Castellum.AI, a financial crime compliance platform with in-house risk data, AML/KYC screening, and AI agents, announced the close of an $8.5m Series A round.
CEO and Co-Founder Peter Piatetsky said:
“Compliance teams are drowning in false positives while financial crime slips through the cracks. We’ve eliminated the tradeoff of choosing accuracy and risk mitigation.”
The round was led by Curql, a fund backed by “over 130 credit unions, including Navy Federal, with participation from BTech Consortium, a fund backed by over a dozen banks, including Customers Bank, and Framework Venture Partners, a fund backed by Tier 1 Canadian financial institutions, including RBC. Existing investors from Spider Capital, Remarkable Ventures, and Cameron Ventures also participated in the round.”
Nick Evans, President and CEO of Curql said:
“Financial institutions face the dual threat of criminals using AI and legacy systems generating unnecessary compliance alerts on a daily basis. We’re excited to invest in Castellum.AI because they’re deploying AI agents that are fast, precise and explainable to regulators. Banks and credit unions need access to next-generation technology to keep up and Castellum.AI is exactly what the doctor ordered.”
Peter Piatetsky, Co-Founder and CEO of Castellum.AI:
“We help financial services identify and prevent financial crime. That our Series A funding comes from credit unions and banks validates our platform and market alignment.”
Castellum.AI reduces AML/KYC false positives “by 94% and the time spent on compliance reviews by 83% out of the box – before any tuning.”
This is why Castellum.AI is becoming the compliance platform “for financial institutions, credit unions, sponsor banks, fintechs and leading crypto exchanges who seek to eliminate compliance bottlenecks that slow operations.”
Castellum.AI’s AI agents have “passed a CAMS practice exam on the first try. Passing the CAMS exam is often a requirement for certain fincrime roles.”
The AI agent training was led by ex-regulators and “included AML/KYC best practices and regulatory guidance from the OCC, NCUA, NY DFS, California DFPI and other financial services regulators.”
Combined with detailed audit records “covering each decision, institutions have the confidence to deploy an AI agent that aligns with regulatory expectations to the front lines of financial crime prevention.”
The company also works with clients “on modular implementations that incorporate each institution’s risk requirements and procedures, reducing switching costs.”
Castellum.AI has an integrated approach to compliance, “combining risk data (sanctions, PEPs, adverse media and more), AML/KYC screening and AI agents in a single, audit-ready system built entirely in-house.”
