Gardia raises €8.5M to tackle online banking fraud
Fraud prevention startup Gardia has secured €8.5 million in a Series A funding round led by venture capital firm Peak, with participation from amberra, butterfly & elephant and existing investors. The new capital will be used to scale its technology and expand partnerships with banks and financial institutions across Europe.
A data-driven shield for banks and consumers
Gardia develops a real-time fraud protection platform designed to help banks identify and block suspicious transactions before money leaves a customer’s account. By combining advanced machine learning, behavioral analytics and rule-based monitoring, the company aims to reduce losses from phishing, social engineering and other forms of online financial crime.
The platform integrates directly into a bank’s existing systems, monitoring patterns such as unusual payment destinations, atypical transfer amounts and rapid changes in user behavior. Alerts are generated for bank fraud teams, who can then intervene, request additional verification or halt transactions entirely.
Investor confidence in fraud prevention technology
Lead investor Peak highlighted the growing urgency for robust fraud detection and transaction monitoring tools as digital banking adoption accelerates. Rising cases of authorised push payment fraud and increasingly sophisticated scams have put pressure on banks to strengthen their customer protection frameworks and comply with tightening regulatory expectations.
With the support of amberra, butterfly & elephant and returning backers, Gardia plans to invest in product development, expand its engineering and data science teams, and deepen cooperation with banks in key European markets. The company is positioning itself as a strategic partner for financial institutions seeking to cut fraud losses while maintaining a smooth digital customer experience.
Scaling a European fraud defense network
The fresh funding will also enable Gardia to enhance cross-institution intelligence sharing, allowing participating banks to benefit from a broader network of fraud signals. By aggregating anonymised data on emerging threats, the startup aims to stay ahead of new attack patterns and strengthen the wider ecosystem’s resilience against cyber-enabled financial crime.