Smartcomply Brings African Financial Expertise to London Fintech Scene

Nigerian compliance and cybersecurity startup, Smartcomply, is making a significant move into the United Kingdom with its AI-powered platform, Adhere. Targeting Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs), remittance firms, neobanks, and cross-border payment fintechs, this expansion represents a unique offering in the UK market—a compliance solution built specifically for African financial systems.

Addressing a Critical Infrastructure Gap

Adhere addresses what Smartcomply calls an infrastructure gap in transaction monitoring. When generic compliance systems fail to understand local nuances, they generate false positives and force institutions into manual reviews or even exit the African market entirely. This is particularly acute across key payment corridors involving Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, and Rwanda.

“African payment corridors should be growth opportunities—not liabilities,” stated CEO Gbemisola Osunrinde. “Our UK presence provides direct access to a platform that understands African financial data from the inside out.”

Built for African Financial Realities

Founded in 2021, Smartcomply initially focused on governance and risk management before expanding into financial crime monitoring with Adhere in 2024. Key features include:

• Direct integrations with local identity infrastructure (like Nigeria’s BVN)
• Real-time transaction monitoring with behavioural analysis
• Automated compliance reporting mapped to regional frameworks
• Machine learning models trained on African payment patterns

These capabilities allow Adhere to distinguish legitimate high-volume transactions from suspicious activity, reducing false positives and improving operational efficiency.

Expanding Across the Continent

Smartcomply currently serves over 100 businesses across Africa, monitoring more than $1 billion in monthly transaction volume. With its UK expansion, the company aims to bring this expertise to European institutions seeking to deepen their engagement with African markets while maintaining regulatory compliance.

Anita Ajalla, CTO of Smartcomply, emphasized that “compliance technology designed elsewhere often falls short when applied to Africa’s unique financial landscape.” The company is actively expanding its infrastructure across East and Francophone Africa, targeting Rwanda and Côte d’Ivoire for further growth.