Zango Raises $4.8M to Revolutionize Financial Compliance with AI Agents

Zango raises $4.8M to help financial firms with regulatory compliance using agentic AI - SiliconANGLE

Other participants in the round also included South Park Commons, Notion Capital, No Label Ventures and Start Ventures. Software and services in the financial sector can be a labyrinthine tangle of legal questions whenever a firm wants to implement a new product or feature for clients. This remains true for current services or features because regulations change even as legislation and framework rules shift at different levels of governance from local to global. Zango was co-founded by Ritesh Singhania and Shashank Agarwal, both second-time co-founders who have deep regulatory experience. Singhania founded ClearGlass Analytics Ltd., a pension fund regulatory platform, while Agarwal co-founded Thirdwatch Data Private Ltd., an AI-powered fraud detection startup, acquired by Razorpay Software Private Ltd., a financial software solutions company. Financial regulations require deep expertise to understand and comprehend and they stretch across thousands of pages. This means slow, manual workflows, Singhania explained. As a result, financial industry enterprises find themselves buried in significant costs trying to develop a clear list of requirements. "Traditional software-as-a-service stops at Know Your Customer and anti-money laundering, leaving the rest of compliance buried in spreadsheets and manual reviews," Singhania said. "Zango changes that." Zango uses AI agents, a type of artificial intelligence software that can make decisions, do research and achieve specific goals with a degree of autonomy. Agents are designed to carry out tasks with minimal or no human oversight, while adapting to changing circumstances. This allows them to continuously integrate knowledge, including regulatory information, so they can respond to inquiries or draft consulting reviews complete with citations. The company said its large language models and AI agents don't just read and interpret regulations with a high degree of accuracy; they can integrate directly into a company's day-to-day operations. In one example given by Zango, a bank involved with a regulator had a process that would have taken 48 hours, reduced to under 4 hours using the agentic AI platform. Using the platform, the company said, aiming to remain compliant and launching a new product or service can be as simple as spinning up an agent and asking: "I want to launch a lending product in X market. What do I need to do?" The agents will go to work, track down all the necessary resources and produce research, compliance requirements, records, citations and an impact assessment and a gap analysis helpful for future-proofing the product. "We don't sell a platform -- we sell a solution," said Singhania. "Our AI agents are paired with humans-in-the-loop to ensure 100% accuracy. Peace of mind doesn't come from a tool; it comes from a result." In the United Kingdom alone, the annual costs of financial crime compliance totaled around $52 billion in 2024, according to a report from LexisNexis Risk Solutions. The report noted that cryptocurrency, digital payments and AI technology are major tools contributing to the increasing costs of illicit activity. Also, skilled individuals are in high demand and businesses are actively seeking ways to reduce labor costs while improving compliance efficiency. Zango is actively used by established banks in the U.K., such as Novo Banco SA, the fourth-largest bank in Portugal, and said it's gaining traction with leading digital banks in the European Union and the U.K., including Monzo Bank Ltd. and Juni Technology AB. "For horizon scanning, Zango is a game-changer," said Sabina Ausfelt, head of compliance at Juni. "The platform's current and future modules are set to revolutionize the second line of defense work in regulated industries like ours." Zango said the funds will be used to expand its teams in London and Bengaluru, while building out its AI-native product suite. Zango also intends to expand its AI product offerings into other finance-related services outside of banking, including insurance and asset management.

RegTech startup Zango AI raises $4.8 million from Nexus Venture Partners, others - The Economic Times

Regulatory tech startup Zango AI has raised $4.8 million in a funding round led by Nexus Venture Partners. The round also saw early backer South Park Commons participate, along with angel investors such as Richard Davies, CEO of Allica Bank, and Alan Morgan, senior partner, financial services, at McKinsey, among others. The fresh capital will be used to scale up the company's teams in Bengaluru and London, and to build out other product modules for AI-native governance risk and compliance solutions, the company said. Zango is also expanding its product suite into other financial services verticals, including insurance and asset management. Founded in 2024 by Ritesh Singhania and Shashank Agarwal, Zango aims to modernise how financial institutions manage regulatory requirements. It uses regulation-specific large language models (LLMs) to automate tasks such as horizon scanning, gap analysis, and audit preparation, which are traditionally handled through manual reviews and spreadsheet-heavy workflows. The startup claims its AI agents are capable of interpreting changing regulations and integrating compliance checks directly into daily operations of the companies. The company's tools are currently used by Portugal's Novobanco and fintech companies such as Monzo and Juni. "Our AI agents are paired with humans in the loop to ensure 100% accuracy. Peace of mind doesn't come from a tool; it comes from a result. That's why we win against consultants -- because they don't just sell software, and neither do we," said Singhania. Singhania previously founded ClearGlass, a pension compliance platform, and served as head of technology at financial services technology provider Simplitium. Agarwal co-founded Third Watch, a fraud detection startup, which was acquired by digital payments company Razorpay. He also led trust and compliance engineering at IPO-bound fintech PhonePe. "The global regulatory landscape is ripe for disruption," said Anand Datta, partner at Nexus Venture Partners. "Ritesh and Shashank, with their firsthand, proven expertise, developed Zango's first-principles approach: uniquely marrying cutting-edge AI with human compliance expertise. Their AI-led solution is already augmenting the compliance team and increasing efficiency at global financial institutions."

