ECB Taps Feedzai for Digital Euro Fraud Prevention as Feedzai Hits $2B Valuation

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The European Central Bank (ECB) has taken a decisive step in its plans for the digital euro by selecting Feedzai, a Lisbon-based risk management and fraud prevention platform, as its first-ranked partner to build the central fraud detection and prevention mechanism for Europe’s forthcoming central bank digital currency (CBDC). The announcement coincides with Feedzai’s own milestone achievement: a $75 million funding round that has pushed its valuation beyond $2 billion, reflecting both the market’s confidence in its technology and the growing urgency of combating financial crime.

Together, these developments underscore how financial crime prevention is becoming integral to the next wave of monetary innovation. For the ECB, securing a trusted partner to deliver state-of-the-art fraud controls is central to ensuring public trust in the digital euro. For Feedzai, aligning its mission of fighting fraud with one of Europe’s most ambitious financial projects marks a validation of its technology, scale, and reputation as a global leader in AI-driven RiskOps.

“Being selected as the first-ranked tenderer in the framework agreement to secure the digital euro is both an honor and a responsibility,” said Nuno Sebastião, CEO and Co-Founder of Feedzai. “With tens of billions of transactions expected across the eurozone, success depends on AI that can adapt as quickly as fraud evolves. Our role is to provide the intelligence that keeps even the most sophisticated fraud out, ensuring trust in every digital euro transaction from day one.”

Why Fraud Prevention Is Central to the Digital Euro

The eurozone represents more than 440 million citizens and a GDP of over $17 trillion, making the introduction of the digital euro one of the most consequential monetary innovations since the launch of the single currency in 1999. The ECB has repeatedly stressed that the digital euro will be a public good, designed to preserve the role of central bank money in a digital world while reducing reliance on non-EU payment providers and reinforcing Europe’s strategic autonomy.

But with digitization comes risk. Fraud is among the most significant threats to digital trust. The ECB’s framework agreement with Feedzai, valued at up to €237.3 million, underscores the scale of the challenge. Every peer-to-peer or peer-to-merchant transaction will be screened, with Feedzai’s AI platform generating a fraud risk score that payment service providers (PSPs) will use alongside their own controls when deciding whether to approve or decline payments.

“This is one of the most consequential digital infrastructure projects in Europe’s history — a foundation for trust in the digital age,” said PwC’s Liviu Chirita and Dominic Schauerte, whose firm is partnering with Feedzai on the project. “Together with Feedzai and the European Central Bank, we are building the safeguards that will protect millions of people and businesses across borders.”

Takeaway

Fraud prevention is at the heart of the ECB’s digital euro strategy, with Feedzai providing AI-driven risk scoring to protect every transaction across the eurozone.

The Digital Euro: Public Good Meets Cutting-Edge Technology

Unlike private stablecoins or cryptocurrencies, the digital euro is designed as a sovereign monetary instrument, backed by the ECB. Privacy, inclusivity, and accessibility are core principles. Features under discussion include pseudonymisation, encryption, and the ability to make small offline payments in cash-like fashion. By embedding fraud prevention at the infrastructure level, the ECB is ensuring that compliance and trust are built into the digital euro’s DNA from the start.

Feedzai’s selection reflects not only its technology but also its credibility. Already trusted by leading financial institutions to safeguard trillions of dollars of global transactions, the company combines machine learning, behavioral analytics, and real-time monitoring to detect fraudulent activity at scale. This makes it well-suited to the high volumes and high stakes of a pan-European digital currency.

As Nuno Sebastião framed it: “Fraud isn’t just numbers on a balance sheet. It’s families losing their life savings and businesses losing customers. Protecting people and organizations from financial crime is why we built Feedzai. It’s our steadfast mission to keep commerce safe.”

Takeaway

The ECB envisions the digital euro as a public good — sovereign, private, and inclusive — with fraud protection embedded at the core of its infrastructure.

Feedzai’s $2B Valuation: Fueling the Mission

The timing of the ECB announcement is notable, arriving as Feedzai confirmed its valuation has climbed past $2 billion following a $75 million funding round. New investors include Lince Capital, Iberis Capital, and Explorer Investments, alongside renewed support from Oxy Capital and Buenavista Equity Partners. The raise underscores how central fraud prevention has become to financial stability in an era of instant payments and embedded finance.

