Sardine, a behavior-based fraud and compliance platform for fintechs, has successfully raised $51.5 million in a Series B funding round, which was led by Andreessen Horowitz’s growth fund. The company was founded by industry veterans from Coinbase, Revolut, and PayPal.
This funding round also included participation from several prominent investors, such as XYZ, Nyca Partners, Sound Ventures, Activant Capital, Visa, Google Ventures, Eric Schmidt, Vikram Pandit, The General Partnership, NAventures, ING Ventures, ConsenSys, Cross River Digital Ventures, Alloy Labs, and Uniswap Labs Ventures.
Sardine’s innovative technology utilizes AI to generate a real-time fraud score based on user identity, device, and behavior patterns when an account is created and funded. Additionally, the platform offers ongoing fraud monitoring during account logins, deposits, and withdrawals.
The startup provides instant ACH and card on-ramps to cryptocurrency, allowing fintech and crypto clients to quickly purchase over 30 different crypto assets or NFTs. Recently, Sardine introduced a direct fiat to NFT checkout product.
CEO Soups Ranjan stated, “Faster payments mean faster fraud. As Zelle, RTP, and FedNow gain popularity, consumers become increasingly susceptible to social engineering attacks, where they are persuaded to purchase items that never arrive or invest in scams.
“Moreover, financial institutions only know that their customers bought ETH or USDC, not how those assets are subsequently used. A new approach to fraud prevention is needed—one that closely examines user behavior at the time of purchase and considers the downstream actions taken with the funds. That’s precisely what we have developed at Sardine.”