Steward has secured USD 5 million in a financing round led by Motive Partners to expand its AI-powered compliance system for complex investor onboarding.

Headquartered in both the United States and the United Kingdom, Steward focuses on addressing gaps within regulated financial services, particularly in the onboarding of sophisticated investors like fund-of-funds, family offices, and offshore trusts.

Mitigating Operational Delays in Investor Compliance

Institutional investors often encounter significant delays during Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures. Complex ownership structures, involving layered entities and international arrangements, frequently necessitate manual reviews, extensive document gathering, and repetitive rectification processes, leading to onboarding times that can stretch into weeks or months.

Steward’s solution streamlines the collection of documents, screening, risk evaluation, and periodic reviews through a unified workflow. The platform utilizes AI-driven agents capable of deciphering intricate ownership patterns and cross-border issues. Additionally, Steward offers sharable investor profiles to facilitate secure AML/KYC data exchanges between regulated entities, aiming to expedite deal processes.

The company claims that its platform allows for same-day onboarding in 80% of cases, irrespective of the complexity of the investor. Current clients include Connect Ventures, Unruly Capital, and IAB Group, alongside Motive Partners and Outward VC as both investors and active users. Steward also reports a growing number of tier-one institutional allocators among its clientele.

Steward sees itself as essential infrastructure for regulated firms and entities subject to heightened scrutiny while managing increasing numbers of intricate investor relationships. The platform targets the more complex end of the onboarding process, acknowledging that traditional compliance tools often falter with non-standard ownership chains.

According to official statements, the recent funding will be allocated to enhancing product features and scaling the workforce. As regulatory scrutiny over AML and KYC increases globally and financial institutions face pressure to streamline their processes without compromising on screening standards, compliance automation has become a growing area of investment interest.