Tookitaki raises US$7.5 mn Series A from Global VCs to transform regulatory compliance

SINGAPORE, March 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Tookitaki, a regulatory technology company that aims to enable financial institutions to develop sustainable compliance programs, has raised US$7.5 million in Series A round. 

The round was led by London-based Illuminate Financial, an early-stage enterprise financial technology investor along with existing backers: Jungle Ventures, a Singapore-based VC firm focused on technology investments in South East Asia, Enterprise Singapore, Supply Chain Angels, VWX Capital and senior banking executives.

The company is combining advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), distributed systems and deep business expertise to create the building blocks of sustainable compliance management. It describes its enterprise software solutions as 'scalable, auditable and actionable'.

Led by Founder and CEO Abhishek Chatterjee, Tookitaki has witnessed substantial growth since its incorporation in November 2014. Today, the company has offices in Singapore, India and the US. It announced the opening of its US office in North Carolina in September 2018.

"Sustainability in regulatory compliance is a key question today, as financial institutions try hard to deal with complex transactions, multiple data sources and stringent regulatory demands. FIs keep on spending a lot of time, resources and money on antiquated systems with rules-based workflows and heavy dependency on manual investigation but they have become vexatious for compliance personnel. Not to mention, the huge financial and reputational risk in case of regulatory lapses," says Mr Chatterjee. We created Tookitaki to help FIs create a sustainable framework by driving effectiveness and efficiency in current compliance programs. From our inception, we have remained focused on research and development (R&D) to provide clients with cutting-edge software solutions that can establish tangible and quick value for investment.

A large portion of the funding will be utilized in strengthening our R&D capabilities," adds Chatterjee.

Mark Rodrigues, Partner at Illuminate, who will join the Board of Directors at Tookitaki, said: "Tookitaki's combination of advanced technologies and deep industry knowledge are a solid foundation that has helped the company gain meaningful industry engagement. Financial institutions have reached the breaking point in their compliance processes which has resulted in a series of very significant fines. Illuminate believes that Tookitaki is well positioned to help these institutions reach a point of sustainable compliance. We're excited to join the journey and to help build this company into a global leader in their space."

Of late, the company successfully deployed its Anti-Money Laundering Suite (AMLS) software, with United Overseas Bank, a leading bank in Asia. AMLS was able to reduce 40% and 50% of false alerts in transaction monitoring and names screening, respectively, across all segments. The company has also successfully tested and deployed its Reconciliation Suite (RS) in global banks like Societe Generale.

"Jungle Ventures has been an early supporter of Tookitaki and over the years we have witnessed how this strong team has continuously attracted the best talents with deep industry expertise and successfully deployed their product suite within multiple global institutions," said Amit Anand, Managing Partner, Jungle Ventures.

About Tookitaki Holding

Tookitaki Holding Pte. Ltd. is providing enterprise software solutions in the anti-money laundering and reconciliation spaces. The startup is innovating the US$100-billion regulatory compliance space by delivering machine learning-powered solutions that are actionable, scalable and explainable. The company has been accredited by the Infocomm Media Development Authority's Accreditation@SG Digital programme, helping innovative infocomm media companies establish credentials, build track record and scale globally. In October 2016, the company won MAS Fintech Award in SME category for KYC/AML.

Visit us at www.tookitaki.ai