Sandbar says it has raised $4.8 million to enhance its financial crime detection software.

The funding, announced by the New York FinTech Tuesday (Jan. 24), comes amid an uptick in financial crimes and an increase in fines against companies for failures in their anti-money laundering (AML) efforts.

“Transaction monitoring is tough, but it doesn’t have to be,” Sandbar Co-founder and CEO Brock Bontrager said in a news release.

“It’s the foundation of any successful AML program, and it’s most effective for the financial institution and broader ecosystem when it’s easy to integrate, understand, and use. It’s unfortunate to see still so many risk and compliance teams resource-constrained and dependent on manual tools, especially now.”

Sandbar says its product helps organizations fortify their AML program by offering a more effective model to spot suspicious behavior.

“By offering an API-based plug-and-play solution for financial products and services, Sandbar reduces the need for time-consuming and expensive engineering resources,” the release said, adding that it consolidates multiple compliance products to save companies time and money.

Sandbar’s funding comes as financial institutions are seeing a rise in financial crimes, and showing an eagerness to find tools to reverse the trend.

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