Assessment
Sardine is used by banks, fintechs, payment companies, and marketplaces that need to spot fraud and money laundering at sign-up, during payments, and across account activity. It serves more than 450 enterprises, including FIS, Deel, GoDaddy, and X, and its best use cases are device and behavior signals, payment fraud checks, transaction monitoring, and AI agents that clear alerts. It prices by quote, and its main competitors are Alloy, Featurespace, Sumsub, and Oscilar.
Soups Ranjan co-founded Sardine in San Francisco in 2020 after running financial crime at Revolut and risk at Coinbase. It raised a $70M Series C in February 2025, bringing its total to $145M, after a year in which its annual recurring revenue grew 130%. It says it has screened $1.8T of payments and profiled more than 6.5 billion devices.
It fits a fintech or bank that wants fraud, AML, and identity checks from one vendor with strong device data. It is a weaker fit for a team that wants posted prices or only needs simple document checks.
Rating by criterion
We score each of the eight criteria out of 100.
Sector criteria
Use it for KYC and KYB at sign-up. Sardine offers global KYC, KYB, document checks, and bank account verification.
Pick it for device and behavior signals. It has profiled more than 6.5 billion devices and screened $1.8T of payments.
Let its AI agents take first-pass alerts. Sardine built agents to clear transaction alerts and check onboarding cases.
Cover AML in the same tool. It includes transaction monitoring, sanctions screening, customer risk rating, and case management.
Vendor criteria
Expect fast product growth. Its annual recurring revenue grew 130% in 2024, and its customer base nearly doubled.
Book a demo to start. Setup is sales-led and covers rules and integrations for each product you buy.
Ask for a quote by product. Sardine does not publish prices.
Bundle modules for a better rate. Buying fraud and AML tools together from one vendor gives you room to negotiate.
Against its peers
These are the other companies in KYC, AML and identity, with their ratings.
User comments
We read Sardine’s about page and its Series C announcement to see what buyers value, and set them against the main limit a buyer meets.
- Upside
- Downside
Where customer reviews couldn't be found, our analysts attempted to give a voice to buyer sentiment, drawing on real information from review sites, forums and product documentation.
Based on: Sardine, about; Sardine, Series C announcement.
Fact file
| Chief executive | Soups Ranjan, co-founder |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2020, San Francisco |
| Enterprise customers | More than 450 |
| Payments screened | $1.8T |
| Devices profiled | More than 6.5 billion |
| Total raised | $145M |
Competitive landscape
Fraud, AML, and identity platforms a bank or fintech would compare with Sardine.
Sardine: 77
Unit21 centers on rule building, case management, and SAR filing for fraud and AML teams, where Sardine starts from device and behavior signals. Flagright offers real-time transaction monitoring, customer risk scoring, and case work with a no-code rules engine for fintechs and payment firms.
Comparisons
Key leadership
Soups Ranjan co-founded Sardine and is its chief executive. He was earlier head of financial crime at Revolut and head of risk at Coinbase, and holds a PhD from Rice University.
How this review was created
This profile gives our own assessment of Sardine to companies selecting a KYC, AML & identity provider. The Fintech Index receives nothing for featuring a firm, for sponsorship, or for advertising, and Sardine gave us no payment for the profile.
The rating equals the average of eight criteria, with every criterion running from 0 to 100. Four address buyer needs in this sector, and four address the company together with its commercial terms.
Ratings are our editorial judgment, made from public information: pricing and legal pages, product documentation, compliance disclosures, public reviews and filings. Fact-checking took place on November 4, 2026.
Source pages
- Sardine home page: https://www.sardine.ai/ (As of November 4, 2026)
- Sardine, about: https://www.sardine.ai/about (As of November 4, 2026)
- Sardine, Series C announcement: https://www.sardine.ai/press/pr/fraud-and-compliance-productivity (As of November 4, 2026)
- Crunchbase News: https://news.crunchbase.com/cybersecurity/fraud-detection-startup-sardine-ai-fundraise/ (As of November 4, 2026)