Toronto-based Tuhk has raised $6 million USD ($8.3 million CAD) in seed funding as it prepares a wider launch of its financial crime-fighting platform.
The financial cybersecurity startup launched this year and aims to help financial institutions, merchants, and other service providers identify fraudulent payment activity and shut it down.
Tuhk co-founder Heather Lamont explained in an email on Friday that the company’s platform unites siloed data from different sources into a single intelligence network. She claimed this allows companies to detect threats proactively and reduce fraud losses.
Tuhk’s all-equity seed round closed on Dec. 3 and was led by venture firm FINTOP, with participation from Lloyds Banking Group and Capital One Ventures. Tuhk will use the funds to “super-charge” its market entry in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada.
Tuhk’s platform unites siloed data from different sources into a single intelligence network.
“Their investment reflects shared confidence in our approach and provides valuable strategic guidance as we advance our work together,” Tuhk co-founder and CEO Andre Edelbrock said in a statement last week. The Lloyds Banking Group FinTech division is investing, while Tuhk is working with its banking entity on product design.
Edelbrock added that the capital will speed up product development as Tuhk looks to support dispute resolution and faster payment approvals. The company plans to grow its 14-person team by hiring up to 10 more people in the “near to medium term,” Lamont said.
Tuhk says it’s launching to curb a wave of cybercrime, which will cost an estimated $15.6 trillion USD worldwide by 2029, according to market research company Statista. For large enterprises and small businesses, part of the increase in cost and frequency is due to more sophisticated attacks enabled by artificial intelligence (AI), a wider availability of ransomware, and a spike in third-party vendor cyberattacks.
Its ideal customers, Lamont said, are large players like banks, online merchants, payment providers, e-commerce platforms, digital wallets, and FinTech companies. Eventually, Tuhk hopes to serve telecommunications companies and insurance providers.
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Financial crime has been a growing concern for the federal government, too. It committed to a new National Fraud Agency in October; days later, the feds’ money-laundering watchdog issued its largest fine to date against Vancouver-based Cryptomus over a failure to submit over 1,000 suspicious transaction reports. For Tuhk, this presents a market opportunity.
Liz Ziegler, fraud prevention director at Lloyds Banking Group, said in a statement that secure data-sharing and collaboration will help quash the growing threat of fraud. “We’ll collectively be in a far stronger position to stop the bad actors whilst ensuring a safer system for our customers,” she said.
Feature image courtesy Unsplash. Photo by Kevin Ku.