Zango Raises $4.8M to Make AI-Powered Compliance the New Normal for Financial Institutions
If you think AI has already infiltrated every corner of fintech, think again. Zango, a London-based compliance tech startup, just raised $4.8 million to prove that even the regulatory back office can—and should—be smart, fast, and fully AI-native.
The round, led by Nexus Venture Partners (with $2.6 billion under management), also attracted notable angels and VCs, including South Park Commons, Notion Capital, and industry heavyweights like Richard Davies (Allica Bank CEO) and Alan Morgan (former McKinsey EMEA financial services lead). The message is clear: traditional compliance tools aren’t cutting it.
From Spreadsheet Nightmares to Smart Compliance
“Traditional SaaS stops at KYC and AML,” says Ritesh Singhania, co-founder of Zango. “Everything else is buried in spreadsheets.” That’s where Zango steps in—with regulation-aware AI agents that scan regulatory updates in real-time, spot compliance gaps, and keep institutions audit-ready at all times.
These AI agents aren’t just glorified chatbots. They’re deeply integrated into a company’s workflows. In one case study, a regulatory workflow that used to take 48 hours was cut down to under 4—a transformation that would make most compliance officers weep with joy.
The company’s early adopters include major players like Novobanco, Portugal’s fourth-largest bank, and fast-moving neobanks like Monzo and Juni.
Why Zango Matters Now
Compliance in financial services isn’t just a headache—it’s a full-blown operational drag. With regulatory frameworks stretching across tens of thousands of pages, staying compliant typically requires armies of consultants or overworked in-house teams.
Zango offers a different vision: a platform where compliance is as easy as a Google search. Want to launch a lending product in Germany? Just ask:
“I want to launch a lending product in Germany—what do I need to do?”
Zango’s AI responds with specific, actionable guidance tailored to that jurisdiction and product type—no consultant needed, no multi-week engagement, no ambiguity.
A Platform That Thinks (And Keeps Thinking)
What sets Zango apart is its use of regulation-specific LLMs trained to interpret complex legal texts across jurisdictions. And while the core system is AI-powered, the company smartly maintains humans-in-the-loop to ensure accuracy and accountability. That combination, says Singhania, is what gives clients “peace of mind.”
He puts it bluntly:
“We don’t sell a platform—we sell a solution.”
It’s an important distinction. Unlike typical SaaS that leaves you to figure out implementation, Zango promises outcomes. This makes it more direct competition to consultants than software vendors—a risky but potentially rewarding position in a sector hungry for efficiency and assurance.
The Founders Know RegTech Inside Out
Zango was co-founded by Ritesh Singhania and Shashank Agarwal, both seasoned entrepreneurs with pedigrees in regtech and AI. Ritesh previously founded ClearGlass, a pension compliance platform, while Shashank’s AI startup Third Watch was acquired by Razorpay, now valued at over $7.5 billion. He also led trust and compliance engineering at PhonePe—one of India’s largest fintechs.
That level of domain expertise is key in a space where generalist AI often falls flat. As Anand Datta of Nexus Venture Partners put it, the Zango team has built their system with “a first-principles approach, uniquely marrying cutting-edge AI with human compliance expertise.”
With the new funding, Zango plans to expand its teams in London and Bengaluru, double down on product development, and extend beyond banking into insurance and asset management.
The long-term goal? To build a comprehensive, AI-native GRC (Governance, Risk & Compliance) platform that scales across financial services verticals and jurisdictions.
And the timing couldn’t be better. As global regulators turn up the heat and financial services become more borderless and fast-moving, Zango’s promise of always-on, intelligent compliance might just become the industry standard.
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