Stripe alumni have raised a €30M Series A for Duna, backed by Stripe and Adyen leads.

Anthropic and OpenAI can be competitorsbut their presidents Daniela Amodei and Gregory Brockman have one thing in common: they are both Stripe alumni. With former employees who have created many startups, the fintech company has become one of the most innovative”start-up industries“- and the money is following. A recent example: securing the Duna startup business, which has just raised €30 million in Series A funding to become Europe’s most profitable member of the so-called “Stripe mafia.” The investment was led by Alphabet’s growth fund CapitalGwhich has also supported Stripe since then to lead the Series D in 2016.

Based in Germany and the Netherlands, Duna was founded by Stripe alumni Duco van Lanschot and David Schreiber. With customers included PlaidThe startup helps fintech companies with business customers more efficiently, reducing the confusion associated with company checks and other fraud prevention measures.

Stripe is not Duna’s client, van Lanschot said, but its executives are well placed to understand the opportunities the startup is holding, which is reflected in its table. The company’s angel investors also include Stripe COO Michael Coogan and former executives David Singleton (CTO) and Claire Hughes Johnson (COO). Even Stripe’s rival Adyen joined, with CRCO Mariëtte Swart and CFO Ethan Tandowsky joining as angels.

Their acceptance also confirms van Lanschot’s view that these companies cannot compete with Duna, even if they could. “There needs to be very good controls that change on a company-by-company basis, so that Adyen or Stripe can’t treat their business as a separate entity where another business customer can change all the settings,” he told TechCrunch.

If Duna’s efforts are worth it, it’s because the startup is targeting business customers who don’t have a lot of money to provide business. But that’s because his vision doesn’t end there: Duna’s goal is to build a network that allows companies to re-use their authentication information across multiple platforms.

“What we want to build in the long run is a foundation of trust around the world where we provide a digital passport to every business. So you can reuse your file from a trip to (German spend management platform) Moss to get on board with Plaid, or you can reuse it to open a bank account,” said van Lanschot.

This goal was shared by Alex Nichols, a senior partner who led CapitalG’s Series A investment. “I would say what I look for in my businesses is network effects, or more opportunities,” he told TechCrunch. “I also like it when startups have knowledge about a problem they may not know about, and this is a great example,” he added.

Duna has competitors in a group known as KYB, or Know Your Business. This includes vendors such as Jumio and Veriff. But for Nichols, what sets Duna apart is its idea of ​​creating its own data, rather than trying to integrate existing sources that are often missing. “It’s a rare opportunity to rebuild something like Visa and create an incredible business at this time.”

Duna says it has already built a solid business by helping business customers quickly and affordably. This also explains why existing investors are increasing: Index Ventures, which led the way Duna has raised €10.7 million in seed in May 2025, he participated in Series A, as did the chairman of Puzzle Ventures and Snowflake Frank Slootman. But the great desire to initiate will not be rewarded until the Duna reaches a great level. So the company is looking for shortcuts.

How so? Van Lanschot and Duna’s team are identifying small groups of companies that are already interconnected – what they call “networks”. These include manufacturing companies that have shared customers, investment companies that have ongoing LPs, or companies in the same small country. In these tight knit groups, the ability to reuse authentication becomes important immediately, even before Duna achieves online results.

The countries may be few, but the opportunities are great, said van Lanschot. “In the Netherlands alone – a small, small country – the four largest banks employ 14,000 people respectively, and half of them work in business.” Duna will never replace these jobs, but AI machines can save money and make money even before the networks.

If Duna eventually offers network rails, there may be a greater opportunity to take advantage of the one-click business. This will make it similar to Amazon’s one-stop shop – or closer to B2B, to Stripe Link. Again with Duna, the Stripe connection is not really far away.