Kord raises GBP £6.4 million to scale regulated fintech

UK fintech Kord has raised GBP £6.4 million in Series A funding, taking its total funding to GBP £9 million.

Guinness Ventures led the round, with Beringea, SFC Capital and angel investors also participating. The company will use the funding to expand its team, develop its product and win more customers.

Kord sells software for regulated industries that handles client onboarding, identity checks and payment processing. It focuses on estate and letting agents, law firms and conveyancers, and financial services businesses.

The company is positioning its platform around delays and inefficiencies in large transactions when administrative steps are slowed or spread across multiple systems. In the housing market alone, more than half a million failed deals each year create a GBP £950 million hit to the wider economy and cost consumers GBP £560 million, according to figures it cited.

Kord combines ID verification, anti-money laundering and compliance checks, onboarding, document signing and payments in one system. It also provides digital wallets and dedicated bank accounts for law firms and other regulated entities to hold and manage client money.

That places the business in a part of the fintech market where firms are trying to replace manual processes and older software used in transactions that require identity verification, compliance screening and the movement of funds. Its platform also checks client documents against a broader range of data sources in an effort to reduce fraud risks linked to artificial intelligence tools.

Kord is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. It recently rebranded its business-to-business operations under the Kord name while retaining Checkboard for its consumer app.

Funding push

The fundraising comes as investors continue to back fintech companies targeting operational bottlenecks in regulated sectors rather than consumer banking alone. In property and legal transactions, delays in onboarding and compliance can have direct commercial consequences when deals collapse before completion.

That has helped drive demand for products that combine customer verification with payments infrastructure. Rather than relying on separate suppliers for document checks, anti-money laundering screening, digital signatures and the transfer of client funds, firms are increasingly looking for systems that bring those functions together.

Chief Executive Officer and Founder James Owusu set out Kord's pitch to that market in comments released alongside the funding announcement.

"For firms in regulated industries, relying on fragmented legacy systems that fail to meet the demands of modern digital commerce slows transaction speeds and increases risk. We created Kord to change that. Our modular tech stack is built with independent, interchangeable components, enabling flexibility and adaptability for our clients as we scale. This new funding allows us to protect more businesses and develop new capabilities. I'm incredibly excited for our next stage of growth," said James Owusu, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Kord.

Investor view

Investors in the round framed the deal around trust, compliance and fraud prevention in high-value transactions.

"Every high-value transaction depends on trust, yet the systems underpinning many regulated industries remain fragmented, manual and increasingly vulnerable to sophisticated fraud. Kord has built the infrastructure layer that modern businesses need: combining identity verification, compliance and payments into a single platform that dramatically improves both security and efficiency. We were impressed by the ambition of James and the team, their pace of execution and the scale of the opportunity ahead. We believe Kord has the potential to define this category in the UK and beyond, and we're delighted to lead this round," said Malcolm King, Chief Investment Officer at Guinness Ventures.

Beringea also pointed to the size of the market Kord is pursuing and the company's role in customers' daily operations.

"Kord is solving a real and growing challenge for businesses operating in regulated industries. The business is delivering clear and tangible value to customers, and its platform has become a critical part of their day-to-day operations. James and the team have demonstrated an ability to deliver growth at pace and there is now a significant market to address, and we look forward to supporting the business as it capitalises on this opportunity," said Kim.

The company has also gained visibility in the UK startup market after placing 20th in Sifted's list of the fastest-growing startups in the UK and Ireland. Its latest funding round suggests investors see further room for growth in software that sits between compliance requirements and the movement of client money.