Data Sutram, a fintech startup that helps financial institutions prevent fraud and stay compliant with regulations, has raised $9 million in a Series A funding round. The round was co-led by the global venture firms B Capital and Lightspeed.
The startup plans to expand its AI-powered fraud detection and compliance platform into new industries and global markets. With the new funding, it will offer its services to banks and sectors like insurance, gaming, and crypto. It also plans to grow its team and expand internationally.
“I think over the last year, there has been a huge rise in fraud in the industry from a banking and financial perspective, driven by the digitization wave and the increase in lending, digital transactions, and digital account openings,” said Rajit Bhattacharya, Co-founder and CEO of Data Sutram.
“So, we’ve been trying to build the concept of looking at identity as a whole and are working with some of the best banks in the country to implement it. It’s been a learning cycle—from both a product maturity and company standpoint,” he said.
“The existing technologies or ways to protect banking and intra-systems were not necessarily keeping up with the changes on the user side. Also, it’s a slightly different way of looking at the challenge in India and other markets like India, compared to more developed markets where user behavior is different,” said Karan Mohla, general partner at B Capital. “I think that was one of the things Rajit and the team built that was so attractive and continues to be attractive to us.”
According to its website, Data Sutram works with major financial institutions such as HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, Union Bank of India, Piramal Finance, and L&T Finance.
In 2023, the company raised $3 million in funding. Bharat Fund led the round, with support from Singularity Growth Fund, IIFL, YAN, White Venture, and other previous investors.
Founded in 2019 by Bhattacharya, Ankit Das, and Aisik Paul, Mumbai-based Data Sutram uses AI and alternative data to help financial institutions detect fraud, follow regulations, and reduce bad loans.
The platform looks at over 110 million identities and uses a special “Trust Score” to give real-time risk insights. This score checks people’s digital activity to help spot problems like fake identities, identity theft, or people working together to commit fraud.
When a user enters a name, phone number, and email, the system quickly checks data from sources like government records, telecom companies, online shopping, delivery services, and payment systems to instantly measure the risk of fraud.
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