First AML raises $21 million in latest funding round
First AML, a New Zealand-based compliance firm, has announced that it has raised $21 million in its latest funding round from investors such as Blackbord Ventures and US investor Headline and it also received renewed commitments from Bedrock Capital and others.
The company helps to digitize the customer onboarding process for fintech and financial services companies as the threat of money laundering and security breaches continues to haunt the industry. With the digitization of payments and other related industries, the challenge for regulators and compliance has only grown even further in recent years as most of the onboarding process happens without the company or the business getting to meet the customer in person. This is only going to become more so in the coming years with even banks expected to shut down their brick and mortar branches as more and more services as customer onboarding moves online. This makes the solutions of AML companies like First AML even more important.
“With groundbreaking investigations around tax havens and money laundering across multiple countries, the AML compliance regime is now shifting to non-financial businesses globally,” Milan Cooper, co-founder of First AML, said. “This raise will help us scale, fueling further global expansion and product development to supercharge our network effect.”
The need for such companies is felt locally in New Zealand as well as the processes within the country are still not very tight and with many foreign financial services companies looking to launch their business from within NZ and the country also interested to attract such business, the demand for AML solutions is likely to grow. The company is expected to use the incoming funds to double its headcount and open new branches in other countries as it looks for growth and expansion. The company is reportedly looking at the UK and Singapore as main targets for its initial growth as that would help it to enter into key markets with Europe as well as Asia.
With regulations continuing to be in a state of flux in many countries as the authorities grapple with an ever-changing scenario in the financial industry, the need for AML solutions has been felt all over the world. The industry is expected to grow manifold in the coming years as more companies look for help with compliance and keeping the financial irregularities under check.
