Berlin, Germany, 22 June 2020 - Elucidate, the Berlin-based financial crime risk quantification agency, has raised a €2.5 million investment led by Silicon Valley-based 11.2 Capital. Other participants in the round include Seed X Liechtenstein, Apex Ventures, Big Start Ventures and SixThirty Ventures. The funding enables Elucidate to further develop the company’s flagship product, the Elucidate FinCrime Index (EFI), and its ability to measure financial crime risk.

Shane Riedel, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Elucidate, believes now is the right time to onboard investors: “Since launching in 2019, Elucidate has expanded data analytics coverage to over 2,500 financial institutions. The work of fully partnering with our Users to enable them to move from basic risk detection to proactive risk prevention, however, requires ongoing investment in data analytics and machine learning capabilities. 11.2 Capital, as well as our other investors, bring both capital and expertise to this transformational objective.”

The EFI, built using probabilistic modelling and machine learning, uses data to score financial crime risk against an objective industry baseline. Unlike most financial crime offerings, which guide Users to manually determine reactions to potential financial crime, the EFI uses data analysis to anticipate and prevent financial crime.

Filipe Garcia, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Elucidate, explains how the platform leverages cutting-edge technology to effectively manage this risk: “We are in a unique position to be able to digitise an antiquated status quo. We apply methods that financial analyst John Moody could only have dreamed of when he started modelling risk a century ago. Applying deep learning in a dataset that is unparalleled in the industry allows us to see financial crime patterns that are not visible to the human eye. The repeatability of our algorithm allows us to set up a de facto financial crime risk baseline in the industry with speed and accuracy.“

Elucidate is disrupting the financial sector’s traditional financial crime risk management tools by enabling Users to monitor the impact and effectiveness of existing financial crime controls, and to marry commercial and risk strategies. The investors see maximum potential in Elucidate’s ambitions as part of a broader shift towards the application of deep tech in financial services. Shelley Zhuang, Founder and Managing Partner at 11.2 Capital, noted that “The ability to assess financial crime risk has been a subjective and unstandardized process, whereas Elucidate utilizes a structured framework built upon inherent risk factors, their impact, and enforcement actions to objectively quantify financial crime risk. This allows respondent and correspondent banks, regulatory agencies and regulated entities, trading partners and counterparties to determine financial crime risk on a systemic basis.”

‍About Elucidate: Elucidate is a Berlin-based financial crime risk quantification agency, which enables financial institutions to leverage their own data to assess and, critically, to predict the likelihood of a financial crime risk event, such as money laundering, terrorist financing, trafficking, tax evasion and others.

‍About 11.2 Capital: 11.2 Capital (http://www.112capital.com/) is a San Francisco-based Venture Capital firm investing in early-stage startups in emerging technology areas such as AI/ML, cybersecurity, robotics, quantum computing, space, data-driven healthcare.

‍About Seed X Liechtenstein: Seed X Liechtenstein (https://seedx.li/) is a Liechtenstein-based Venture Capital firm focusing on Fintech, Insurtech, Proptech and Legaltech startups in Europe. Seed X is backed by leading institutions and personalities from the financial and industrial sectors.

‍About APEX Ventures: APEX Ventures (https://www.apex.ventures/) is a Europe-based company builder backing technology ventures with a focus on unique and defendable intellectual property and above-average market potential. APEX funds have completed investments in Europe and in the U.S., among others in the fields of A.I. for medical applications, mobile forensics and insurance for autonomous vehicles.

‍About Big Start Ventures (BSV): Big Start Ventures (https://www.bigstart.vc/) is a Lisbon-based VC investing across all geographies. With special expertise in the financial sector, BSV focuses on seed-stage B2B Fintech, WealthTech, Regtech, Insurtech and Cybersecurity startups.

‍About SixThirty Ventures: SixThirty (https://sixthirty.co/) is a St Louis-based venture fund that invests in early-stage enterprise technology companies from around the world building FinTech, InsurTech, and Cybersecurity solutions, and connects them with corporate incumbents through its Go-To-Market Program.