ThetaRay is transforming the way financial institutions detect and combat financial crime through the power of Cognitive AI. Pulse 2.0 interviewed ThetaRay CEO Peter Reynolds to learn more about the company.
Peter Reynolds’ Background
What is Peter Reynolds’ background? Reynolds said:
“I come from a law and banking background, with a particular focus on driving revenue growth and leading international expansion efforts. My previous roles at Fundtech, Reval, Earnix and AimBrain (which was acquired by BioCatch) gave me hands-on experience in forming global partnerships, enhancing business operations, and navigating the complex needs of the financial services industry. Prior to becoming CEO of ThetaRay, I served as Chief Revenue Officer, where I played a key role in scaling the business and expanding our customer base. My career experiences provided me with a broad perspective on the challenges and opportunities in the fintech space, positioning me well to lead ThetaRay.”
Formation Of ThetaRay
How did the idea for the company come together? Reynolds shared:
“ThetaRay was founded by two brilliant mathematicians seeking to tackle a pressing problem in global finance of truly identifying financial crime. Can we detect suspicious activity related to money laundering and financing of terrorism with AI? Traditional monitoring systems were proving ineffective at keeping up with increasingly sophisticated criminal tactics, leading to inefficiencies and missed risks.”
“The company was established to fill this gap by leveraging patented AI to provide financial institutions with more accurate, real-time detection solutions that could keep pace with the modern financial landscape and its ever-evolving regulations. The vision was, and still is, to build solutions that enable businesses to grow while reducing the noise and false alerts that burden compliance teams, improving their ability to detect and respond to real threats.”
“Data insights from our Cognitive AI solutions are being used by our customers to grow and expand their business while managing anti-money laundering (AML) risk effectively.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Reynolds reflected:
“I have so many good memories from my time here, but one that stands out recently is when I was invited, along with the leader of transaction monitoring at Santander UK (one of our partner banks) to participate in The Banker Exchange podcast. We discussed the crucial role AI can play in helping banks combat human trafficking.”
“As I listened to Stephen share how his team might have missed detecting several transactions of £37.98 due to the limitations of a legacy rule-based system, it struck me how ThetaRay’s AI made a real difference. It empowered Santander’s compliance team to identify transactions and clients linked to human trafficking, allowing them to present timely reports to authorities and thwart a modern slavery network. At that moment, I felt truly humbled. Sharing a real-life case together with Stephen from Santander made me realize the profound impact our team has.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Reynolds explained:
“ThetaRay has evolved from one product to a suite of products for AML needs, including: Transaction Monitoring, Customer and Transaction Screening and our latest innovation, Customer Risk Assessment — the first of its kind in dynamic customer due diligence.”
“Our platform provides a holistic view of risk to banks and fintech companies, and payment service providers, streamlining compliance processes, and enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of financial crime compliance. What truly sets our products apart is their ability to accurately detect financial crime using AI, and deliver actionable alerts while significantly reducing false positives — which is a common challenge in the industry. This allows banks and fintechs to concentrate their resources on actual threats, rather than being bogged down by unnecessary alerts. Additionally, our platform is highly scalable and adaptable, making us a desired technology partner to future-proof institutions experiencing rapid growth.”
“We’ve recently seen banks in Europe and North America fined given their compliance systems couldn’t keep pace with their growth. In contrast, our AI enables compliant business growth. By integrating AI at the core of the system, we empower faster, smarter, and more reliable decision-making for effective customer risk management. Our solutions enhance intelligence and control, enabling businesses to determine which customers to engage with and the level of risk they are willing to accept. This approach opens institutions to new corridors of revenue by allowing the swift onboarding of individuals previously deemed too high-risk and the expansion of an institution’s product portfolio offerings available to existing clients. ThetaRay provides greater intelligence and control to organizations to make decisions about who they want to do business with all while reducing compliance costs and unnecessary due diligence of customers.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges have Reynolds and the team faced in building the company? Reynolds acknowledged:
“One of the biggest challenges we’ve faced is finding amazing AI talent in this competitive space. As a purpose-driven company, we’re not just looking for the best skills; we want people who share our mission and are ready to go the extra mile to deliver top-notch solutions and service for our customers. It’s all about making a real impact on efficiency and financial crime compliance! We’re excited to be expanding our teams in New York, Madrid, London, Tel Aviv and Dubai, bringing on board data scientists, financial crime experts, business developers, solution consultants — all while staying true to our core values that fuel our success.”
