Tunic Pay's $5 Million Seed Wires a Fraud Layer Into Real-Time Payments

Nicky Goulimis and Nico Barawid have each built companies that raised over $50 million. Their new one, Tunic Pay, is a narrower bet. It sells a software layer that tries to stop a bank transfer at the exact moment a customer is being scammed.

The London-based fintech, founded in 2023, targets the specific and growing problem of authorized push-payment (APP) fraud. This is where a customer is socially engineered,by a fake invoice, a romance scam, or an impersonated official,into willingly authorizing a payment to a criminal. The money moves in seconds. Recovery rates are low. For banks, it is a reputational and regulatory headache. Tunic Pay’s platform aims to insert intelligence into that payment flow, verifying recipients and adding risk signals before the transaction is finalized [tunicpay.com, retrieved 2026].

A Wedge in Real-Time Payments

Tunic Pay’s product is not a broad fraud-monitoring suite. Its stated wedge is real-time APP scam prevention for the sending institution. The company says its technology helps banks identify suspicious transactions before money is lost, using capabilities like recipient verification and dynamic transaction information [PERPLEXITY SONAR PRO BRIEF]. The goal is to flag scams early and clear legitimate payments instantly, stopping fraud before the customer feels the impact [tunicpay.com, retrieved 2026].

The timing aligns with regulatory pressure, particularly in the UK where APP fraud losses have spurred government action. A UK Parliament submission from May 2025 explicitly identifies APP fraud prevention as the company’s focus, providing institutional context for its work [UK Parliament, May 2025]. Tunic claims it is already working with some of the largest UK banks and is launching with US banks and credit unions [PERPLEXITY SONAR PRO BRIEF].

The Operator DNA

The founders bring complementary, scaled operational experience from prior ventures. This is a team built to navigate the long sales cycles and complex integrations of financial infrastructure.

• Nicky Goulimis, Co-Founder. Previously co-founded and served as COO of Nova Credit, a cross-border credit reporting platform. She helped lead the company through fundraising that totaled over $150 million from investors and forged partnerships with institutions like American Express and HSBC [PERPLEXITY SONAR PRO BRIEF][Outliers, retrieved 2026].
• Nico Barawid, Co-Founder. Previously founded and served as CEO of Casai, a Latin American hospitality startup. He scaled operations across Mexico and Brazil, raised more than $50 million, and served over 100,000 customers before the company ceased operations in 2023 [PERPLEXITY SONAR PRO BRIEF][Dealroom.co, retrieved 2026].

The broader team includes alumni from Wise, Monzo, Palantir, and Morgan Stanley, suggesting a blend of fintech, data, and enterprise sales experience [PERPLEXITY SONAR PRO BRIEF].

The Investor Vote

In 2024, Tunic Pay raised a $5 million seed round [Capital.gr, September 2026]. The investor list is a signal of credibility in early-stage fintech, featuring firms known for their thesis-driven bets.

Investor	Notable Focus
LocalGlobe	Early-stage, often the largest backer in UK fintech rounds [Startups 100, January 2025]
Flourish Ventures	Fintech for financial health and inclusion
Avid Ventures	Early-stage fintech and software
BoxGroup	Early-stage venture across sectors
Point72	The venture arm of the hedge fund

This capital is funding a transatlantic push. Open roles advertised in 2026 include a US Commercial Associate in New York, tasked with launching Tunic in the United States and working with banks and credit unions from prospecting through onboarding [PERPLEXITY SONAR PRO BRIEF]. A separate Growth & Commercial Strategy role in London is described as owning the customer lifecycle for UK banks [Jack & Jill, retrieved 2026].

The Specificity Gambit

Tunic Pay’s entire pitch rests on a claim of specificity. The company asserts it is “the only fraud vendor designed specifically for APP” [LinkedIn, retrieved 2026][Fraud Leaders' Summit, retrieved 2026]. This is a deliberate positioning against broader, legacy fraud solutions that may treat APP scams as a secondary use case. The bet is that banks, under regulatory and consumer pressure, will seek out a specialist.

The risk is that specificity can also be a constraint. Enterprise buyers often prefer consolidated platforms from established vendors. A bank’s fraud department may be reluctant to add another point solution to a crowded tech stack, especially one that requires deep integration into core payment rails. Tunic’s answer will be commercial traction,proving its module is not just specialized, but demonstrably more effective at stopping APP fraud than the generic alternative. Its early engagements with unnamed UK banks are the first test of that value proposition [PERPLEXITY SONAR PRO BRIEF].

The Next Twelve Months

The roadmap is clear from the hiring briefs: convert pilot conversations in the US into named customer launches, and expand footprint with initial UK partners. Goulimis is scheduled to appear on a panel at the United Nations Global Fraud Summit in Vienna in March 2026, alongside partners from NatWest Group and the National Economic Crime Centre, suggesting ongoing efforts to build institutional credibility [Cyrus Lyons - Tunic Pay | LinkedIn, retrieved 2026].

The $5 million seed from LocalGlobe, Flourish, Avid, BoxGroup, and Point72 is a starting gun. The next capital raise will be priced on the answer to a single question: can a specialist layer prove its worth inside the fortress of a major bank’s payment system?

Sources

1. [PERPLEXITY SONAR PRO BRIEF, retrieved 2026] Tunic Pay company overview and product description
2. [tunicpay.com, retrieved 2026] About | Tunic Pay
3. [UK Parliament, May 2025] Written evidence AIFS0075
4. [Capital.gr, September 2026] Οι 4 Έλληνες founders της AI που μίλησαν με τον Κ. Μητσοτάκη στο Σαν Φρανσίσκο
5. [Startups 100, January 2025] Tunic Pay - the new safety net to support scam victims
6. [Outliers, retrieved 2026] Nicky Goulimis profile
7. [Dealroom.co, retrieved 2026] Casai company profile
8. [LinkedIn, retrieved 2026] Tunic Pay | LinkedIn
9. [Fraud Leaders' Summit, retrieved 2026] Event description citing Tunic Pay
10. [Jack & Jill, retrieved 2026] Growth & Commercial Strategy role listing for Tunic Pay
11. [Cyrus Lyons - Tunic Pay | LinkedIn, retrieved 2026] Post about United Nations Global Fraud Summit panel