AI-led RegTech startup Zango raises $4.8 million

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community. The funding round was led by Nexus Venture Partners, with addittional participation from South Park Commons, Richard Davies, CEO of Allica Bank, Alan Morgan, former head of Financial Services at McKinsey (EMEA), Mark Ransford, Notion Capital, No Label Ventures and Start Ventures. Already used by Novobanco in Portugal and UK and EU neobanks, including Monzo and Juni, Zango's regulation-aware AI agents continuously track regulatory updates, identify compliance gaps in real time, and keep firms audit-ready. The firm is training Large Language Models to transform compliance into a query-based operating systemm, answering questions like: "I want to launch a lending product in [Y] market -- what do I need to do?" Ritesh Singhania, co-founder of Zango, says: "Our AI agents are paired with humans-in-the-loop to ensure 100% accuracy. Peace of mind doesn't come from a tool; it comes from a result. That's why we win against consultants -- because they don't just sell software, and neither do we." Singhania previously founded ClearGlass, a pension compliance platform, and served as head of technology at Simplitium, which was acquired by Nasdaq. Fellow co-founder Shashank Agarwal co-founded Third Watch, an AI-powered fraud detection startup which was acquired by Razorpay, and led trust and compliance engineering at PhonePe, which is gearing up for India's largest IPO. The funds raised will be used to expand teams in London & Bengaluru along with building out the other product modules for an AI-native GRC. Zango also intends to expand into other verticals of financial services as well outside of banking to insurance and asset management.

Zango Raises $4.8 Mn In Seed Funding Round

Founded in 2024 by Ritesh Singhania and Shashank Agarwal, Zango leverages AI to provide regulatory compliance solutions to banks and financial institutions Regulatory compliance startup Zango AI has raised $4.8 Mn (about INR 41 Cr) in a seed funding round led by Nexus Venture Partners, with participation from existing backers, including South Park Commons, Notion Capital, No Label Ventures and Start Ventures. Zango AI plans to deploy the fresh proceeds to expand its teams in Bengaluru and London and building product modules for an AI-native governance risk and compliance. The AI-based SaaS startup also aims to expand its offerings to insurance and asset management. Founded in 2024 by Ritesh Singhania and Shashank Agarwal, Zango leverages AI to provide regulatory compliance solutions to banks and financial institutions. It has developed AI agents trained on regulatory focussed large language models which helps its clients to automate slow and manual workflows in compliance activities. The Bengaluru and San Francisco-based startup cited an example of a bank which was able to bring down its regulatory activity workflow time to just four hours from 48 hours using their solutions. This is not the first tryst for Singhania and Agarwal in the compliance space. While Singhania had previously founded ClearGlass, a pension compliance platform, Agarwal also founded an AI-powered fraud detection platform called Third Watch. In 2019, Third Watch was acquired by Razorpay, valued at $7.5 Bn. The development comes at a time when Indian investors are keen to bet on SaaS platforms which have embedded AI solutions at their core. Indian venture capital firms are keen to bet on SaaS startups which have built their fundamentals on AI and trained their algorithms on private data. In total, Indian SaaS startups raised over $2.1 Bn in 2024, up 31% on a year-on-year basis. In the global compliance solutions space, Zango is competing with the likes of Sprinto, Vanta, and Drata, among others, In India, Yellow.ai, Haptik and RevRag.ai are some of the AI-powered platforms which automate workflows for the BFSI sector.

Zango Raises $4.8 Million For AI-Supported Financial Compliance Solution | PYMNTS.com

By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions. The company's solution is already used by banks and FinTechs across Europe and the United Kingdom, according to a Tuesday (July 1) blog post. It is designed to provide an alternative to the checklists, spreadsheets and consultants that financial institutions currently use to stay compliant, according to the post. "Our AI agents continuously read regulations, flag gaps and keep your business audit-ready -- transforming compliance from a box to tick into a growth advantage," the post said. The solution provides users with real-time updates about changing regulations; streamlines regulatory change management with automated tracking and updates; and identifies gaps in users' existing policies, procedures and controls, according to Zango's website. Nexus Venture Partners, which led the funding round, said in a Tuesday post on X that Zango transforms financial compliance from a reactive, manual process to a "real-time, strategic advantage." "Their regulation-aware AI agents are set to redefine the compliance landscape," the post said. The rise of RegTech -- technology focused on automating compliance -- has been transformative for emerging industries like gaming, hemp-based wellness and online pharmacies, PYMNTS reported in April. These tools allow businesses to remain nimble, adapt to shifting state laws and enable faster customer onboarding. Small businesses can benefit when AI transforms compliance from a burdensome requirement into a strategic advantage, empowering them to meet regulatory standards without compromising on efficiency or cost in other areas, PYMNTS reported in November. While AI cannot eliminate all compliance challenges, it is leveling the playing by providing small businesses with tools once reserved for larger corporations and enabling them to compete on new terms in a complex regulatory world. When Norm Ai raised $27 million for its AI-powered regulatory compliance platform in June 2024, Norm Ai Founder and CEO John Nay said in a press release: "We are now at an inflection point in AI capabilities that, when properly harnessed, unlock massive improvements in regulatory compliance workflows across the economy."