Investors were keen to highlight Feedzai’s ability to scale globally while executing across multiple product lines. “Financial fraud is one of the defining risks of our time, and Feedzai combines proven technology with deep expertise to protect both banks and their customers,” said Vasco Pereira Coutinho, CEO at Lince Capital. “With its AI-driven, end-to-end approach to risk operations, Feedzai is uniquely positioned to transform the industry.”

The funds will support Feedzai’s product innovation, including its flagship tools Feedzai Orchestration and Feedzai IQ, which enable more intelligent, rapid, and precise risk assessments. The company also continues to develop its TRUST Framework for responsible AI, ensuring transparency, fairness, and security in financial crime prevention systems.

Takeaway

Feedzai’s $2B valuation and new investment provide fuel for its mission to expand AI-driven fraud prevention, aligning with its role in securing the digital euro.

Industry Challenges: Manual Workloads and False Positives

The need for solutions like Feedzai’s is highlighted by findings from LSEG’s 2025 Global Risk Intelligence Survey, which reported that 77% of financial institutions cite manual review workloads as a key compliance barrier, while 75% report excessive false positives from legacy systems. With 98% saying real-time data is critical to their compliance workflows, the market demand for scalable, AI-native fraud prevention has never been clearer.

Feedzai’s platform addresses this by consolidating risk and compliance functions that many institutions currently outsource to a dozen separate vendors. By unifying fraud detection, anti-money laundering, and risk operations in a single AI-native platform, Feedzai not only reduces costs but also improves accuracy. This is especially critical in environments like the digital euro, where even small inefficiencies at scale could undermine confidence in the system.

“This new investment round enables us to continue driving innovation to defend against whatever comes next, so that every form of payment, even those yet to be imagined, can be trusted and adopted safely,” Sebastião said.

Takeaway

Legacy compliance tools create inefficiency and false positives; Feedzai’s unified AI-native approach reduces friction and protects institutions at scale.

Global Implications of the ECB’s Digital Euro Project

The digital euro project is not just about Europe. Other central banks are closely watching the ECB’s progress as they consider their own CBDCs. Fraud prevention, privacy, and inclusivity are issues that transcend borders. By selecting Feedzai and PwC to deliver the digital euro’s fraud prevention backbone, the ECB is sending a signal that Europe intends to lead on secure, sovereign digital infrastructure.

For Feedzai, this represents an opportunity to export its model globally. Already protecting more than 70 billion annualized payment transactions and preventing over $2 billion in losses annually, the firm is well-positioned to help other regions adapt its tools for their own digital currency initiatives. The ECB partnership may thus act as a template for global standards in CBDC fraud prevention.

“Together with Feedzai and the European Central Bank, we are building the safeguards that will protect millions of people and businesses across borders,” PwC’s leaders emphasized. The comment reflects not just a European challenge but a global imperative: ensuring that the digitization of money does not erode, but enhances, public trust.

Takeaway

The ECB’s work with Feedzai will shape global standards for CBDCs, positioning Europe as a leader in secure, sovereign digital money infrastructure.

Outlook: Trust as the Cornerstone of Digital Finance

The ECB’s digital euro project and Feedzai’s growth trajectory converge on a single theme: trust. For the ECB, embedding fraud prevention into the digital euro’s infrastructure is about ensuring citizens accept and adopt the new currency. For Feedzai, scaling AI-driven fraud prevention is about ensuring every transaction — whether through banks, fintechs, or central banks — is safe, seamless, and compliant.

As the digital euro moves from planning into development, and as Feedzai continues to expand globally with new investment, both institutions are at the forefront of defining how trust, compliance, and innovation will coexist in the digital age. Their partnership represents not just a milestone for Europe but a roadmap for how technology and regulation can work hand-in-hand to secure the future of money.

Takeaway

Trust is the linchpin of digital finance. With the ECB and Feedzai aligning, the digital euro could set a benchmark for secure and inclusive money in the digital age.

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