Sells fintechs, sponsor banks, community banks and credit unions one cloud platform for fraud and AML (detection rules, screening, case management and regulatory filing), and since 2025 has rebuilt it around AI agents that investigate alerts and draft SAR narratives for human approval.
What is Unit21, and which banks use it?
Unit21 is a private San Francisco fraud and AML software company founded in 2018. It says it has raised $92 million from backers including Tiger Global and Google's Gradient Ventures, and has served more than 200 customers in 90 countries. Sallie Mae is the one bank among our 100 that it names: Sallie Mae's BSA/AML officer describes moving the bank's fraud and compliance work onto Unit21. It relaunched its platform around AI agents in March 2026. Pricing is not published; Unit21 sells annual plans for fraud or AML.
Category
Founded
2018
Headquarters
San Francisco, CA, US
Ownership
Private and venture-backed; Unit21 says it has raised $92 million from investors including Tiger Global, Google's Gradient Ventures and ICONIQ. The last disclosed valuation is $300 million, at its July 2021 Series B; a $45 million Series C led by Tiger Global and South Park Commons was announced in June 2023 with no valuation disclosed.[10][2][3]
Deployment
SaaS (cloud-based), accessed through Unit21's API and dashboard
Pricing
Sales-led annual plans for Fraud or AML, plus implementation and support options (Standard or Gold support, Solutions Architect add-on) · not published
Banks among the 100
1
- Tyler Allen, Unit21's first employee and former Head of AI and COO, became CEO on April 3, 2026; co-founder Trisha Kothari, CEO since the company's founding, moved to Chairman of the Board.
- Unit21 relaunched on March 10, 2026 as 'AI Risk Infrastructure', saying it had rebuilt its platform around AI agents that it launched in May 2025 and that more than 100 customers had adopted them.
- Unit21 says it serves more than 200 customers in 90 countries, including Sallie Mae, Chime, GreenDot, Rippling, Intuit and Crypto.com, and that it files 5% of all SARs sent to FinCEN in the US (vendor-reported, April 2026).
- Sallie Mae's BSA/AML officer, in a Unit21 interview published September 2025, describes the bank switching fraud and compliance platforms to Unit21 through a phased rollout that started with smaller, less critical functions.
- Funding: a $13 million Series A led by A.Capital (October 2020), a $34 million Series B led by Tiger Global at a $300 million valuation (July 2021) and a $45 million Series C led by Tiger Global and South Park Commons (announced June 2023).
- The company runs a fraud consortium; in May 2026 it said more than 100 financial institutions participate, covering over 100 million US adults, while its consortium product page gives 80 million US adults.
- Pricing is not published; Unit21's site mentions an annual plan for Fraud or AML, Standard and Gold support tiers and a Solutions Architect add-on, but lists no prices.
What does Unit21 sell to banks?
| Product | What it does | Status |
|---|---|---|
| AI Agents (Investigation, Detection, Case and SAR Filing Agents)[16][10][12] | Agents configured to a customer's procedures and thresholds that triage alerts, gather evidence (OSINT, adverse media, sanctions, entity networks), recommend a disposition and draft a regulator-ready narrative for human review; launched May 2025. | Generally available |
| Build Your Own Agent and Agentic Task Builder[7][14] | No-code tools for teams to create their own agents (August 2025; examples include sanctions, check-fraud, 314(a) and EDD agents) and, from July 2026, custom investigation tasks written in plain English and backtested against historical alerts. | Generally available |
| AML Transaction Monitoring[17][9] | Configurable rules plus built-in detection models, AI rule recommendations (October 2025), and backtesting and shadow mode to test rule changes before deployment. | Generally available |
| Real-Time Monitoring (payment fraud prevention)[4][18] | Transaction scoring for real-time rails such as FedNow, RTP and Zelle, launched October 2023; Unit21 says decisions return in under 250 milliseconds. | Generally available |
| Case Management and Regulatory Filing[19][20] | Alert queues and investigations with AI triage, plus SAR, CTR and goAML STR filing with pre-filled forms, deadline tracking and human review of every filing. | Generally available |
| Watchlist Screening[21] | Screening and continuous re-screening of customers, counterparties and transactions against sanctions, PEP and adverse-media lists with configurable fuzzy matching. | Generally available |
| Fraud Consortium[22][3] | Shared fraud intelligence across member fintechs, banks and crypto firms, used to screen users at onboarding or payment time; started in 2022 as the Fintech Fraud DAO. | Generally available |
| Unit21 for Sponsor Banks[23][11] | Oversight tooling for banking-as-a-service sponsor banks: per-fintech rules, fintech partners working their own alerts under the bank's policies, and SAR filing; integrated with Q2's Helix core since March 2026. | Generally available |
| Implementation and support packages[24][25] | An implementation manager, project plan and training, Standard or Gold support, and a Solutions Architect add-on with designated monthly hours; Unit21 also sells annual plans for Fraud or AML. | Generally available |
How much does Unit21 cost?
