A new wave of RegTech startups – founded ~2018 onwards – is leveraging AI to transform regulatory compliance across anti-money laundering, customer due diligence, trade surveillance, ESG reporting, and more. These “innovators to watch” are gaining traction via institutional adoption and regulatory sandbox programs.
For identifying promising startups in AI-powered compliance technology, we evaluated each candidate against a set of criteria. These included: demonstrated AI capabilities and innovation; maturity and effectiveness in primary compliance use cases; verifiable institutional traction (such as high-profile client deployments or participation in regulatory sandboxes); geographic market reach; adaptability to evolving regulatory and technological environments; and thought leadership within financial compliance communities.Each candidate was assessed for tangible evidence of transformative AI use in compliance workflows, such as significantly reducing manual review burdens, enhancing regulatory detection accuracy, and improving operational efficiency. Equally critical was clear validation of these capabilities through institutional references – be they major financial firms, sandbox engagements, or strategic partnerships that signal market endorsement and scalability.
So, here are 7 RegTech newcomers that meet these criteria, each bringing AI-powered innovational to compliance.
4CRisk.ai – Compliance Co-Pilot and Regulatory Intelligence
AI Focus: 4CRisk.ai (founded 2020 in California) offers an AI-driven platform that serves as a co-pilot for compliance and risk teams. It uses advanced natural language processing on regulatory texts and internal documents to help institutions stay ahead of regulatory change, map obligations to controls, and automate compliance workflows. Unlike generic AI chatbots, 4CRisk.ai deploys private “small language models” explicitly trained on compliance and risk domains – ensuring high accuracy and data security.
Use Cases: The platform tackles key compliance challenges in several ways:
- Regulatory research and change management: 4CRisk continuously scans laws, rules, and regulator notices, alerting firms to updates and helping them build curated rulebooks relevant to their business.
- Controls mapping: It automatically maps new regulatory requirements to a firm’s existing policies/controls, revealing gaps and suggesting updates.
- AI Q&A assistant: A feature called “Ask ARIA” lets compliance officers query complex regs in plain language and get context-specific answers by analysing the organization’s own compliance documents and relevant laws. This suite amounts to an AI-augmented GRC (governance, risk & compliance) system, streamlining what are traditionally labour-intensive manual tasks.
Institutional Traction: 4CRisk.ai has been identified by industry experts as a “must-watch innovator.” While specific clients are not publicly named, the company reports having customers across 5 industries globally and delivering results “up to 50 times faster” than manual methods. Notably, 4CRisk.ai was born in the heart of Silicon Valley’s AI scene (Redwood Shores) and has been actively engaging with financial regulators on trustworthy AI principles – indicating that its solutions align with emerging AI governance standards important to banks.
Why It Stands Out: 4CRisk.ai is carving out a niche versus established GRC tools by offering a truly intelligent compliance assistant rather than just a document repository. Its AI can parse a mountain of regulatory texts and an organization’s procedures in minutes, whereas traditional teams might spend weeks on the same task. This agility is crucial as rules evolve faster than ever. Moreover, by centring on “Trustworthy AI” and domain-specific models, 4CRisk addresses the accuracy and data privacy concerns that large banks have with using AI for compliance. The result is an automation leap that cuts compliance costs – often ~10% of revenue for banks – and lets staff focus on strategic risk management. In a space often dominated by manual consulting and spreadsheet trackers, 4CRisk.ai stands out as an AI-first mover helping compliance teams work smarter, not harder. 4CRisk.ai was the 2024 winner in the RegTech Insight Awards for “Best RegTech Startup for Institutional Markets.”
Greenomy – Automating ESG Compliance Reporting
AI Focus: Greenomy (founded 2020 in Belgium) is an emerging leader in AI-driven ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance ) compliance. Its platform helps banks, asset managers, and corporations comply with rigorous sustainable finance regulations by digitizing and analysing ESG data. Greenomy’s tools (including an AI advisor named Artemis) use machine learning to map company activities against evolving taxonomies (e.g. EU Taxonomy for sustainable investments) and to validate ESG disclosures for accuracy.
