Flex Raises $70M from Ryan Smith’s Halo Fund to Take Its AI Private Bank Global
July 14, 2026 – 1:00 pm
Six months ago, Flex raised $60m and labeled it a Series B. On Tuesday, it announced another $70m raise—opted for a Series B1 round instead of continuing down the alphabet. The investment was led by Halo, the venture capital firm founded by Ryan Smith (owner of the NBA’s Utah Jazz and NHL’s Utah Mammoth), alongside long-time backer Ryan Sweeney, a general partner at Accel.
Other participants in the round include Portage, Wellington, Crosslink Capital, 53 Stations, Titanium Ventures, Spice, and Florida Funders. This brings Flex’s total equity raised to $180m, coupled with $300m in debt. With a current headcount of 110, the company projects reaching 200 employees by year-end.
The Opportunity in Middle-Market Business Banking
Flex offers an AI-native private bank solution tailored for high-net-worth business owners in the middle market—those who serve both as their company’s finance department and its wealthiest individual customer.
“Middle-market business owners are one of the most important and underserved customers in finance globally,” said Zaid Rahman, Flex’s founder and CEO.
These business owners often manage multi-entity, multi-currency, and multi-jurisdictional operations, relying on multiple vendors scattered across different countries—a situation that incurs unnecessary fees.
Global Expansion and Features
The latest round funds Flex’s global expansion, with plans to offer:
- Stablecoin payment rails in over 100 countries.
- Multi-currency accounts accessible across 76 countries, covering 32 currencies.
- Institutional dollar accounts for foreign owners.
- Private credit available in more than 20 countries.
- Cross-border payments settling within minutes instead of days.
This expansion leverages recent advancements in stablecoin technology and cross-border payment infrastructure, like Visa’s settlement pilot reaching a $7bn annualized run rate in April.
Flex claims annualized payment volume has exceeded $10bn, growing approximately fourfold year over year on a nine-figure revenue run rate—a threefold increase since December.