How it is charged: Sales-led annual plans for Fraud or AML, plus implementation and support options (Standard or Gold support, Solutions Architect add-on).
Unit21 does not publish a price list.
Pricing is not published; Unit21's site refers to an 'annual plan for Fraud or AML' and describes its support tiers without listing any prices, and buyers are directed to request a demo.
Which banks use Unit21?
| Bank | What | Status |
|---|---|---|
| SLM Corporation (Sallie Mae) | Fraud and BSA/AML compliance platform; Sallie Mae's BSA/AML officer describes switching to Unit21, testing it in a sandbox and rolling it out in phases, and Unit21's 2026 releases name Sallie Mae as a customer.[8][12] | In production |
Among the 100 largest US banks on this site, from sources that name the bank: the bank, Unit21 or the press. Status is the furthest stage a source confirms.
What is AI Risk Infrastructure?
Unit21's rebranded platform (relaunched March 10, 2026), combining its no-code rules engine, AML transaction monitoring, real-time fraud prevention, watchlist screening, case management and SAR/CTR filing with AI agents that triage alerts, gather evidence and draft regulator-ready narratives.[10][16]
What has Unit21 done, and when?
- Jul 14, 2026
Partners with TRM Labs on crypto risk[15]
TRM Labs wallet screening and transaction-monitoring alerts flow into Unit21's rules and case management.
- Jul 7, 2026
Launches Agentic Task Builder[14]
Lets teams write custom agent investigation tasks in plain English; Unit21 said its agents had reviewed over 1.5 million alerts.
- Apr 3, 2026
Tyler Allen named CEO[12]
Tyler Allen succeeded co-founder Trisha Kothari, who became Chairman of the Board.
- Mar 23, 2026
Partners with Q2's Helix for sponsor-bank AML[11]
An integration lets sponsor banks and fintechs on the Helix by Q2 core feed data into Unit21 for AML monitoring and program-level oversight.
- Mar 10, 2026
Relaunches as 'AI Risk Infrastructure'[10]
Unit21 rebranded and said it had rebuilt the platform around AI agents, and described itself as a 100-person company.
- Oct 27, 2025
Launches AI Rule Recommendations[9]
Released an AI agent that suggests detection-rule changes, which teams can test in shadow mode before deploying.
- Aug 27, 2025
Launches Build Your Own Agent[7]
Released no-code custom AI agents for fraud and AML tasks; Unit21 said they had reduced average alert handle time by up to 90 percent (vendor-reported).
- Jun 10, 2025
AML feature suite for banks and credit unions[6]
At the ABA Risk and Compliance Conference, Unit21 released AML features aimed at banks, credit unions and sponsor banks, including automated CTR, SAR, STR and 314(a) filing.
- Feb 18, 2025
Launches a scams solution[5]
Launched scam detection using IP enrichment, counterparty risk, consortium data and pre-built scam rules.
- Oct 22, 2023
Launches Real-Time Monitoring[4]
Launched at Money20/20 for fraud screening on real-time payment rails such as FedNow, RTP and Zelle; FV Bank's chief risk officer was quoted in the release.
- Jun 29, 2023
Announces $45 million Series C[3]
Unit21 disclosed a $45 million Series C led by Tiger Global and South Park Commons, raised in 2022, which funded the Fintech Fraud DAO data consortium.
