Founders from Ex-Rapyd, Meta and Goldman Sachs build infrastructure to unlock B2B cross-border financial services for global trading companies
PALO ALTO, Calif., June 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Tensec, a fintech innovator transforming cross-border financial services, has secured $12 million in seed funding to provide real-time, seamless payments and financial services for global companies operating in the $190 trillion cross-border payments market. The funding will accelerate Tensec’s mission to provide global trading companies and their clients access to cross-border real-time payments and transaction banking services that have historically been available only through large financial institutions.
Led by Costanoa Ventures, the round also includes investments from Quiet Capital, WillowTree Investments, Cambrian VC, Ignia Partners, Montage Ventures, Renegade Partners, and Endeavor Scale Up Ventures.
“SMBs drive nearly half of global trade but have long been excluded from the financial tools that larger players rely on,” said Helcio Nobre, CEO and co-founder of Tensec. “We’re flipping the model by empowering global trading companies to deliver these services directly to their partners—making global commerce faster, cheaper and more accessible.”
Tensec leverages AI, real-time payments and a global fintech infrastructure to create a no-integration platform that enables global trading companies to offer foreign exchange (FX) services, cross-border payments, treasury and other financial services to their SMB clients. The company is already working with customers who facilitate $10 billion in annual trade volume. Tensec projects this will grow to $30 billion in annual trade volume after its upcoming service expansion into APAC and the EU markets.
“Tensec lets global trade companies seamlessly integrate financial services to better serve their clients,” said Amy Cheetham, Partner at Costanoa Ventures. “It’s a win-win—new revenue for trading companies and modern financial tools for SMBs who’ve been underserved for decades.”
Tensec is targeting the massive cross-border payments infrastructure that still runs on 40-year-old SWIFT technology. With global cross-border payments projected to reach $250 trillion by 2030, there has been significant fintech innovation in consumer and enterprise payments. However, SMB cross-border payments remain largely untouched by innovation, despite representing over 40% of the $25 trillion annual physical goods trade. Tensec is bridging this critical gap.
“Legacy banks built their cross-border infrastructure when fax machines were cutting-edge,” said Helcio. “We’re skipping that entire stack. Our services let the companies already engaged in global trade to offer their own financial services innovations. It fills a real need – and their clients thrive.”
Tensec’s platform consolidates payment, hedging, and trade finance capabilities into a single, user-friendly interface that requires no integration work, making it simpler for trading companies to offer clients services previously only available from banks. Banking services in the United States are provided by Stearns Bank, Member FDIC. The benefits for Tensec customers include:
- No-API or coding required–just a simple login to access all services, eliminating months of engineering work.
- Unified FX transactions, cross-border payments and banking services tools in one platform, removing the need for multiple systems.
- Client onboarding in minutes, instead of weeks with intelligent KYB/KYC verification that improves with each onboarding.
- Real-time global payments that cut traditional waiting periods of four days.
- Revenue management optimization through the use of real-time exchange rate information, instead of fixed rates.
- Built-in risk assessment and AI-powered compliance checks with real-time regulatory updates.
- USD FX hedging services to capitalize on exchange rate fluctuations.
- Support for transactions in 150+ countries, 100+ real-time payment markets, and 70+ currencies.
“While tariffs shift trade patterns, they don’t slow it down,” said Sandrine Okasmaa, who is Tensec’s Chief Operating Officer and co-founder and previously led compliance at Bond and held senior legal roles at Goldman Sachs, Mastercard and American Express. “Our platform connects existing and emerging trade corridors with financial muscle that traditional banks simply don’t provide.”
The logistics industry has seen disruption, with companies like Flexport raising billions, but the financial technology layer has remained largely untapped. Tensec’s offering is the first major effort to merge logistics and fintech infrastructure at scale.
“The next wave of fintech is about contextual finance, not standalone financial apps,” added Yang Wang, co-founder, VP of Engineering at Tensec and former Head of Product Engineering at Bond. “We’re embedding sophisticated financial capabilities exactly where and when global traders need them.”
For further information on Tensec, please visit tensec.io.
About Tensec
Tensec is reimagining B2B cross-border financial services by providing the fastest and simplest way for businesses to move money across global markets. Founded by veterans from PayPal, Meta, Goldman Sachs, Visa, Mastercard, Rapyd, and Credit Karma, Tensec equips global trade companies and FX service providers with the tools to directly deliver cross-border payments and financial solutions to their clients. Backed by world-class investors, Tensec is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in New York, Mexico City, and São Paulo. Banking services in the United States are provided by Stearns Bank, Member FDIC. For more information, visit www.tensec.io.
About Costanoa Ventures:
Founded in 2012, Costanoa Ventures partners with builders as early as company formation, with a focus on apps and infrastructure in data, dev, security and fintech. Costanoa is a long-term, boutique partner to entrepreneurs from the earliest stages of company building with expertise from its BuilderOps team. For more information, please visit www.costanoa.vc.
Media Contact: costanoa@bambybig.agency
SOURCE Tensec US, Inc.