EP42 - Unicorn Files - Cleafy: fraud is often just the visible symptom of a cyber operation already underway

Cleafy is a Milan-based scaleup that combines fraud management, threat intelligence and cyber detection for banks and financial institutions. Its thesis is that fraud doesn't start with the transaction, but much earlier: in the digital session, in behavioral signals, in devices and APIs. In 2026 it announced a Series B of 12 million euros, bringing total funding to 22 million.

Founded in 2014 by Marco Aquino and Matteo Bogana, Cleafy operates in a market where the separation between cybersecurity and anti-fraud banking is becoming obsolete. Cybercriminals no longer just hack systems — they compromise user sessions, use device hijacking and API abuse to bypass transactional defenses. A modern bank fraud operation begins weeks before the fraudulent transaction, with a cyber operation that can go unnoticed for months.

Cleafy responds with an FxDR (Fraud and Detection Response) platform that analyzes every digital session in real-time, correlates behavioral signals, devices, networks and APIs to identify threats before they become fraud. The product is sold to banks and financial institutions across Europe subject to DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act), the European regulation that imposes strict IT operational resilience requirements on the financial sector.

In this episode we analyze why Cleafy built a hybrid category between fraud management and cyber detection (FxDR), how focusing on Europe as the first market created real competitive advantage before international expansion, and which enterprise metrics truly matter in an anti-fraud product for banking. An episode on how to compete against American and Israeli global players starting from Milan.

• Perché Cleafy ha costruito una categoria ibrida tra fraud management e cyber detection
• Come il focus sull'Europa abbia creato un vantaggio competitivo prima del salto internazionale
• Quali metriche enterprise contano davvero in un prodotto antifrode per il banking