Meet Thirdfort, the startup that aims to take on rising money laundering and payment fraud nightmare with £15 million

With spiralling payment scams and money laundering now costing the U.K. economy £100 billion annually, regulated professionals face an ever-growing risk and compliance burden. Tackling this burden manually is not only costly but the client experience suffers from transactions bogged down by paper, endless repetition, and increased fraud risk.

London and Manchester-based risk management platform for professional services Thirdfort has raised £15 million funding to combat the challenge. The Series A round was led by pan-European VC Breega and saw the participation of London-based fund Element Ventures and leading founders of businesses, including ComplyAdvantage, Tessian, Fenergo, R3, Funding Circle and Fidel.

The funding will fuel the company’s product development, in line with its vision to build a seamless and flexible platform for beautifully secure client onboarding and payments. The company is currently focusing on core legal and property markets. The funds will also support expansion into other highly regulated sectors, including accountancy, wealth management and mortgage broking, all of which are facing rising compliance burdens following surging fraud levels. 

Founded by university friends Olly Thornton-Berry and Jack Bidgood after a friend was defrauded out of £25,000 whilst buying a flat in London, the company’s risk engine rapidly informs professionals of risks with onboarding and allows them to begin transacting with new clients.

The risk engine is powered by Know Your Client (KYC) and Anti Money Laundering (AML) services alongside Open Banking and transaction-specific data.

Olly Thornton-Berry, co-founder and managing director, said: “Powered by Open Banking and our own proprietary risk engine, we’re building the first risk management platform which incorporates end-to-end onboarding and payments for professional services firms.  We see a huge opportunity, both in the U.K. and internationally, for a seamless and flexible platform that enables these businesses and their clients to move fearlessly.

The startup’s digital onboarding is being used by over 700 businesses, including law firms DAC Beachcroft, Penningtons Manches Cooper and Mishcon de Reya, and property businesses Knight Frank, Strutt & Parker and Winkworth.