Financial crime as a wider category of cybercrime continues to be one of the most potent of online threats, covering nefarious actives as diverse as fraud, money laundering and funding terrorism. Today, one of the startups that has been building data intelligence solutions to help combat that is announcing a fundraise to continue fueling its growth. Ripjar, a UK company founded by five data scientists who previously worked together in British intelligence at the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ, the UK's equivalent of the NSA), has raised $36.8 million (£28 million) in a Series B, money that it plans to use to continue expanding the scope of its AI platform -- which it calls Labyrinth -- and scaling the business. Labyrinth, as Ripjar describes it, works with both structured and unstructured data, using natural language processing and an API-based platform that lets organizations incorporate any data source they would like to analyse and monitor for activity. It automatically and in real time checks these against other data sources like sanctions lists, politically exposed persons (PEPs) lists and transaction alerts.

Financial crime as a wider category of cybercrime continues to be one of the most potent of online threats, covering nefarious actives as diverse as fraud, money laundering and funding terrorism. Today, one of the startups that has been building data intelligence solutions to help combat that is announcing a fundraise to continue fueling its growth. Ripjar, a UK company founded by five data scientists who previously worked together in British intelligence at the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ, the UK's equivalent of the NSA), has raised $36.8 million (£28 million) in a Series B, money that it plans to use to continue expanding the scope of its AI platform -- which it calls Labyrinth -- and scaling the business. Labyrinth, as Ripjar describes it, works with both structured and unstructured data, using natural language processing and an API-based platform that lets organizations incorporate any data source they would like to analyse and monitor for activity. It automatically and in real time checks these against other data sources like sanctions lists, politically exposed persons (PEPs) lists and transaction alerts.

Data intelligence platform Ripjar, founded by former GCHQ engineers, has raised an undisclosed sum from Winton Ventures, the VC capital arm of the Winton Group. The firm, headquartered in Cheltenham, allows organisations to explore, visualise and prioritise real-time information from bulks of structured and unstructured data. To do so, the firm applies natural language processing, machine learning techniques and visual analytics. Tom Griffin, CEO of Ripjar said in a statement: "Data capture and analysis is becoming increasingly important to the day-to-day operations of organisations of all sizes. There is a need for new, advanced tools that facilitate this process and, consequently, enable organisations to focus their own resources elsewhere. "Winton's backing will play a vital role in our continued strategic growth ambitions and enable us to increase our customer base across a variety of new business verticals," he added. Owen McCormack, director of Winton Ventures, commented: "We are excited by the potential of Ripjar's profound data analytics knowledge, which is a central component that underpins and complements our own business, previous investments and partnerships.