In this interview, we sit down with the visionary founder of ComplyCube, a leading player in the RegTech industry, to explore how technology is reshaping the landscape of regulatory compliance, KYC, and AML. With a focus on innovation, transparency, and user-centric solutions, ComplyCube is redefining how businesses across the globe achieve compliance and build digital trust at scale. From personal inspirations to overcoming industry challenges, our guest shares insights into their journey, the unique value proposition of their platform, and their ambitious vision for the future of RegTech.
As a leader in regulatory compliance and KYC AML software, what exactly does RegTech mean to you?
With my years of experience in banking, I’ve witnessed firsthand how technology, particularly RegTech, is revolutionizing the financial landscape. It’s far more than a buzzword. It’s a fundamental shift in how we manage risk, achieve compliance, and enhance customer experience, leading to a more inclusive, transparent, and efficient ecosystem.
RegTech empowers both businesses and individuals. It breaks down barriers to financial services, ensuring broader access and minimizing user friction, which results in a superior customer experience. Imagine a small business owner located in a remote area, hindered by geographical limitations and cumbersome paperwork. With a digital platform, they can verify their identity seamlessly and securely, gaining access to financial services that were once out of reach. This transformation not only empowers the business owner but also fosters economic growth in underserved regions.
For businesses, RegTech is a game changer. It streamlines compliance, reduces costs, and enhances the customer journey, offering a distinct competitive advantage. For example, a fintech startup can now onboard customers globally in minutes using automated KYC/AML checks, drastically reducing the time and resources previously required for manual verification. This allows them to focus on innovation and growth rather than being tied down by tedious compliance processes.
Of course, challenges still remain. Balancing heightened customer expectations with robust fraud prevention and navigating complex global regulations is an ongoing challenge. However, modern RegTech solutions, such as ComplyCube, have proven highly effective in addressing these challenges while delivering an enhanced customer experience.
The potential of the RegTech sector is yet to be unlocked, as increased interoperability and standardization are required. Nevertheless, we are undoubtedly heading in the right direction. At ComplyCube, we are committed to supporting this sector’s evolution and to building digital trust at scale.
Brief overview of your product/service offering
ComplyCube is an award-winning verification platform designed to streamline IDV, AML, and KYC compliance. We leverage advanced AI, trusted data sources, and smart workflows to empower businesses to achieve global AML/CTF compliance, increase customer conversions, mitigate fraud, and optimize costs.
Our commitment to excellence is reflected in our industry accolades, including being named a RegTech100 company and winning the “RegTech Partner of the Year” at the British Bank Awards 2024. We also boast a wide array of certifications, such as IDSP under the UK DIATF, eIDAS compliance, ISO 30107-3, ISO 27001:2022, and ISO 9001:2015, ensuring we meet the highest security and compliance standards.
What inspired you to build the product?
A blend of personal inspiration and professional experience drove my desire to build ComplyCube. My father’s entrepreneurial leap from a secure government job to starting his own business sparked my drive to create something meaningful myself. Additionally, my father maintained a voluntary career as a Judo instructor, dedicating his time to helping disadvantaged children and instilling similar values in me. His example of combining professional ambition with a deep sense of community service profoundly shaped my own purpose and approach to building impactful solutions.
My mother, my northern star, instilled in me the importance of pursuing excellence while maintaining empathy and strong personal relationships. Her journey is particularly inspiring. When her mother unexpectedly fell ill, she sacrificed her career ambitions to care for her siblings. This required immense determination and resilience, qualities she worked hard to pass on to my siblings and me. My mother eventually built up her career, teaching me the value of hard work and the importance of balancing professional success with integrity and empathy.
My academic journey, culminating in a PhD in Electronics Engineering, provided me with the analytical and problem-solving skills essential for tackling complex challenges. The research rigor and technical expertise I gained during my PhD have been instrumental in developing innovative solutions at ComplyCube, particularly in the design and implementation of scalable AI-driven compliance tools.
My career in banking further shaped my ambitions. Working on large-scale projects that served millions of customers gave me a deep understanding of the determination, planning, and meticulous execution required to build a successful venture. Skills such as adapting to dynamic environments, managing multiple threads, delivering under pressure, and planning with a big-picture perspective while remaining agile were crucial.
The turning point came when I met my co-founder, Mohamed Alsalehi, at Barclays. We both joined a program designed to train promising talent to become future leaders at the bank. We quickly clicked, sharing a passion for technology and user-centric solutions. Mohamed’s intellect, planning skills, attention to detail, and dedication complemented my strengths, making us a formidable team.