Use Cases: As regulators mandate detailed reporting on ESG metrics (e.g. EU SFDR, CSRD), Greenomy provides an end-to-end solution. It automates data collection, classification, and reporting of sustainability metrics, ensuring companies and financial institutions can generate compliant ESG reports efficiently. The platform also offers analytics to improve sustainability performance and identify gaps in meeting green finance standards. Essentially, Greenomy acts as a compliance bridge between corporates (issuers of data) and financial firms (users of ESG data), standardizing information so it’s audit-ready and regulator-ready.
Institutional Traction: Greenomy has strong backing from established market infrastructure with Euroclear being a strategic investor. Euroclear’s support not only validates Greenomy’s importance in sustainable finance but also extends its reach to Euroclear’s vast network of banks and funds. By 2023 Greenomy’s platform was supporting 400+ users worldwide, including corporates and financial institutions, and it’s expanding to cover multiple jurisdictions’ ESG taxonomies. The startup even won a spot in the FCA’s Green FinTech Challenge sandbox, highlighting its role in shaping next-gen ESG reporting solutions.
Why It Stands Out: Greenomy addresses a new compliance frontier (ESG) where no “incumbent” solution is firmly established – many firms today rely on manual consulting or fragmented tools to meet ESG rules. Greenomy’s AI-powered software offers a one-stop, scalable compliance utility that can handle complex rules like the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure with ease. By automating what would otherwise be onerous data work (and keeping pace with changing taxonomies), Greenomy leapfrogs traditional approaches. Its vision of a “user-owned ESG market infrastructure” signals a bold reimagining of compliance – one that empowers companies to turn regulatory burden into actionable sustainability insights. This makes Greenomy a pivotal innovator as ESG compliance becomes mission-critical in capital markets.
Hawk:AI – Real-Time Financial Crime Surveillance
AI Focus: Munich-based Hawk:AI (founded 2018) builds real-time AML and fraud detection software powered by explainable AI. Its platform analyses transactions (including cross-border payments) and customer behaviour to flag money laundering, sanctions violations, and fraud with high precision. Hawk:AI’s algorithms continuously adapt to new criminal tactics, moving beyond static rules.
Use Cases: Primary use cases include transaction monitoring across banking and payments, sanctions screening, customer risk scoring, and fraud pattern detection. The system was designed to help banks monitor billions of transactions across jurisdictions and payment networks in real time. Notably, Hawk:AI specializes in areas like correspondent banking risks and crypto-related AML, where traditional systems struggle to keep up.
Institutional Traction: Hawk:AI has gained significant industry validation. It joined the Visa Fintech Partner Connect program and works with large financial players such as North American Bancard, Banco do Brasil Americas, Mambu, Visa and LexisNexis. Major investors including Macquarie and Rabobank participated in its recent $56M Series C round to expand Hawk:AI’s reach. According to the CEO, their AI has “increased alert accuracy to ~90%…while significantly cutting false positives,” even uncovering 2x more novel criminal schemes. Such outcomes resonate strongly with Tier-1 banks seeking more effective compliance.
Why It Stands Out: Hawk:AI directly challenges entrenched AML platforms by proving that AI can radically outperform rules-based systems. Its promise of near-90% accurate alerts and drastically fewer false positives means compliance teams spend far less time on noisy alerts. This efficiency, combined with real-time responsiveness, gives Hawk:AI an edge in helping banks contain evolving threats. As regulators push for better AML outcomes, Hawk:AI’s performance gains make it a critical innovator to watch alongside peers like Lucinity.
Leo RegTech – AI-Driven Compliance Automation for Financial Services
AI Focus: Leo RegTech, established as a standalone entity in 2021, offers an AI-powered compliance platform tailored for financial services firms. Central to its offering is “Eva”, a proprietary AI assistant trained on UK regulations, fund operations, and the Leo platform. Eva provides contextual, citation-backed answers to compliance queries, enhancing decision-making and ensuring adherence to regulatory standards.Use Cases: Leo’s platform encompasses a suite of compliance tools, including:
- Compliance Monitoring: Automated oversight of regulatory adherence, with customizable workflows to suit specific firm requirements.
