According to Sifted, former Revolut executives Paulo Guichard and Bhasker Rao have raised $10 million in funding for their compliance startup Condukt. The round was led by Lightspeed and MMC Ventures, with participation from Cocoa Ventures, and includes the £2.5 million pre-seed they raised back in April 2023. The founders met while working at Revolut, where Guichard was head of operations and Rao headed acquiring risk. Condukt focuses on know-your-business verification, using AI agents and real-time data to help companies continuously monitor business identities. The startup claims impressive results for clients, including a 93% increase in time saved by analysts and a 78% boost in auto-approval rates. Current customers include fintechs Wise, Tide, and Mollie.
The Revolut Founder Factory
Here’s the thing about Revolut – it’s becoming one of Europe’s most productive breeding grounds for new startups. According to that Accel and Dealroom report from March, at least 46 second-generation startups have emerged from Revolut alumni. That’s pretty staggering when you think about it. These founders get front-row seats to hypergrowth, see what works (and what doesn’t), then take that experience to solve specific problems they encountered. It’s basically like getting paid to attend the world’s most intense startup school.
The Massive Compliance Cost Problem
So why is this space so ripe for disruption? Look at the numbers – businesses are spending a mind-boggling $206 billion annually just on financial crime compliance. And get this: 98% of institutions report their compliance costs are still increasing. That’s basically every company saying this problem is getting worse, not better. When you’re dealing with manual verification processes and constantly changing regulations, the labor costs alone can cripple growing fintechs. Condukt’s approach of using AI agents to automate the repetitive stuff makes complete sense in that context.
Why Investors Are Betting Big
Now, a $10 million round for a 15-person team isn’t pocket change. But when you consider the market size and the founders’ backgrounds, it starts to make sense. These guys didn’t just work at Revolut – they held senior ops and risk roles at both Revolut AND payments giants like SumUp and Square. They’ve literally lived the compliance nightmare they’re trying to solve. And their pricing model is smart too – it scales with usage rather than being a flat fee. The more businesses you process and approve, the more you pay. That alignment with customer success is exactly what VCs love to see.
What’s Next for Condukt
With this fresh funding, Condukt plans to expand their client base beyond their current fintech roster, push into more geographies, and grow their teams in London and Porto. The real test will be whether they can move beyond their Revolut network and win enterprise clients who might be more skeptical of shiny new compliance tools. But honestly, when you’re facing compliance costs that keep climbing and manual processes that eat up analyst time, automation starts looking pretty appealing. I think we’re going to see more of these specialized compliance startups emerging, especially from fintech alumni who’ve seen the pain points firsthand.