Initially, we aimed to create a fintech-focused venture, specifically a peer-to-peer FX trading platform. Given our extensive experience in treasury, ALM, corporate banking, global markets, and investment banking, designing and implementing the core P2P FX trading platform was relatively straightforward. However, the FCA license application process revealed the daunting challenges of KYC and AML compliance. The existing solutions were clunky, expensive, fragmented, and lacked user-friendly interfaces for end-users and back-office staff.
Driven by our frustration with existing solutions and the desire to empower fellow entrepreneurs, we founded ComplyCube. Our goal was to create an easy-to-use platform that would alleviate businesses’ compliance burden, allowing them to focus on growth and innovation. Building ComplyCube presented unique challenges. We had to create a truly scalable service capable of handling peak demand while adhering to strict data residency and AML regulations worldwide. Additionally, we focused on making our AI models explainable, ensuring transparency and actionable outcomes for compliance professionals.
Today, ComplyCube is a testament to our dedication to making compliance effortless for businesses, enabling them to thrive in a complex regulatory landscape.
What is your product/service USP?
ComplyCube’s unique value proposition lies in its innovative, all-in-one platform, which seamlessly integrates IDV, KYC, and AML compliance. We empower businesses of all sizes, from startups to multinational enterprises, to build trust at scale with the most comprehensive, flexible, and cost-effective compliance tools available.
Our best-in-class orchestration platform leverages automated workflows and over 3,000 data points, enabling frictionless customer journeys with minimal user input while conducting extensive background checks. This facilitates seamless verification processes in over 220 countries, processing millions of checks and supporting global expansion with ease.
We offer one of the most comprehensive suites of checks in the market, including AML & PEP screening, adverse media screening, document authentication, biometric verification, liveness detection, electronic identity verification, address verification, device intelligence, fraud detection, driving license verification, and connectivity to various electronic identity schemes worldwide. Unlike the fragmented solutions provided by multiple vendors, ComplyCube’s adaptable AI-powered solutions seamlessly adjust to unique business needs and risk appetites, providing a cohesive and streamlined experience.
While many KYC companies use ‘black box’ AI models that offer opaque yes/no responses, ComplyCube’s platform is built with transparency from the ground up. We provide rich, granular, and clear breakdowns of verification outcomes, enabling compliance professionals to implement risk-based approaches aligned with international standards such as FATF recommendations, the UK’s ICO guidance, and the EU’s AI Act.
Furthermore, our platform boasts the fastest omnichannel integration turnaround in the market, featuring low/no-code solutions, APIs, mobile & web SDKs, client libraries, and CRM integrations. This simplifies compliance and makes it accessible to businesses of all technical capabilities.
How big is your team, and who are the critical players in your journey to building a successful RegTech company?
Our core team consists of over 25 talented individuals, each playing a vital role in ComplyCube’s success. We are actively expanding, with plans to bring in more software engineers, product managers, sales representatives, and revenue generation specialists.
My co-founder and CTO, Mohamed Alsalehi, and our Chief Product Officer, Harry Varatharasan, have been instrumental in overcoming early challenges. Now, as a larger team, every member’s dedication is crucial to our continued success and innovation. We aim to build a compact, successful team that emulates the success of SaaS companies that maintain small teams while achieving substantial growth.
Mohamed and I will lead the expansion in the MENA region with a new office in Dubai, while Harry will focus on the product roadmap in London. Our growth, sales, customer success, and engineering teams play vital roles in increasing our global market share.
We believe in the power of teamwork and recognize that our collective efforts are the key to our success. While key individuals have been instrumental, it’s the synergy and dedication of our entire team that propels us forward.
What was the most challenging/critical aspect of your journey as the founder of ComplyCube?
The most challenging aspect of my journey has been balancing rapid growth with maintaining our core values and high standards.
When we started, the primary challenge was developing a robust, scalable platform that could handle the complexities of IDV, KYC, and AML compliance across diverse industries and global markets. Ensuring the platform’s adaptability while maintaining compliance with varying international regulations was daunting. We had to innovate constantly to stay ahead of the curve and meet the stringent requirements of financial regulators worldwide.
Building a strong team has also been a notable challenge. As we grew, hiring the right talent who not only possessed the necessary skills but who shared our vision and values became essential. This was particularly challenging as we expanded into new regions, such as the MENA region, with our new office in Dubai. We needed to ensure seamless collaboration across different time zones and cultures.