- Employee Compliance: Streamlined processes for declarations, attestations, personal account dealing, and gifts and inducements tracking.
- Online Training: Engaging modules covering AML, Market Abuse, Cybersecurity, and more, ensuring staff remain informed and certified.
- Client Due Diligence (CDD) & Operational Due Diligence (ODD): Integrated KYC/KYB screening, ID verification, and risk assessments within a unified platform.
- GDPR Representation: Services to ensure compliance with data protection regulations across jurisdictions.
The platform’s configurability allows firms to tailor workflows, templates, and reports, ensuring alignment with internal policies and regulatory obligations.
Institutional Traction: Serving over 100 financial services firms, Leo has demonstrated its efficacy in enhancing compliance operations. Clients report significant reductions in administrative tasks and improved efficiency in compliance processes. LEO is shortlisted in three categories for 2025 RegTech Insight Awards, Europe –
- Best Solution for Digital Transformation in Regulatory Compliance
- Best AI Solution for Regulatory Compliance
- Most Innovative Technology for Regulatory Compliance
Why It Stands Out: Leo RegTech distinguishes itself by offering an all-in-one, AI-enhanced compliance solution that addresses the multifaceted needs of financial institutions. Its emphasis on configurability, user-friendly design, and comprehensive coverage of compliance areas positions it as a formidable alternative to traditional compliance tools. By integrating AI-driven insights with practical compliance workflows, Leo empowers firms to navigate the complex regulatory landscape with confidence and efficiency.
Lucinity – AI-Augmented AML Investigations
AI Focus: Lucinity (founded 2018 in Iceland) applies “Human AI” to anti-money laundering (AML) compliance. Its platform uses machine learning and behavioural analytics to detect suspicious transactions while presenting findings in intuitive storyboards for human investigators. By blending AI insights with analyst input, Lucinity continuously learns to spot complex money laundering patterns.
Use Cases: The company’s SaaS solution covers transaction monitoring, case management, adverse media screening and SAR (suspicious activity report) drafting – all key AML tasks for banks and FinTechs. By automating routine detection and reducing noise, compliance officers can focus on truly high-risk cases.
Institutional Traction: Lucinity has partnered with major industry players like Experian to enhance KYB (Know-Your-Business) risk scoring. Its technology is used by fintech firms such as Pleo, which saw a false-positive alert rate drop from 99.7% to 21% after adopting Lucinity’s AI-driven monitoring. This led to a 70% reduction in daily AML case workload at Pleo– a dramatic efficiency gain validating Lucinity’s approach. Such results demonstrate real-world impact and have attracted global customers.
Why It Stands Out: Compared to established AML suites, Lucinity offers a more adaptive, user-centric experience. It claims to boost compliance productivity by over 50% through AI-assisted workflows. By sharply cutting false alarms and uncovering hidden risks, Lucinity positions itself as an agile alternative to legacy rule-based systems – an innovator helping financial institutions “actually fight financial crime instead of drowning in data.”
SAIFR – AI-Enhanced Marketing and Communications Compliance
AI Focus:
Founded within Fidelity Labs in 2020, SAIFR leverages artificial intelligence to revolutionize compliance processes specifically around marketing and communications in financial services. At its core are proprietary natural language processing (NLP) models trained on extensive compliance archives, regulatory rules, and historical review data from Fidelity Investments. SAIFR’s models analyse textual, visual, and video content to identify regulatory risks, problematic language, and missing disclosures, offering real-time compliance checks and contextual rewriting suggestions. This advanced NLP capability positions SAIFR as a “grammar check for compliance,” greatly enhancing efficiency and accuracy in regulatory reviews.
Use Cases:
SAIFR’s primary compliance use cases focus on marketing and client communications across digital and traditional channels, including social media posts, client emails, advertisements, investment research, and fund fact sheets. Its flagship products, “SaifrReview” and “SaifrScan”, respectively support content creation and approval workflows and provide integrated API-driven compliance checks. These tools enable compliance teams and marketers in asset management, capital markets, and wealth management to quickly and confidently produce communications aligned with stringent SEC and FINRA regulations. By automating routine compliance checks, SAIFR significantly reduces manual review burdens, allowing human reviewers to focus on high-risk or complex judgment tasks.
