Oslo-based Strise, a technology company that claims to offer leading KYC intelligence systems, announced on Monday, November 7, that it has raised €3.3M in a fresh round of funding.
The round was led by the Dutch venture capital fund Curiosity, a firm that focuses on seed-stage investments in AI startups in Northern Europe.
Herman Kienhuis, General Partner at Curiosity, says, “We are seeing a massive increase in the need for advanced KYC systems worldwide to comply with regulations and avoid facilitating illegal activities. Strise has taken an innovative approach, integrating data sources and AI-driven insights into an intuitive interface for KYC teams to manage their workflow, which compliance teams love. In addition, we were impressed by the drive and creativity of the Strise team, led by founders Marit, Sigve and Patrick. We look forward to working with them to make Strise the market leader across Europe.”
The round also saw participation from existing investor Maki.vc and new investors Sondo Capital and Likeminded.
Capital utilisation
Strise says it will use the funds predominantly to accelerate international growth across Europe and enhance the system’s capacity to link more deeply with the current ecosystems of Strise clients through its new product, “Strise Connect”.
On November 9, the business will also unveil “Strise Worldwide”, a new solution for counterparty due diligence and global sanctions checks, and further develop its partnership programme.
Marit Rødevand, CEO and co-founder of Strise, says, “We see this investment as a huge recognition of our leading technology and our team’s fantastic work to date. Raising new capital in today’s market sentiment is challenging for many scale-up companies. Therefore, we are extra proud to have secured this funding round.”
Strise: Everything you need to know
Founded in 2016 by Marit Rødevand, Patrick Skjennum and Sigve Søråsen, Strise offers fast-growing banks and fintechs a smart system to automate KYC processes, drive better performance, and quickly operationalise regulatory changes to comply with modern Anti-Money Laundering (AML) standards.
CEO and co-founder, Marit Rødevand, says, “We are on a mission to introduce the leading KYC Intelligence System globally. Our technology uniquely connects information about companies and persons that we leverage into unparalleled insights to screen, onboard, and provide ongoing customer monitoring. Three extremely expensive problems that regulated companies face. We believe we can make a significant difference in this space.”
In order to help regulated organisations automate compliance procedures, Strise uses network, AI, and NLP technologies integrated into an intelligent KYC system. This increases operational efficiency, while lowering regulatory risk at a rate that is 100x faster than that of traditional methods.
Powerhouses in banking and finance, like Nordea, Danske Bank, and the SpareBank1 Alliance, regularly utilise Strise’s KYC Intelligence System since the business debuted its products on the market in 2020.
About Curiosity
Curiosity is a Dutch venture capital fund that specialises in early-stage investments in the next generation of AI-driven software firms built by ambitious, diverse teams situated in the Benelux, Nordics, and Baltics.
Herman Kienhuis and Maurice Beckand Verwee, two seasoned operator-investors, are in charge of Curiosity. They are assisted by a network of professional advisers and the founders of the portfolio companies, all of whom have been declared co-owners of the fund.