Fraud Detection Startup Sardine AI Wraps Up $70M Series C

AI-powered fraud detection platform Sardine locked up a $70 million Series C after nearly doubling its customer base last year.

The new round was led by Activant Capital with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Nyca Partners, GV, Geodesic Capital, Cross Creek Capital, Moody’s Analytics, Experian Ventures and NAventures. Founded in 2020, Sardine has raised $145 million, per the company.

The San Francisco-based startup’s AI-enhanced platform uses device intelligence, behavior biometrics and machine learning to help stop fraud in real time and streamlines compliance. The platform has a suite of AI agents designed to automate fraud and compliance operations and cut costs.

In addition to growing its customer base, the company said it also grew annual recurring revenue 130% last year.

“Risk teams are stretched to their limits, and the workload keeps growing,” said Soups Ranjan, CEO of Sardine. “Alert volumes have surged 800%, compliance hiring can’t keep up, and analysts are stuck in an endless cycle of manual reviews … Sardine’s AI agents automate the most time-consuming parts of risk operations, helping teams move faster, reduce false positives, and focus on stopping real threats.”

Not focused on fraud

Despite the headlines fraud garners, investors have not poured money into fraud detection startups. In fact, Sardine’s raise is the largest in the sector since Austin, Texas-based SpyCloud, which protects digital identities, closed a $110 million growth round of primary and secondary capital led by Riverwood Capital in August 2023.

Venture funding actually dipped significantly in the space last year, with only $336 million going to fraud detection startups, per Crunchbase data. That dollar total was almost a 50% drop from the $620 million invested in 2023.

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Illustration: Dom Guzman