Institutional Traction:
SAIFR initially proved its capabilities internally within Fidelity Investments, demonstrating considerable efficiency gains in compliance operations – reportedly accelerating marketing content approval processes by as much as 10 times. This success paved the way for broader market entry, notably marked by its integration into Microsoft’s Azure AI Model Catalogue, dramatically expanding its reach.
Additionally, SAIFR acquired Giant Oak’s GOST platform, broadening its capabilities into AML and continuous KYC monitoring with “SaifrScreen”. SAIFR has been recognized with prominent industry accolades, including winning the RegTech Insight Award for Best AI Solution in Regulatory Compliance in 2023 and again in 2024.
Geographic Presence:
Primarily based in the United States, SAIFR benefits from Fidelity’s global brand presence and has positioned itself strategically through partnerships, notably its integration into Azure, providing potential access to a global financial services client base.
Why It Stands Out:
SAIFR distinguishes itself by uniquely combining deep regulatory expertise from Fidelity’s extensive compliance history with innovative AI capabilities. Unlike general-purpose NLP tools, SAIFR’s compliance-centric AI models are specifically trained on regulatory rules and enforcement actions, providing unmatched accuracy and practical applicability in marketing compliance. Furthermore, its ability to integrate directly into client workflows via APIs positions SAIFR as an agile and scalable solution. While relatively young compared to established compliance providers, SAIFR’s rapid market traction, strategic partnerships, and expanding feature set firmly position it as an innovator to watch in AI-driven compliance technology.
Shield – AI-Powered Communications Surveillance
AI Focus: Shield (founded 2018 in Israel) is reinventing conduct surveillance by applying AI and NLP to electronic communications compliance. Its platform captures and analyses employee communications (email, chat, voice, messaging apps) to detect signs of market abuse, collusion, insider trading, and even toxic workplace culture. Advanced language models enable Shield to understand context, sentiment, and intent in unstructured e-communications.
Use Cases: Global banks use Shield to monitor traders’ chats, emails and voice calls for regulatory compliance. The system automatically flags potential misconduct (e.g. sharing of insider information or price manipulation discussions) and helps institutions meet record-keeping rules by aggregating all chat channels. Shield also supports behavioural analytics – identifying patterns that may indicate rogue trading or cultural issues – and automates compliance workflows like insider trading surveillance and communications archiving.
Institutional Traction: Shield has earned the trust of major financial institutions. It secured a Tier-1 global bank as a client for its AI compliance platform, underlining its enterprise readiness. Its $15M Series A and subsequent $20M Series B were led by strategic investors like Macquarie Group and UBS’s venture arm. As CEO Shiran Weitzman noted, the company has proven its value to banks through a cloud-based, AI-driven approach to communication monitoring that legacy vendors lacked. Shield’s rapid growth (expanding to New York, London, etc.) reflects surging demand from banks adapting to a post-pandemic world of Zoom calls and WhatsApp chats.
Why It Stands Out: Unlike traditional e-comm surveillance tools that rely on static lexicon searches, Shield brings modern AI and big data to compliance. It can parse slang, context and new communication channels (like WhatsApp or Slack) that established players often struggle with. By enriching and analysing communication data intelligently, Shield enables more proactive and comprehensive oversight. This innovative breadth – from spotting subtle market-abuse clues to improving operational efficiency – positions Shield as a next-generation solution outpacing legacy compliance archives in both coverage and insight.
Summing up
The seven AI-powered RegTech newcomers highlighted here exemplify a significant evolution in regulatory compliance technology, leveraging AI not merely as an incremental upgrade but as a transformational tool reshaping compliance workflows. Each company uniquely combines advanced AI capabilities, tangible operational efficiencies, and clear institutional validation – whether through sandbox programs, strategic partnerships, or major client deployments.
Subscribe to our newsletter