- Jul 7, 2021
$34 million Series B at a $300 million valuation[2]
Tiger Global led the round, with ICONIQ Capital, Gradient Ventures, A.Capital and South Park Commons; Unit21 had 53 employees and more than 50 enterprise clients.
- Oct 19, 2020
$13 million Series A led by A.Capital[1]
Investors included Gradient Ventures, Core VC, South Park Commons and the founders of Plaid, Chime and Shape Security; named customers were Intuit, Coinbase, Gusto and Line.
- Jan 1, 2018
What do banks use Unit21 for?
| Use | What it does | Status | Use case |
|---|---|---|---|
| AML transaction monitoring, screening and SAR filing[6][8] | Rules and detection models for suspicious activity, sanctions and PEP screening, customer risk rating, and SAR, CTR and 314(a) workflows. | In production | AML / KYC |
| Real-time payment, ACH, check and scam fraud[4][5][7] | Real-time scoring on instant-payment rails, check-fraud agents, scam rules and consortium signals. | In production | Fraud detection |
| AI agents for alert investigation and narrative drafting[16][12] | Agents that gather evidence, recommend dispositions and draft SAR narratives, with humans approving each filing. | In production | Generative & agentic AI |
| Sponsor-bank oversight of fintech partners[23][11] | Per-fintech controls and consolidated monitoring for banking-as-a-service sponsor banks. | In production | Third-party & vendor AI |
| Backtesting and shadow-mode validation[9][14] | Testing rules, AI rule recommendations and custom agent tasks against historical or live shadow data before deployment. | In production | Model risk management |
What has Unit21 disclosed in numbers?
| Metric | Value | As of |
|---|---|---|
| Total funding raised (vendor-reported) | $92 million, from investors including Tiger Global, Gradient Ventures and ICONIQ[10] | Mar 10, 2026 |
| Valuation (last disclosed) | $300 million, at the $34 million Series B led by Tiger Global[2] | Jul 7, 2021 |
| Customers (vendor-reported) | More than 200 customers across 90 countries[12] | Apr 3, 2026 |
| Share of US SARs and activity caught (vendor-reported) | Files 5% of all SARs filed to FinCEN in the US; has caught over $14 billion in illicit activity[12] | Apr 3, 2026 |
| AI agent volume (vendor-reported) | More than 200,000 alerts processed per month; over 1.5 million alerts reviewed to date by July 2026[13][14] | Jul 7, 2026 |
| Fraud consortium (vendor-reported) | More than 100 participating financial institutions, covering over 100 million US adults[13] | May 11, 2026 |
| Customer-reported AI agent results (vendor-reported) | 93% reduction in false positives, 44% faster alert reviews, and SAR preparation cut from nearly a week to under 30 minutes, at unnamed customers[12] | Apr 3, 2026 |
| 2022 monitored volume (vendor-reported) | 4.8 billion transactions worth $693 billion monitored; 16,000 SARs handled[3] | Dec 31, 2022 |
“Financial institutions can scale their risk and compliance programs without scaling their headcount, and the people doing this work can finally spend their time on the cases that matter.”[12]
Tyler Allen · Chief Executive Officer, Unit21 · Apr 3, 2026
“We switched to a new platform because we needed centralized technology to support our growth.”[8]
Lindsay Glessner · BSA/AML Officer, Sallie Mae · Sep 8, 2025
“Financial crime doesn't respect payment rails. The infrastructure built to stop it shouldn't either.”[15]
Kunal Datta · Chief Product Officer, Unit21 · Jul 14, 2026
Who runs Unit21?
