The round was led by Foundation Capital with Amex Ventures joining as an investor

Sedric AI, (“Sedric”), the pioneering compliance-dedicated AI platform for financial institutions, today announced it has closed a $18.5 million Series A funding round to further its efforts to transform compliance operations across the industry. The latest funding round, led by Foundation Capital with participation from Amex Ventures, brings the total amount raised by the company to date to $22 million. The funds will be used to grow Sedric’s AI lab in Tel Aviv and expand its global go-to-market teams.

Financial institutions are embracing technologies like Gen AI to expand their product offerings, understanding that emerging technology comes with increased potential compliance risk. Regulators are applying more focus and expectations on financial institutions to ensure that those leveraging Gen AI are safeguarding their customers across all customer touchpoints, including communications and marketing.

The current regulatory environment, coupled with the growing scope of financial services, is driving demand for innovative solutions to help compliance officers execute their organization’s policies, guidelines, and standards. Studies show that the current cost of compliance for financial services worldwide is US$206 billion, equivalent to 12% of global research and development expenditures.

Sedric empowers compliance officers with a holistic view of their customer touchpoints across multiple channels to flag deviations from their established compliance policies and guidelines. Sedric’s technology enables companies to quickly take corrective actions without the cost and burden of manual review.

This technology is powered by the financial services industry’s first compliance-dedicated large language model (LLM), providing organizations with a mature, enterprise-ready platform to oversee and manage compliance risks. While starting with vertical-specific battle-tested models, Sedric is a learning system. Its models are customized to an organization’s unique requirements, automating policy enforcement, mitigating deviations, and streamlining audits.

“For financial institutions, compliance and growth can be seen as two competing priorities,” said Nir Laznik, co-founder and CEO of Sedric. “With our compliance LLM, we turn risk into a growth opportunity. Enterprises now have an opportunity to implement a proven, bank-ready solution that is successfully operational and already widely adopted across the financial services industry.”

Sedric’s revenue has increased fivefold over the last 12 months. The company has a growing base of customers in the U.S. and Europe, including global lenders, banks, trading platforms, and insurers.

“Sedric’s AI compliance platform fills a critical industry need as regulatory requirements become more stringent and complex,” said Charles Moldow, General Partner at Foundation Capital. “Nir, Eyal, and the Sedric team have developed a forward-looking solution that is 100 times more effective, faster, and efficient compared to traditional methods. This is a rare ‘better-faster-cheaper’ compliance solution for financial institutions.”

Sedric’s existing investors include StageOne Ventures, The Garage, Gefen Capital, Skywell Capital, Secret Chord, and K20 Fund.

“I believe that GenAI is going to dominate all aspects of the financial sector, yet in my experience, it’s a challenge to ensure it’s being used responsibly,” said Eyal Peleg, co-founder and CTO of Sedric. “Sedric enables financial institutions to unlock the potential of these powerful tools safely and within regulatory boundaries. Our platform puts guardrails and protections in place to help financial institutions adopt AI in a private, observable, and reliable way.”

About Sedric AI
Sedric developed the first dedicated compliance large language model (LLM) for financial services. Its AI-driven compliance platform transforms compliance operations and empowers compliance officers with a holistic view of risk across every integrated customer touchpoint. With offices in New York and Tel Aviv, the company provides financial services firms with a proven, enterprise-ready solution that is customized to an organization’s unique requirements, enabling organizations to turn risk into a growth opportunity. The company was established by Nir Laznik and Eyal Peleg in 2020 and has a growing base of customers in the U.S. and Europe.

About Foundation Capital
Foundation Capital is an early-stage venture firm founded in 1995. Our enterprise, fintech, consumer, and crypto investments—including Netflix, Lending Club, Sunrun, TubiTV, Chegg, Solana, Stripe, and Uber —have reinvented industries and defined new markets. For a quarter of a century, the firm has endured, evolved, and thrived, with over $5B assets under management, 33 IPOs and ICOs, and 80+ acquisitions to our name. Building companies is in our bones.

Nine in ten UAE survey respondents want apps that provide personalized insights into their finances

73% say they are comfortable having AI guide day-to-day financial decisions

A desire for more insights into personal finances, a willingness to share data to unlock individually tailored services, and a high level of comfort with AI-driven guidance are key themes to emerge from the new survey of UAE retail banking customers conducted by Capco, the global management and technology consultancy.

As the UAE pushes forward with ambitious plans to grow its digital economy, Capco’s Bank of the Future survey of over 1,200 UAE banking service users aged between 18 and 65 found that 89% have become more confident in using mobile and digital banking services over the last two years. Eight in ten (83%) now use mobile apps to access banking, offering a solid foundation for future banking innovation.

In addition, 87% of respondents say they would be attracted to an app that offered personalized insights into their finances, including 41% who say this would be ‘extremely attractive’. The survey also reveals that 72% would ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ share additional personal data – such as social media profiles or wearables data – to unlock personalized products, services or offers.

In support of its main survey, Capco conducted more focused polling of 500 consumers that looked specifically at the adoption of digital-first banking services. This found that nine in ten UAE respondents (89%) now have digital-first accounts, including both international and UAE-based firms. Three-quarters (76%) have an account with a UAE-based digital-first provider.

Capco’s survey findings highlight opportunities for UAE banks and fintechs to capitalize on positive attitudes to data sharing and innovation to deliver the products and services that consumers say they want. It also offers recommended paths forward for banks as they explore how best to apply the latest approaches to data analytics and AI to address customers’ aspirations.

