Liudas Kanapienis is co-founder and chief executive of Ondato, which sells identity verification and AML compliance software from London, England, and Vilnius, Lithuania. He started it in 2018 with Andrej Vistorskij. Read our review of Ondato.
Compliance Pressure Inside a Financial Institution
Before Ondato he spent more than a decade in financial services. There he and Vistorskij worked under supervisory rules that kept tightening. "We realised that AML and KYC compliance are becoming a major challenge for the development and growth of a financial institution," he told TechRound in 2021. "The focus in finance is on meeting these requirements, rather than attracting new clients, growing, or selling."
Turning Compliance into a Product
Ondato started with customer onboarding and ID checks, then added screening, business verification and case management. He describes the goal as making compliance "part of a simple and understandable business process." His advice to other founders centres on people and backers: "Choose carefully, because those people will determine your success, or lack of it."
