Announcing our investment in Acoru: The next-gen Cybersecurity platform combatting Fraud and Scam attacks

We are excited to announce the last investment of our third flagship fund (AV3) in Acoru, a Spain-based cybersecurity startup specialising in next-generation fraud and scam prevention. The company has officially launched its operations following a successful period in stealth mode and raising a €4 million seed round of funding from Adara Ventures and Athos Capital.

The Challenge: Fighting financial fraud in the Generative AI era

Financial institutions worldwide are facing a critical shift in fraud tactics, with unauthorised fraud (where a fraudster makes payments without the victim's consent) increasingly being replaced by authorised fraud.

In “authorised fraud” schemes, victims are deceived into willingly transferring money to fraudsters. This shift has been exacerbated by advancements in generative AI, which is enabling more sophisticated and convincing scams (ex: deepfakes) that have led to greater financial losses. 

Compounding the challenge, new regulations such as PSD3 and PS23/4 are adding layers of complexity to compliance and reimbursement processes, further straining financial institutions. For example, new regulations in the UK are requiring banks to reimburse “authorised fraud” victims up to £85K. 

At the same time, Europe is rolling out new legislation to expand instant payments while placing strict limits on how much customer data banks can share. The goal is to make instant payments available to everyone in the EU, 24/7, without extra fees. However, this will remove the current 1-3 day delay banks use to check payments for scams, creating new challenges. Without real-time tools to monitor both incoming and outgoing transactions, accurately detecting scams and fraud is set to become even more difficult. 

Enter Acoru: The first omnichannel scam & fraud prevention and detection platform

Acoru has developed a cutting-edge fraud and scam prevention platform that harnesses the power of generative AI, advanced analytics, and a configurable intelligence network to analyse financial transactions in real time.

Designed to anticipate and counter evolving threats, Acoru’s platform can track account changes, identify mule accounts (financial accounts criminals use to transfer or launder funds), and detect pre-fraud indicators in an unprecedented way. These indicators include subtle behavioural, transactional, or contextual signals suggesting an account may be preparing to engage in fraudulent activity, even before fraud occurs. 

Founded by cybersecurity veterans Pablo de la Riva Ferrezuelo and David Morán, Acoru builds on over two decades of expertise in fraud prevention. The duo previously founded Buguroo, later rebranded as Revelock and acquired by Feedzai in 2021. During this time, the company monitored over 400 million devices and protected 120 million users worldwide. Their experience at leading firms like Deloitte’s Cyber Excellence Centre and Feedzai uniquely positions them to address the dynamic fraud landscape.

Acoru aims to enable users across all levels of an organisation to participate in financial crime detection. Easy customisation, strong pre-fraud signal identification, and seamless usability have already driven rapid adoption of the platform, helping a number of financial organisations to classify and monitor account types over time for stronger, more intelligent defence against the latest fraud and scam schemes. 

Acoru is now focused on growing its presence across Europe and the Americas, with plans to expand into more countries this year. The company is also preparing for its Series A funding round in 2026.

The Adara view: Next-gen defence for advanced fraud techniques

AI-driven scams are advancing rapidly, demanding new defences from financial institutions to stay one step ahead. Acoru delivers this solution, leveraging intelligence and automation to detect fraud signals and stop scams before they happen. We’re excited to back domain experts Pablo, David and the team and look forward to supporting Acoru’s international expansion.