UK Seed Rounds Signal Momentum in European Fintech and AI Data Infrastructure

Mike Saraswat, co-founder and CEO of Stoa, told EU-Startups that the future of cash management extends beyond interest rates, adding that people want choice, tangible value and a clearer sense of how their money works. He said the model helps financial institutions attract larger deposits for longer, while helping merchants reduce churn and lower reliance on card processing fees.

EU-Startups noted the raise arrives amid continued fintech infrastructure funding this year, reporting at least €380 million across comparable rounds involving companies such as Round Treasury, MillTech, Allica Bank, wamo, Primer, Bound and Firenze.

Worldmodeldata Turns Gameplay Into AI Training Data

Separately, Cambridge-based Worldmodeldata emerged from stealth with €8 million (£7 million) in Seed funding, led by London-based Iona Star Capital. The company builds a database of training data generated from video games to support so-called world models, AI systems designed to understand and predict how environments change over time.

According to Tech.eu, Worldmodeldata sources data through licensing agreements with game developers and communities, including titles built on Unreal and Unity, rather than through web scraping. Potential applications include autonomous vehicles, where world models can simulate traffic conditions and predict pedestrian movement. Lord Richard Allan, former vice president of public policy at Meta, has joined the board as chairman.

Founder and CEO Rhea Loucas told EU-Startups that world models represent a fundamental paradigm shift in AI but require internet-scale data, describing video games as safe, controlled environments suited to generating the action-conditioned data needed at scale.

EU-Startups placed the round within a wider 2026 trend around AI data infrastructure and physical AI in Europe, citing adjacent raises including Paris-based AMI, and London-based Encord and Stanhope AI.