Generative AI has transformed the fraud landscape. Sophisticated tools like deepfakes, voice cloning, and social engineering are now being leveraged to trick victims into authorising fraudulent payments, a scam known as Authorised Push Payment (APP) Fraud.
Globally, such scams and associated financial crimes lead to losses approaching $500 billion annually. Unfortunately, most existing fraud detection systems focus on transactions after they’ve occurred, making them too slow to catch these evolving threats.
Acoru, a Madrid-based cybersecurity startup founded in 2023 by cybersecurity execs Pablo de la Riva Ferrezuelo and David Morán, takes a different approach by detecting criminal intent before fraud actually happens. Both founders bring over 20 years of experience and previously co-founded Buguroo, later rebranded as Revelock and acquired by Feedzai, where they protected millions of users worldwide.
Pablo told TFN, “I founded Acoru because after so many years fighting fraud, there were still many problems to solve: cross-channel fraud, consortium models that respect privacy regulations, and the early identification of mule accounts, among others.
But the mix became much more interesting when the rise of scams entered the picture. The signals that had been the fundamental pillar of unauthorised fraud detection stopped adding value. And to make matters worse, the use of generative artificial intelligence has become widespread, turning into a real threat in the hands of cybercriminals targeting financial service users.”
Today, the company raised €10 million in a Series A round led by 33N Ventures, with existing investors Adara Ventures and Athos Capital participating. The funding will accelerate Acoru’s technology development, expand its team, and support banks in meeting new regulatory requirements like PS23/4 and PSD3.
Pablo de la Riva Ferrezuelo, CEO and co-founder of Acoru, said: “AI has changed the face of fraud and money laundering. You simply cannot expect technology built in 2010 to combat fraud happening in 2025. The Acoru team has spent years within the cybersecurity and fraud prevention industries and realised we are failing to keep up with the changing fraud landscape.”
Acoru’s AI-powered Account Monitoring Platform continuously analyses banking activity across all channels—not only from a customer’s account but also from accounts they interact with. By detecting subtle signals such as micro-transactions, unusual behaviours, and automated AI-driven activity, the platform identifies suspicious intent in real time, classifying accounts by risk level and allowing banks to intervene before money moves.
Acoru stands out in the competitive fraud prevention space alongside companies like Featurespace, Darktrace, and Sift. However, its unique consortium model enables banks to securely share account risk classifications, creating a robust collective defence against fraud.
Carlos Moreira da Silva, Partner, 33N, added: “Voluntary fraud has become one of the most damaging and underestimated challenges in today’s financial system. It hurts individuals, families, and institutions alike. These scams are notoriously difficult to detect and stop, and with the rise of AI, they will only become more frequent, more sophisticated, and more impactful.
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.”
Since its inception, Acoru has grown to a team of more than 30 employees and has forged strong partnerships with banks and financial institutions globally.
