Ascent, the enterprise using tech to boost compliance, has just announced a $19.3m funding round led by Drive Capital, the venture capital firm that has previously invested in InsurTech company Root Insurance among other businesses.
“The ‘RegTech boom’ of the past few years is evidence of the pressing need for innovation in not only financial services, but in every regulated industry,” said Andy Jenks, partner at Drive Capital. “We’re proud to support the Ascent team as they enhance their solutions and continue pioneering in an industry hungry for progress.”
Banks ING and Wells Fargo also contributed to the raise as did previous investor Alsop Louie, which helped it close its $6m Series A round in 2018.
Ascent will use the money from the new Series B round to grow its teams, expand the development of its products and to strengthen its brand within the financial compliance space.
“Keeping up with regulation is mission-critical for businesses,” said Brian Clark, founder and CEO of Ascent. “While digital transformation of the enterprise is happening everywhere, compliance has been largely left behind, which is unthinkable considering the risk involved in compliance work. We are thrilled to partner with our Series B investors to help customers achieve certainty in their compliance operations, and we’re excited to advance Ascent’s mission to reduce the cost of compliance and protect the rule of law.”
Ascent’s pitch is based around its RegulaitonAI, a tool to process and analyse regulatory texts to automate the process of researching and analysing legal documents to find out how businesses should comply with rules and laws.
The company is now actively exploring new partnerships with governments, risk management and compliance solutions.
Last year, Ascent formalised a collaboration with the British Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to componentise the FCA Handbook, giving financial services firms the tools to comply with the authority’s rules.
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