ComplyAdvantage, a leader in financial crime intelligence, has acquired San Francisco firm Golden and added a16z as an investor.
Golden is a San Francisco-based innovator automating the construction of one of the world’s largest knowledge graphs, which shows interconnected data points and their relationships for the purpose of analysing complex information.
Financial institutions and other regulated entities are required by law to ensure the people and organisations they choose to do business with are legitimate and that the transactions they facilitate are legal.
ComplyAdvantage uses AI and machine learning to parse through a continuously updated database of entities to give clients the most accurate 360-degree view of financial crime risk. As clients respond to alerts, a feedback loop continuously enriches the insights ComplyAdvantage provides.
Golden’s data extraction and disambiguation using sophisticated natural language processing will bring additional disparate data sources into ComplyAdvantage’s data ingestion layer to provide clients with even more comprehensive, real-time financial crime risk insights.
As part of the acquisition, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) joins an illustrious group of leading technology investors, including Goldman Sachs, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Index Ventures, and Balderton Capital.
This announcement comes on the back of continued momentum for ComplyAdvantage as the scaleup continues its impressive growth, significantly expanding its client roster since the last fundraising round led by Goldman Sachs.
The acquisition also strengthens ComplyAdvantage’s foothold in North America, with Golden bringing an extensive base of US customers.
“Delivering AI-enriched financial crime insights to our customers through a best-in-class user experience built on the most interconnected data has been our north star at ComplyAdvantage since day one. The acquisition of Golden is a critical milestone on that journey,” said Vatsa Narasimha, CEO of ComplyAdvantage.
“We are excited to welcome their talented team to the ComplyAdvantage family, alongside a16z, who bring powerful expertise as we embark on the next phase of our growth journey.”
Jude Gomila, Golden founder and CEO, will join ComplyAdvantage as a board observer and special advisor. He added: “I have known Charlie Delingpole, the founder of ComplyAdvantage, since 2005, and I am thrilled to bring together our capabilities.
“By combining our experienced team of AI and large language model (LLM) specialists with ComplyAdvantage’s industry-leading data science team, we are creating a global team of data experts. Together, I’m confident we will transform financial crime risk management for businesses worldwide.”