Coinbase alumni Soups Ranjan has launched the first fraud detection and prevention platform Sardine. The former Coinbase director of data science and risk co-founded the startup Sardine that claims to offer fraud prevention as a Service (FaaS) for digital businesses.

According to the founders, Sardine will be able to detect fraud ranging from financial crimes, identity theft, payment fraud, and an additional account takeover risk that arises from activities like SIM swaps.

The fraud detection and prevention platform especially targets fintech and crypto businesses that have recorded a significant number of fraud cases lately. Blockchain analytics firm CipherTrace reported that businesses and individual users collectively lost $1.9 billion to crypto fraud in 2020. The amount lost in 2019 was way worse at $4.5 billion.

Sardine to Provide Seamless Transition to Better Financial Services by Fraud Prevention

Ranjan explained to news outlets that the generational shift of banking-as-a-service platforms towards better financial services could be obstructed by the rampant opportunities for fraud within the system. Thus, Sardine comes in to provide a solution that will block these fraud opportunities with the idea of stopping before it occurs.

Further, the Coinbase alumni saw a crypto niche in the current anti-fraud e-commerce solutions that mainly focus on shopping cart analytics and shipping addresses for fraud detection. According to the former Coinbase director of data science and risk, Sardine is better equipped for fintech and crypto businesses to perform fraud detection while avoiding false positives.

Sardine will work by first creating a foundational fraud score for all users of the business that signs up to the fraud detection and prevention platform. Sardine claims to accomplish this by collecting data from a wide range of sources such as bank accounts, credit card information, and social media.

Sardine Closed $4.6 Million in Seed Funding

As it commences operations, fraud detection, and prevention platform Sardine has closed $4.6 million in seed funding while incubating at Sweet Equity Venture. XYZ Ventures led the funding while Coinbase Ventures, 11.2 Capital, Village Global, over 25 angel investors, CEOs and operators of several Silicon Valley startups, and employees from Google, Revolut, and Coinbase all participated.