Evolution Of The Company’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Reynolds noted:
“ThetaRay has come a long way from its early days as a pioneer of AI-based detection models. We’ve continuously refined our technology to keep up with the increasing demands of global financial networks. One major development has been migrating our solutions to a cloud-based platform, which enables it to handle the sheer scale and complexity of global transactions. Our machine learning models have also grown more sophisticated, allowing us to better understand the ever-changing and subtle nuances of diverse financial flows. This evolution has made our products more effective, more scalable, and more reliable for the financial institutions that depend on them.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Reynolds cited:
“We’ve achieved several key milestones that have shaped our journey. Over the past two years, we’ve expanded our customer base tenfold globally, which is a testament to the demand for our solutions. We’ve also secured partnerships with major technology leaders like Microsoft and financial institutions like Santander, Payoneer, Travelex, Mashreq Bank, and Clear.Bank. These collaborations not only validate the strength of our technology but also demonstrate our growing influence in the industry.”
“Another significant milestone was our $57 million funding round last year, led by North American investor Portage, JVP, OurCrowd, and other strategic investors, which has put the company on a path to profitability. Their trust and investment has provided us with the resources to accelerate our international expansion and further advance our technology. Most recently, we acquired Screena, a next-gen screening company, which enhances our Transaction and Customer Screening solution. These milestones reflect our commitment to growth and innovation in a rapidly evolving sector, and we’re excited about what the future holds!”
Customer Success Stories
When asking Reynolds about customer success stories, he highlighted:
“In addition to our work with leading financial institutions as Santander, Clear.Bank, Mashreq and Travelex Bank, we’ve also achieved significant success with fintechs, including our collaboration with Payoneer. They sought a comprehensive solution to streamline AML compliance. Providing online money transfer, digital payment services and working capital to clients worldwide, Payoneer needed a partner who could handle high transaction volumes and understand the unique risks of the payment industry. Implementing our Transaction Monitoring solution improved the quality of alerts, allowing for better detection of complex patterns. Our solution enabled Payoneer to manage increased transaction volumes effectively, while maintaining compliance as they continue to expand globally.”
Funding
When asking Reynolds about the company’s funding details, he revealed:
“We’ve been fortunate to secure strong financial backing, including a $57 million funding round last year led by North American VC Portage, JVP, OurCrowd, and other leading investors. This has been a pivotal moment for us as it enables us to accelerate our global expansion and invest in further developing our technology. This growth is largely driven by the rising demand for AI-powered solutions in financial crime compliance, and our ability to consistently meet the needs of a growing customer base.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Reynolds assessed:
“Using a bottom-up approach, we target the growing $9 billion market for financial crime compliance solutions focused on AML. As financial institutions face growing regulatory pressures and the need for new solutions to combat financial crime, this market represents a significant opportunity. By providing cutting-edge AI solutions that improve both efficiency and compliance and promote growth, we’re well-positioned to capture a meaningful share of this expanding market.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Reynolds affirmed:
“What sets us apart is our unmatched ability to detect financial crime while supporting our customers’ compliant growth. Our product suite is delivering an unparalleled view of risk and enhancing operational efficiency, allowing small compliance teams to manage large volumes of transactions effectively. Deploying our Cognitive AI technology has enabled global financial institutions to identify new risk typologies, including those considered complex like drug trafficking, human trafficking and financing of terrorism. Our commitment to AI-driven innovation, and our perspective of compliance as a strategic advantage and a growth enabler, drives our approach to delivering actionable alerts. While many competitors are blinded by outdated systems or have limited AI integration — often resulting in slower deployment and delayed value — our platform is built from the ground up with a risk-based approach. At its core are proprietary AI algorithms that enable us to deliver real-time AML detection with unmatched accuracy.”
“For institutions seeking a financial crime compliance product suite that effectively identifies illicit activities, we are the clear choice. We can optimize transaction monitoring to make it dynamic, providing organizations with enhanced intelligence and information to support informed decision-making, thereby increasing process efficiency. By integrating compliance into their growth strategy, our clients can not only mitigate risk but also leverage our actionable insights as a catalyst for expansion. Our robust capabilities, combined with strong partnerships with major financial institutions, give us a significant competitive advantage in the market.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? Reynolds concluded:
“Looking ahead, our primary objective is to expand our presence in North America. Beyond our geographical expansion, our product teams are working on offering customers more and more capabilities. As we scale our international presence, we see our impact particularly in regions where financial inclusion remains a significant challenge, such as Africa. By leveraging the power of our Cognitive AI technology, we aim to serve as a catalyst for financial growth and prosperity. Financial crime has historically exploited the financial system, undermining trust and hindering access to vital financial services that can transform lives and communities.”
“We are dedicated to leading the way in Cognitive AI financial crime compliance, continuously evolving our product suite to meet the dynamic demands of the global financial system. A key aspect of our strategy is to promote the adoption of Cognitive AI, enhancing AML programs, improving operational efficiencies and driving revenue growth. By equipping financial institutions with solutions to mitigate AML risks, along with robust reporting from our explainable AI, we enable our customers to generate timely reports that empower law enforcement agencies to effectively disrupt illicit activities.”
“Ultimately, as a purpose-driven tech company, our vision encompasses ethical banking that not only fosters growth but also addresses pressing global crises like drug and human trafficking, and financing of terrorism.”