Which rules apply to a bank using Unit21?
| Authority | Why it matters here | Documents |
|---|---|---|
| FinCEN | Unit21's agents prepare the SARs and CTRs that a bank files with FinCEN, so the bank still owns every filing decision. FinCEN's 2018 joint statement encourages banks to try AI in BSA/AML work, and FinCEN's April 2026 proposed rule would count effective use of AI when assessing an AML/CFT program. | 2018 Joint Statement on BSA/AML Innovation 2026 AML/CFT Program Proposed Rule |
| Federal Reserve | Unit21's detection rules, AI rule recommendations and investigation agents are vendor models that a bank must validate under SR 26-2. Unit21 says it maps its governance to SR 11-7, which SR 26-2 replaced, so a buyer should check the vendor's documentation against the current guidance. | SR 26-2 SR 23-4 |
| OCC | A national bank that outsources AML monitoring and SAR drafting to Unit21 has to manage that relationship under OCC Bulletin 2023-17 on third parties. OCC Bulletin 2026-13 sets the model-risk expectations for Unit21's AI agents and detection models. | OCC Bulletin 2023-17 OCC Bulletin 2026-13 |
| FDIC | For an FDIC-supervised bank using Unit21, including a banking-as-a-service sponsor bank using Unit21's sponsor-bank product, the FDIC's third-party guidance (FIL-29-2023) and its revised model-risk guidance (FIL-15-2026) apply when such a bank oversees its fintech partners' monitoring through Unit21. | FDIC FIL-29-2023 FDIC FIL-15-2026 |
Linked authorities have a page in the AI Regulation Tracker; the others are named for completeness.
What should a bank note before buying Unit21?
Analysis by BankingNewsAI from the sources cited on this page. Observations, not advice or a recommendation.
01
Pricing is not published
Unit21 refers to annual plans for fraud or AML and describes its support tiers, but lists no prices; buyers are directed to a demo.
02
Most customers are fintechs, crypto firms and smaller banks
Named customers are mainly fintechs and crypto platforms (Chime, Intuit, Green Dot, Crypto.com, Nexo, Uphold). Among our 100 largest US banks, Sallie Mae is the only one Unit21 names.
03
Performance figures are vendor-reported and sometimes inconsistent
Results such as a '93% reduction in false positives' come from Unit21's own releases. Nexo's false-positive reduction is given as 57% in Unit21's March 2026 blog and as 93% in its September 2026 release.
04
Scale figures vary by page
The fraud consortium is described as covering 80 million US adults on its product page and over 100 million in Unit21's 2026 releases. Agent volume is given both as 100,000 and as 200,000 reviews a month.
05
New CEO and a recent rebuild
The platform was rebuilt around AI agents and relaunched in March 2026, and a new CEO took over in April 2026; the AI agents have been in production since May 2025.
What are the alternatives to Unit21?
NICE Actimize
Fraud, AML, sanctions screening, KYC, case management and trade surveillance software for banks, on X-Sight and Xceed platforms.
Hawk
AML transaction monitoring, sanctions and customer screening, fraud prevention and AI investigation agents for banks and payment firms.
Quantexa
Decision Intelligence platform: entity resolution and network analytics for AML, KYC and fraud; Cloud AML SaaS for US mid-size banks.
ComplyAdvantage
AML screening, monitoring and payment screening on its own risk data (sanctions, PEPs, adverse media), with AI agents for alert review.
SymphonyAI
Financial-crime software for banks: AML transaction monitoring, sanctions screening, KYC, payment fraud and AI investigation agents.
How much does Unit21 cost?
Unit21 does not publish prices. Its site refers to an annual plan for fraud or AML, and a separate page describes Standard and Gold support tiers and a Solutions Architect add-on, all without prices. Buyers request a demo and receive a quote. No pricing figure from Unit21 or any allowed public source was found.
Which banks use Unit21?
Among the 100 largest US banks, Unit21 names Sallie Mae as a customer. In a Unit21 interview published in September 2025, Sallie Mae's BSA/AML officer describes moving the bank's fraud and compliance work onto Unit21 in phases, and Unit21's 2026 press releases list Sallie Mae among its customers. Unit21's other named customers are mostly fintechs and crypto firms, such as Chime, Intuit, Green Dot and Crypto.com.
Who owns Unit21?
Unit21 is a private, venture-backed company based in San Francisco. It says it has raised $92 million, including a $13 million Series A led by A.Capital in 2020, a $34 million Series B led by Tiger Global in 2021 (which valued it at $300 million) and a $45 million Series C led by Tiger Global and South Park Commons, announced in 2023. Other investors include Google's Gradient Ventures and ICONIQ.