James Arnett, Managing Partner, APAC & Middle East at Capco, said: “Consumers in the UAE are looking for products and services that provide a more bespoke user experience, including personalized financial insights. Seizing this opportunity will require an ever more nuanced understanding of individual consumer’s aspirations, and banks and other providers will need to prepare by investing in improved data management and advanced analytics.”

Naim Alame, Managing Partner, Middle East at Capco, said: “Consumers want convenient, integrated financial services and seamless digital journeys enabled by improved connectivity, data analytics and AI. Delivering the products and experiences that consumers want will require more agile banking models and significantly greater collaboration with third parties in order to embed value-added financial services ever more deeply into customers’ lives.

“For the bank of the future, collaboration may prove to be as important a priority as disruption. Offering a mobile-first experience that embeds payment aggregations, finance options and other ecosystem services to provide a more seamless and holistic experience will be the key to keeping customers engaged.”

Other key findings in Capco’s UAE survey report include:

86% of respondents would be attracted by a banking app that integrates financial services with the non-financial services they use in their daily lives, such as ride hailing and e-commerce.

• 37% would find such an app ‘extremely attractive’.

The characteristics that would convince a respondent to use a specific bank or financial institution include ‘a wide range of services’ (51%) and ‘more accessible services’ (45%).*

• ‘Trust in the company’ (39%) and ‘highly personalized products’ (34%) are also seen as important.

Four in ten of respondents (41%) cite cashback options as a value-added feature they consider when selecting a new card or account.*

• Other important features respondents would consider include discounts on travel (33%), monthly offers such as retail discounts (32%) and the ability to use points to make purchases (32%).

As digitalization accelerates, 72% of those using payment services identify online payments as a preferred payment method and 69% mention digital wallets.*

• Cash remains a preferred payment method for 51% of respondents, and cheques continue to be preferred by 28%.
• In Capco’s recent Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) banking survey, online payments (65%) and cards (65%) were the leading preferred methods of payment, while 57% of respondents cited digital wallets, 55% mentioned cash, but only 11% chose cheques.

The UAE played host to the COP28 global climate conference in late 2023, and almost nine in ten respondents (88%) say it is important that their primary bank has a proactive stance on ESG issues.

• In our KSA banking survey, 80% of respondents stated that this is important.

*Multiple responses permitted

Capco’s UAE survey report can be accessed here.

About Capco

Capco, a Wipro company, is a global management and technology consultancy specializing in driving digital transformation in the financial services industry. Capco operates at the intersection of business and technology by combining innovative thinking with unrivalled industry knowledge to fast-track digital initiatives for banking and payments, capital markets, wealth and asset management, insurance, and the energy sector. Capco’s cutting-edge ingenuity is brought to life through its award-winning Be Yourself At Work culture and diverse talent.

Bubble tea brand is poised to take its focus on customization and high brand recognition to the region.

To harness the growing interest in boba tea in the Middle East, bubble tea franchise CoCo Bubble Tea today announced a Halal Bubble Tea menu along with its plans to expand in the region.

To learn more: https://bit.ly/3OFKWWC

Worldwide, the bubble tea market is expected to grow 66% in seven years, from $2.46 billion in 2023 to $4.08 billion by 2030, and the popularity of the refreshment is growing in the Middle East as well. CoCo has drawn significant interest from Middle Eastern refreshment companies and entrepreneurs, indicating high demand in the region for bubble tea.

“We’ve gotten a major spike recently in inquiries from the Middle East, so we see it as a key region for bubble tea expansion,” commented Kody Wang, Director of Business Development at CoCo Bubble Tea. “CoCo has a lot to offer the Middle East. With over 5000 stores worldwide, we have the most international coverage of any pearl milk tea brand, providing potential partners with strong brand recognition and sophisticated infrastructure. Also, our franchise business model and extensive R&D capabilities give us a great deal of latitude to fully tailor refreshment offerings to consumer tastes. The Halal menu is just a start, and we hope to find master franchisers to partner with and grow together in the region.”

A different flavor of tea culture

Historically a key gateway between East and West, the influence of Asian culture is penetrating the Middle East, and bubble tea has taken hold of the region’s consumers. Already accustomed to drinking tea, local consumers are particularly receptive to boba tea, which mixes the novelty of boba with the familiar sweetness of tea.

CoCo’s Halal menu

By prioritizing R&D, CoCo has an extensive ability to adapt and localize refreshments to suit consumer tastes anywhere. With its Halal Bubble Tea menu already prepared, CoCo is poised to launch in the Middle East. All materials for the menu are Halal certified, and the menu offers a variety of options while leaving room for further customization to accommodate regional variations in preferences.

Why CoCo Bubble Tea

For franchise partners in the Middle East, CoCo offers:

• Strong brand reputation and recognition: With over 5000 stores globally, CoCo has the largest footprint of any bubble tea brand, helping to attract customers and drive business growth.
• Flexible partnerships: CoCo is open to a range of partnerships, from multi-store franchise partnerships to exclusivity in certain countries.
• Stabilized costs for maximized margins: With materials supplied by CoCo, supply chain costs are easily managed.
• Prioritize R&D to continuously serve consumers: By putting out new products regularly, the brand stays up to date in markets worldwide.
• Extensive menu with customization for local tastes: CoCo’s diverse offerings allow for franchisees to cater to different tastes across the Middle East.

About CoCo Bubble Tea
CoCo Bubble Tea aims to create a diverse and sustainable community for its consumers by providing visually refreshing products. We continue to be one of the fastest-growing companies and are looking for enterprising partners to join the CoCo Bubble Tea franchise networks. Check CoCo Bubble Tea’s official website and start your application now.