Hawk AI is keeping tabs on would be money launderers and fraudsters, and raising $17 million in the process

Munich-based Hawk AI has raised $17 million in a Series B round aimed primarily at furthering product development and ramping up global expansion plans. Much like its anti-money laundering and fraud prevention compatriots, the firm claims to, “ detect and prevent the financial crime that other systems miss”. Hawk AI has now raised a total of $27 million.

The Series B round was led by Sands Capital from Washington D.C., with participation from new and existing investors, including DN Capital, Coalition, BlackFin Capital Partners, and Picus Capital.

With more than $2 trillion being “cleaned” and redistributed as legit funds, fraud losses in the US alone accounted for some $41+ billion in 2022. Adding to the joy, fraud has increased by more than 37% in high-growth markets over the last 12 months. 

With that said, financial institutions are under constant and increasing pressure to improve their transaction monitoring, screening, and KYC due diligence processes in order to safeguard their business. By augmenting traditional rule-based systems with explainable AI, such as Hawk AI, these institutions are able to unearth more cases of financial crime while at the same time slashing the burden of false positives that have been shown to simply overrun internal teams. 

“My co-founder Wolfgang Berner and I started this business based on the strong belief that only leading-edge, real-time surveillance technology can deliver the change needed to fight financial crime,” said co-founder Tobias Schweiger. “This contrasts the obvious, drastic deficiencies in legacy technology. Hawk AI’s growth will continue to be fuelled by industry-wide demand for AI, Cloud outsourcing, and convergence of fraud and AML technology.”