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Perfios acquires financial crime management company Clari5
- Perfios aims to leverage its acquisition of Clari5 for short-term product development and medium-term market expansion. The move targets growth in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and APAC, while enhancing its financial crime management capabilities.
Perfios, a Bengaluru-based B2B software-as-a-service (SaaS) company, has acquired financial crime management startup Clari5 to accelerate growth. The acquisition will help bolster Perfios’ presence in India while supporting its expansion across the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia, the company said in a statement.
Perfios declined to comment on how much it spent on the acquisition.
Clari5 specializes in banking fraud prevention, using an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven, ‘human brain’-like approach to detect financial crimes. Its solutions cover anti-money laundering, real-time fraud detection, and customer risk assessment during onboarding. The company processes over 10 billion transactions monthly and monitors over 1 billion bank accounts worldwide.
The deal “perfectly complements Perfios’ mission to deliver secure, scalable, and tech-first solutions,” chief executive Sabyasachi Goswami said in the statement.
Founded in 2009, Perfios provides banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) solutions across 18 countries. The company was valued at just $3.3 million after its second Series A funding round but surged to a $900 million valuation by 2023 following a $229 million investment led by Kedara in its first Series D round.
In 2024, an $80 million investment from Teacher’s Venture Growth pushed Perfios into unicorn status with a $1 billion valuation, according to Tracxn data.
Perfios sees traditional financial crime prevention methods as outdated and believes AI-driven, real-time intelligence is essential to staying ahead of sophisticated fraudsters. “Banks and financial institutions would need a lot of AI-driven, real-time intelligence to stay ahead of criminals,” Goswami told Mint in an interview.
Perfios has said that the Clari5 acquisition will not impact personnel in any way, but the company is set to be run as a subsidiary.
Growth plans
In the short term, the Clari5 acquisition is expected to enhance Perfios’ product development. Over the medium term, the company aims to strengthen its presence in global markets, despite some product overlap between the two firms. Long-term, Perfios plans to consolidate its footprint in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the broader Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.
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“None of the inorganic growth that we look at is driven by specific milestones,” Goswami said, emphasizing that the acquisition is focused on strengthening the financial crime management ecosystem. The company declined to comment on any potential plans for an initial public offering.
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First Published:7 Feb 2025, 06:59 PM IST
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