Another significant hurdle in our journey has been managing the technological and operational complexities while scaling our services to process millions of checks weekly without compromising on security or user experience. Implementing advanced AI models that are transparent and explainable was a vital step to gaining the trust of our clients and compliance professionals.
Each growth stage brought new financial challenges and required strategic planning to ensure sustainable development without diluting our core mission. The journey has been filled with various challenges, but we’ve turned these challenges into opportunities for growth and improvement through innovation, a strong team, and strategic planning.
How did you overcome the initial mindset challenges of the regulators/supervisors?
Dealing with regulators requires a multifaceted approach focused on collaboration and transparency. We actively engaged with regulators through workshops and webinars, emphasizing how RegTech could enhance compliance and efficiency. Seeking their feedback ensured our solution met regulatory requirements, while pilot projects offered firsthand experience, reinforcing confidence in our technology.
Transparency has always been paramount. We’ve prioritized maintaining an open dialogue about our technology and proactively addressed any concerns. Our Trust Center, a live dashboard showcasing ComplyCube’s security and compliance posture, played a crucial role in building trust. Additionally, our extensive certifications, including compliance with the UK government’s DIATF initiative, the UK Cyber Essentials scheme, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, ISO/IEC 30107-3, and eIDAS compliance, further validate our reliability and security as a service provider.
We also prioritized building a solid compliance team with deep regulatory expertise and committed to continuous innovation, ensuring our platform evolved with emerging requirements. This holistic approach helped us overcome initial challenges and establish ComplyCube as a trusted partner in the RegTech industry.
Where do you see yourself in the next three years?
We envision ComplyCube evolving beyond a compliance platform into a comprehensive customer lifecycle management solution in the next three years. We’ll seamlessly cover every customer journey stage, from initial onboarding and KYC to ongoing relationship management and regular checks. This transformation will be powered by our robust workflow engine and extensive data capabilities, ensuring we meet customer needs efficiently.
From a company perspective, we’re poised for rapid growth. We’ll continue onboarding new clients, expanding our market share, and venturing into new industries. As the digital fraud landscape grows more sophisticated, the demand for our services will surge, and we’re ready to provide advanced KYC and AML solutions to emerging sectors.
We’re committed to leading the RegTech industry through continuous innovation and unwavering excellence. To maintain the highest standards of security and compliance, we’ll enhance our technology, acquire more industry certifications, and expand our Trust Center. Our goal is to become synonymous with comprehensive compliance and customer lifecycle management.
We’re dedicated to fostering a culture of continuous improvement and collaboration within our growing team. We will attract top talent and nurture a dynamic work environment that encourages innovation and maintains our competitive edge. I’m excited to see our team members thrive and contribute to our shared mission of revolutionizing compliance processes for businesses worldwide.
Which countries do you feel you can expand to with your offerings?
We are proud to operate globally and plan to increase our market share internationally as we continue to grow. We’re looking to build our presence further in our core markets, which include Europe, the UK, and the US, and make further inroads in growing markets, including Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
A key focus of our expansion is the MENA region, where we are establishing a more significant presence with our new office in Dubai. This strategic move allows us to better serve the growing financial markets in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, where there is a strong demand for robust KYC and AML solutions due to heavy investments in fintech and digital banking.
The Asia-Pacific region, including Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia, is also rapidly growing in fintech and digital banking. Latin America, particularly Brazil and Mexico, offers growth in digital transactions, while Africa’s expanding digital banking services in countries like Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa require robust KYC and AML solutions.
Have you built any consulting models for consultants from different countries?
Yes, we have developed comprehensive consulting models to support consultants globally. These models help businesses navigate complex compliance landscapes and adapt to unique regulatory environments and market needs.
Our consulting services focus on regulatory compliance, risk management, and technology integration. We assist in meeting local and international requirements, developing robust risk management frameworks, and integrating AI and machine learning into compliance processes. We also offer training programs to update consultants on the latest compliance trends.
Additionally, our “Accelerate Revenue with ComplyCube (ARC)” Partner Program helps partners build engaging identity verification and customer onboarding experiences, launch faster, and reach more customers. Benefits include a referral scheme, global growth opportunities, business architecture support, secure and GDPR-compliant solutions, effortless integration, first-class support, and enterprise-grade security.
Platform partners can integrate ComplyCube’s solutions into their offerings, creating new revenue streams and scaling internationally. For more information, visit the ComplyCube Partner Program.
By offering these consulting models and partnerships, we aim to help consultants and their clients achieve compliance, manage risks, and leverage technology effectively.
