INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Salv, an anti-money laundering (AML) startup founded by former TransferWise and Skype employees, has raised $2 million in seed funding.The
round is led by Fly Ventures, alongside Passion Capital and Seedcamp
Angel investors also participating include N26 founder Maximilian Tayenthal (who seems to be doing quite a bit of angel investing), former
Twilio CTO Ott Kaukver, and Taavi Kotka, former CIO for Estonia (the actual country!).Founded in June 2018 and initially offering
consultancy, Estonia-based Salv has built a software platform that helps banks find and stop financial crime
The idea, says co-founder and CEO Taavi Tamkivi, is to move AML beyond just compliance to something more proactive that actually does defeat
AML.Tamkivi built the AML, fraud, and Know Your Customer (KYC) teams at TransferWise and Skype
COO Jeff McClelland also worked in the anti-fraud team at Skype, followed by a stint at TransferWise, first as an analyst and then in HR
highly demanding role, especially given how fast TransferWise was growing, how many new markets were coming online, and how central user
Yet, despite the European banking sector spending billions tackling the problem, it is estimated that only 1-2% of global money-laundering
Today, between $1-2 trillion a year is still laundered
They have very little energy left to actually focus on improving their financial crime-fighting abilities
The same is true in financial institutions today
It happens in the background, with few resources
repeat that cycle every day to protect their bank
Salv already counts Estonian bank LHV as its first customer
We have another couple of customers in the Lithuanian fintech scene
fintechs and challenger banks.Meanwhile, the business model is straightforward enough
Salv charges a monthly subscription, while the price varies based on the number of active customers a bank or fintech has.
