acquired funding to expand its current products such as stablecoin management and fiat money movement, invest in an international expansion and further grow the company's internal headcount and infrastructure.
Slash competes in a business banking market also occupied by fintechs such as
Slash Financial accounts are sponsored by
When asked why Slash selected Column as its partner bank, Cardenas said that the bank took the time to understand his company's operations and "ask hard questions."
"When we were evaluating partner banks, most wanted to understand our business just well enough to decide whether to work with us," he said. "Column went much deeper. I also built a strong personal relationship with the founder early on, which gave us added confidence in how they think and how they work. For what we're building – constantly adding new capabilities, new verticals and new rails – you need a banking partner that's built to move with you."
Cardenas and his co-founder Kevin Bai launched Slash Financial in 2021 when they were both 19 years old. The two built the company to offer virtual banking services to sneaker resellers, and saw $5 million in revenue in Slash's first year.
However, in 2022, the sneaker resale market crashed after Ye (known at the time as Kanye West) made a series of antisemitic public statements and Adidas ended its partnership with Yeezy, which was the backbone of the sneaker reselling economy at the time.
According to Cardenas, Slash's revenue fell by 80% overnight from the fallout.
"This was both the toughest moment for me as a founder and the best thing that ever happened to Slash," he recounted in a blog post.
Instead of shutting down, Cardenas and Bai pivoted to building vertical banking products for other types of online businesses. The company has since grown to $250 million in annualized revenue in 2025. Slash also processed around $1 billion in annualized stablecoin payment volume within nine months of launching the product, according to the company.
"Our customers are extremely focused on their bottom line," Cardenas said. "A lot of the businesses we serve are running lean operations, so even small percentage improvements matter dramatically at scale."
