Resistant AI announces $16.6 million in a series A funding
Today, the Czech SaaS-based AI and ML security company that protects financial services from manipulation, fraud, and financial crime announced a $16.6 million investment, marking the growing need for intelligent, adaptive defence mechanisms.
Led by GV with participation from existing investors Index Ventures, Credo Ventures, and Seedcamp, as well as several angel investors specializing in financial technology and security, the funding will be used to meet increasing demand from global financial institutions and to build out Resistant AI’s product, engineering, and sales operations teams beyond Prague, London, and New York.
Resistant AI, one of prg.ai’s industry members, was established in Prague, Czechia, in 2019 by the team behind Cognitive Security, which Cisco acquired in 2013. The company responds to the reality of algorithm-driven security and compliance, protecting automated financial systems from fraud and manipulation such as laundering illicit money and using stolen identities to obtain loans and credit. In addition, it safeguards customer onboarding, credit scoring, AML, and existing fraud detection systems from emerging attacks.
“Our mission is to create an intelligent shield for autonomous financial systems, to protect them against these ever-evolving, ever-smarter attacks. That’s the only way we can avoid epidemic fraud, mountains of manual reviews, and four-factor authentication on every single online service.” — Martin Rehák, CEO of Resistant AI
Their solution, which is already protecting a number of banks, insurers, and fintech companies, adds an extra layer of reinforcement to existing checks and monitoring systems, for instance, by reducing false alarms and detecting forged documents. Using sophisticated statistical modelling and machine learning, it supports clients across the whole customer lifecycle, from the onboarding process through the ongoing continuous relationship.
Karen Levy, COO of financial services company Payoneer, which relies on Resistant AI, describes its impact: “As part of Payoneer’s robust compliance program, we use Resistant AI’s technology in our KYC process. We greatly value the insights gained from it, which help us validate the authenticity of documents submitted by customers.”
The founding team of Resistant AI has more than 15 years of experience applying AI in the security domain. After Cisco acquired their initial startup, the company and technology became the basis for Cisco’s research and development unit. It was also the foundation for Cisco’s widely respected Cognitive Threat Analytics platform that currently protects some 25 million users in Fortune 1000 companies.
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