Who runs Unit21?
Tyler Allen has been CEO since April 3, 2026. He was Unit21's first employee and later its Head of AI and COO. Co-founder Trisha Kothari led the company as CEO from its founding in 2018 and is now Chairman of the Board. Kunal Datta is Chief Product Officer.
Is Unit21 a bank or a regulated financial institution?
No. Unit21 is a software vendor. The banks, credit unions and fintechs that use it keep their own BSA/AML obligations, including the decision to file each SAR. Regulators treat Unit21 as a third party whose models and controls the bank must oversee.
What do Unit21's AI agents do?
Unit21's AI agents take an alert, gather evidence such as transaction history, watchlists, adverse media and linked entities, recommend whether to close or escalate it, and draft a narrative in the customer's format. Each run is logged. Customers choose which workflows the agents handle on their own and which need a human to approve. Unit21 launched the agents in May 2025.
How does Unit21 compare to NICE Actimize?
Unit21 is a cloud platform with a no-code rules engine, sold mostly to fintechs, sponsor banks and smaller institutions. Among our 100 largest US banks it names only Sallie Mae as a customer. Unit21's comparative claims, such as its 2026 Chartis quadrant placements, come from its own releases, not from an independent head-to-head benchmark. Neither this page nor Unit21 publishes a like-for-like comparison with NICE Actimize.
- Unit21 Raises $13 Million to Help Businesses Fight Financial Crime With No-Code Tools
- Tiger Global leads $34M investment into Unit21, a no-code fraud prevention platform
- Unit21, the Risk and Compliance Infrastructure Company Helping Clients Prevent Financial Crime, Announces $45M Series C
- Unit21 Launches Real-Time Monitoring to Fight Real-Time Fraud
- Unit21 Launches New Solution to Stop Scammers in Their Tracks, Providing a Multi-Layer Defense to Detect Scams and Prevent Financial Losses
- Unit21 Brings New, Powerful Compliance Capabilities to Financial Institutions
- Unit21 Introduces Build Your Own Agents (BYOA) to Combat Financial Crime
- How Sallie Mae Is Future-Proofing Its Fraud and Compliance Strategies
- Unit21 Unveils AI Rule Recommendations, Tackling the Root Cause of Financial Crime Detection Inefficiency
- The New Unit21: Why We Rebuilt Everything Around AI Agents
- Unit21 Announces Partnership to Power AI-Driven AML Workflows and Sponsor Bank Oversight for BaaS Programs
- Unit21 Appoints Tyler Allen as Chief Executive Officer as Company Accelerates AI Risk Infrastructure Vision
- Unit21 Named Category Leader in Chartis 2026 RiskTech Quadrants® for Enterprise and Payment Fraud Solutions
- Unit21 Launches Agentic Task Builder, Letting Risk & Compliance Teams Use AI to Build Bespoke Investigation Logic in Plain English
- Unit21 and TRM Labs Bring Blockchain Intelligence to AI-native Financial Crime Operations
- AI Risk Infrastructure | Unit21 Fraud & AML Agents (undated page, retrieved 2026-09-24)
- Agentic AI AML Transaction Monitoring Platform | Unit21 (undated page, retrieved 2026-09-24)
- Real-Time Payment Fraud Prevention Solution | Unit21 (undated page, retrieved 2026-09-24)
- AI-Powered Case Management Software for AML & Fraud Solutions | Unit21 (undated page, retrieved 2026-09-24)
- Automated Regulatory Filing & STRs for AML | Unit21 (undated page, retrieved 2026-09-24)
- Real-Time Watchlist Screening & Monitoring | Unit21 (undated page, retrieved 2026-09-24)
- Fraud Consortium Network for Shared Intelligence | Unit21 (undated page, retrieved 2026-09-24)
- BaaS Platform & Operating System | Unit21 for Sponsor Banks (undated page, retrieved 2026-09-24)
- Implementation and Support | Unit21 (undated page, retrieved 2026-09-24)
- Perks | Unit21 (undated page, retrieved 2026-09-24)
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