Regtech start-up PassFort lands $16.2m Series A funding round

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) regtech platform PassFort has closed a Series A funding round, raising $16.2 million.

PassFort CEO Donald Gillies

The fundraise was led by US growth equity fund Level Equity, with participation from existing investors OpenOcean, Episode 1 and Entrepreneur First.

Additionally, $4.89 million of venture debt was put forward by SME-focused finance provider Shard Credit Partners — the first investment made under its UK-focused technology venture debt strategy.

Headquartered in London, low-code software provider PassFort automates financial risk and compliance processes for financial services companies.

It intends to use the money to expand internationally. The fundraise follows new customer signups from payment card aggregator Curve and cross-border digital payments platform WorldRemit.

PassFort CEO and co-founder Donald Gillies says his company is capitalising on significant growth across the digital economy and the need for automated compliance software.

Level Equity partner Charles Chen, who will join PassFort’s board of directors, says financial institutions have experienced exponential growth in business volumes and data.

“In parallel, we’ve experienced an unprecedented rise in sophisticated financial crime activity as channels into financial systems have been digitised. This has underscored the importance of compliance matters, yet companies often have to weigh the trade-offs between speed, compliance and automation,” Chen adds.