Budapest-based SEON, — an anti-fraud platform which looks at a customer’s ‘digital footprint’ to weed out false accounts and thus prevent fraudulent transactions — has acquired compliance and AML specialist firm, Complytron, also based out of Budapest.
Terms of the deal were not officially released, but Techcrunch sources said the deal was in the region of €2.5M, although SEON declined to comment. Complytron had previously raised €257,000 from Budapest-based CVC Hiventures.
Complytron’s co-founder and CEO, Oliver Lebhardt, will join SEON along with co-founder and UX lead, Abris Gryllus. A SEON spokesperson said the acquisition adds AML capabilities to SEON’s fraud-fighting platform, which will enable it to offer a wider raise of anti-fraud and AML services.
SEON competes with Emailage, Iovation, Threatmetrix, but looks heavily at social media accounts to weed out fraudsters. Last year it raised a $94 million Series B funding round led by Silicon Valley-based IVP.
SEON claims the addition of Complytron’s capability means it will be able to eliminate the need for separate searches across different AML databases, such as international sanctions and crime lists, Politically Exposed Persons (PEP) databases, and watch lists of supervisory authorities and national law enforcement, such as Interpol and the FBI.
In a statement, Tamas Kadar, co-founder and CEO of SEON, commented: “Less than a year on from our $94M Series B, we’re executing on our mission to fight fraud and combat money laundering… Rather than building an AML solution from the ground up, it made perfect sense for us to acquire Complytron’s extensive and innovative algorithms and worldwide databases – as well as the expertise of its talented team.”
Lebhardt added: “We’ve watched the SEON story unfold, keeping up with the business alongside its exciting growth trajectory. It’s now great to be a part of the mission, and to play a role in combining fraud prevention and AML tools into a single source.”
As part of the deal, SEON acquires full rights to Complytron’s technologies, as well as the company’s staff, including its dedicated AML team.
SEON was also named the hottest cyber security startup for 2022 by The Europas Awards, held annually.
