Hawk AI

Hawk is a Munich-based anti-financial-crime software company founded in 2018 by Wolfgang Berner and Tobias Schweiger. It sells AML and fraud technology to banks, payment companies, fintechs and neobanks that want to move past purely rules-based monitoring, which generates large alert volumes with limited detection of new money laundering and scam patterns.

The platform combines AML transaction monitoring, customer risk rating, customer and payment screening, transaction fraud, check fraud and scam and mule detection under a single case manager, and can be run as a combined FRAML setup. An AI overlay is designed to sit on top of an existing rules engine so a bank can cut false positives without replacing its incumbent system; other components include Analytics Studio, entity risk detection, SAR and CTR filing and a production sandbox. Hawk raised a USD 56m Series C in 2025 led by One Peak with Macquarie Capital and Rabobank participating, bringing total funding above USD 134m, and reported more than 80 customers worldwide. Customers shown on its site include Ecobank, VakifBank, VR Payment and Synctera.

1. FRAML model: fraud and AML detection share one data pipeline and one case manager.

2. AI overlay: machine learning layered on an existing rules engine to cut false positives without replacement.

3. Screening: customer and payment screening against sanctions and watchlists in real time.

4. Fraud coverage: transaction fraud, check fraud, and scam and mule account detection modules.

5. Regulatory output: SAR and CTR filing, Analytics Studio reporting and a production sandbox for model testing.

6. Traction: more than 80 customers, USD 56m Series C in 2025 with Rabobank and Macquarie Capital as investors.