London-based RegTech firm Adclear has successfully secured $2.75 million in seed funding to scale its AI-driven compliance platform focused on financial promotions. The round was led by Outward VC, with participation from AFG Partners, Tenity, and angel investors including Dan Cobley (founder of ClearScore), Keith Grose (of Coinbase via the a16z scout fund), Haatch, and Force Over Mass.
Why Adclear’s AI Compliance Is a Big Deal
Automating Financial Promotions (FinProm) Checks
Adclear’s platform helps marketing and compliance teams at financial firms automatically review a wide variety of content — social media posts, videos, emails, website pages, product publish screens, and more. Its AI engine analyzes submitted content and returns detailed feedback on what needs to change to comply with regulations.
Major Efficiency Gains
According to Adclear, the platform reduces compliance review time by 88%, dramatically cutting down the manual “back-and-forth” between marketing and compliance teams. For example:
- PensionBee has run over 1,000 pieces of content through Adclear since going live.
- Plum increased its marketing output by 18× and slashed approval times from around 10 days to same-day.
- Trade Nation saw a 103% increase in content throughput by using Adclear’s self-approval workflows (with compliance spot checks).
- ActivTrades reduced compliance’s daily review workload from 9 hours to just 1.
Backers, Founders & Vision
Adclear was founded by Doni Hoti, Joe Jordan, and Cameron Ward. The company aims to streamline compliance workflows, enabling compliance teams to focus on high-value tasks rather than repetitive reviews.
From the investor side, Andi Kazeroonian (Principal at Outward VC) noted that “a small number of AI-native companies will define how compliance is managed across all regulated industries.”
Use of Funds & Expansion Plans
According to the funding announcement, Adclear plans to:
- Grow its team (it currently has ~8 people) to support scaling.
- Expand into new markets outside the UK — including the EU and the US, and later APAC and MENA.
- Develop new product features: currently working on lifecycle support for financial promotions, such as post-publication monitoring of affiliates, partners, and “finfluencers.”
The Market Need
Financial promotions (“FinProm”) are heavily regulated in many markets. Banks, fintechs, trading platforms, and investment companies often struggle to keep up with compliance while running fast-paced marketing campaigns. Manual compliance reviews can be slow, labor-intensive, and error-prone.
Adclear’s AI system fills this gap. It automates regulatory checks while producing a detailed audit trail, giving compliance teams confidence and freeing up marketing teams to move faster.
Real-World Impact & Testimonials
- PensionBee, a UK pension provider, says that after integrating Adclear, their compliance team is less burdened, and marketing can release content faster, without compromising on regulatory checks.
- Trade Nation, a broker, partnered with Adclear to streamline its content review processes, helping the company maintain compliance while scaling its communications.
Risks & Challenges
- Regulatory Complexity: Compliance rules differ across jurisdictions — Adclear will need to adapt its models and logic to serve markets like the EU, U.S., MENA, and APAC.
- AI Accuracy: Regulatory content often involves nuance; ensuring that the AI’s feedback meets legal standards is critical.
- Scaling Operations: As Adclear expands geographically, it will need to scale its infrastructure while maintaining speed, reliability, and auditability.
Why This Is Big for Fintech
- Marketing + Compliance Alignment: It blurs the traditional trade-off between marketing speed and compliance risk.
- RegTech Innovation: Adclear is defining a new category of compliance tool for “FinProm” — financial promotions are a major risk area for regulated financial firms.
- Efficiency Gains: Reducing review time by 88% is not just a productivity boost; it could change how compliance teams are structured and how marketing campaigns are planned.
- Global Expansion: With plans to move into EU, US, and beyond, Adclear could become a global standard for regulated marketing compliance.
Conclusion
Adclear’s $2.75 million raise is a strong validation of its vision: automating financial-promotions compliance at scale with AI. As regulated finance companies scramble to produce content that can compete in a digital-first world, tools like Adclear are not just nice to have — they’re becoming essential.
With leading fintechs and banks already using its platform, and investor backing from serious players, Adclear is well-positioned to transform how marketing and compliance teams collaborate in the regulated financial space.