Backing AI-Native Compliance Innovation

Today, we’re very excited to announce our investment in Umony, as we lead its $15m Series A alongside existing investors, Crane and SeedCamp. Umony is an AI-native communication governance platform for highly regulated industries, allowing institutions to capture, archive, and monitor all types of communication for regulatory purposes.

The Rising Regulatory Pressure on Financial Communications Industries

Regulatory pressure is increasing for banks to ensure effective monitoring of staff communications, especially for "off-channel" communications, which have surged post-Covid. In the last 36 months, SEC issued over $3bn worth of fines only in the US. Other regulated industries such as insurance are also under  increasing scrutiny by the regulators. 

Legacy Compliance Tools Are Costly and Ineffective

Financial institutions currently rely on a number of legacy players to capture, archive, and monitor internal communications, with no one provider effectively covering the full service suite. The surveillance capabilities offered by those products are limited to lexicon-based solutions that require high amounts of FTEs to work with, which is hugely expensive, particularly for large financial institutions. For example, since 2015, JPM has earmarked more than $335 million toward compliance personnel and related efforts. 

From Capture to LLM-based Communication Surveillance

Founded in 2018 by industry veterans Dean Elwood and Anna Pitt-Stanley on the back of the exit of their previous business, Voxygen, Umony initially started as a communication capture and archive business for small financial institutions. By 2022, Umony was winning Tier-1 banks - including several of the world’s largest - that wanted a partner to tackle surveillance gaps across modern channels. Working with these clients, and within strictly governed environments, Umony developed the first LLM-based communications surveillance system that delivers high-accuracy, real-time monitoring while preserving data ownership, privacy and residency.

Industry Veterans with Proven Track Records Across the Board

We’ve been highly impressed by Dean, Anna, and the rest of the team, who are true industry insiders and driven by a huge ambition to disrupt the status-quo. With global strategic partnerships with the likes of Symphony and BT, the first large customer wins in the US and a unique bundled proposition across capture, archive and AI surveillance, Umony is quickly emerging as a market leader. As a testament to their unique positioning, Umony has built a world-class advisory board that includes Stephen Sanders, the former Chief Compliance Officer of JP Morgan, Tracey McDermott, the former CEO of the FCA, and Thomas Wolf, the Co-founder and Chief Science Officer of Hugging Face. 

Why Umony stands out in the AI Era

We think a lot about what drives the enduring success in the age of AI. We’re especially drawn to products that deliver highly accurate, human-level automation - pushing beyond the limits of traditional software. These kinds of breakthroughs come from deep domain expertise of the team, proprietary data and the unique ability to deliver this in an enterprise-ready format. Umony embodies all of this and we’re excited to be supporting them on their journey.  

Why did Umony choose Notion Capital to lead their Series A? A note from the founders…

⁠From our very first conversations, Notion Capital demonstrated a deep understanding of Umony’s vision and the scale of the opportunity to disrupt our market. But what truly set them apart was how they put their network into action before a term sheet was even on the table - quietly and consistently making high‑quality introductions that added real value, proving that their partnership is defined not by capital (which any VC can provide) but by proactive, high-impact support and genuine conviction in our mission.

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