Salv, an anti-money laundering (AML) startup founded by a gaggle of former TransferWise staffers, has raised $2 million in a seed round led by Fly Ventures.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, between $1 trillion and $2 trillion is laundered annually.
Salv claims that its technology makes European banks more than 10 times as effective in combating money laundering. The firm's dashboard promises an intuitive product that gives compliance specialists the tools needed to reduce time on false-positive alerts.
Salv CEO Taavi Tamkivi built the AML, fraud and KYC teams at TransferWise and Skype. Co-founders COO Jeff McClelland and CTO Sergei Rumjantsev are also TransferWise veterans.
Estonia's largest domestic financial services group LHV has already signed on for the technology.
Says Tamkivi: "Banks are spending more and more resources on AML but not making real progress. Even if a bank is 100% compliant with regulations, it isn’t enough. Money is still laundered, despite complex regulations and procedures. And the bad guys are always one step ahead.
"We built Salv to make financial institutions smarter at detecting crime, without damaging the experience of real customers."
The seed round was joined by Passion Capital and Seedcamp, as well as angel investors Twilio CTO Ott Kaukver, N26 co-founder Maximilian Tayenthal and the former CIO for Estonia Taavi Kotka.