Munich-based startup Hawk, a leading AI-driven compliance platform, has secured $56 million in Series C funding to ramp up its mission of revolutionizing how financial institutions tackle money laundering, fraud, and sanctions breaches. The round was led by One Peak, with strong support from existing backers including Macquarie Capital, Rabobank, BlackFin Capital Partners, Sands Capital, DN Capital, Picus Capital, and Coalition.
This latest investment marks a significant milestone for Hawk as it scales its efforts globally, particularly in the U.S., where outdated compliance tools continue to challenge banks and fintech firms.
Modernizing Compliance: From False Positives to Intelligent Detection
Traditional compliance systems, often built on rigid rules, are falling short. These legacy platforms flood teams with false positives, causing unnecessary work, wasted resources, and missed threats. Worse still, savvy criminals are exploiting these outdated systems to avoid detection altogether.
Hawk offers a smarter, more agile alternative. Its AI-powered compliance solution blends explainable AI with adaptive machine learning to dramatically reduce false alerts while enhancing the detection of genuine financial crime. This balance of accuracy and transparency gives regulators and governance teams the clarity they need, without compromising innovation.
Building Smarter Tools for Financial Institutions
Founded in 2018 by Tobias Schweiger and Wolfgang Berner, Hawk is designed to help banks, payment providers, and fintechs uncover suspicious activity faster and with greater accuracy. The platform’s modular design allows institutions to plug into capabilities like real-time transaction monitoring, scalable fraud prevention, and deep integrations with external data providers.
With over 80 global customers, including Ecobank, Vodafone, Worldline, VR Payment, Volt, VakifBank International, and Synctera, Hawk has quickly become the go-to compliance tool for Tier 1 banks and fast-growing fintechs alike. These organizations are turning to Hawk to keep pace with increasingly complex regulatory demands and rising criminal sophistication.
Explainable AI: Transparency That Builds Trust
What sets Hawk apart is its commitment to explainability in AI. While many platforms function as black boxes, Hawk’s technology clearly shows compliance teams why an alert was flagged. This clarity is essential not just for regulatory reporting, but also for internal trust and decision-making.
By merging transparency with cutting-edge machine learning, Hawk is positioning itself as the next-generation standard in anti-financial crime compliance—one that empowers teams, streamlines workflows, and keeps pace with evolving threats.
Redefining Compliance in a New AI Era
As the financial crime landscape becomes more complex, institutions need tools that don’t just detect threats but adapt to them. Hawk’s AI-first platform offers this dynamic edge, with results to back it up.
According to CEO Tobias Schweiger, Hawk’s platform has boosted alert accuracy to nearly 90% in some cases and has doubled the detection of previously hidden, novel criminal activity. “AI is in our DNA,” he said. “Our goal is to equip financial institutions with the technology and support they need to unlock the full potential of AI in fighting financial crime.”
With this new round of funding, Hawk plans to deepen its technology stack, expand hiring, especially in the U.S., and support a broader base of financial institutions seeking smarter, more efficient compliance solutions.
Investor Confidence in Hawk’s Vision
One Peak’s David Klein, Co-founder and Managing Partner, shared his enthusiasm for Hawk’s momentum: “The impact Hawk is having on AML and fraud teams is phenomenal. Financial institutions praise their results, reliability, and customer-focused approach. We’re thrilled to back their world-class team as they continue this incredible growth journey.”
As Hawk scales its mission globally, it is not only reshaping how financial crime is detected—but also raising the bar for what compliance technology should deliver in the AI age.
