Financial services firms across Europe face mounting pressure to comply with increasingly complex promotional regulations. From FCA requirements to ASA guidelines and the emerging AI Act, finance brands struggle to scale marketing while maintaining compliance. London-based Adclear has secured £2.1 million (€2.4 million) in seed funding to transform how financial institutions manage promotional compliance through AI.
The oversubscribed round was led by Outward VC, with participation from AFG Partners and Tenity. Angel investors include Clearscore founder Dan Cobley and Coinbase UK MD Keith Grose (via a16z scout fund), alongside the Ventures Together community. Early backers Haatch and Force Over Mass Capital also joined the round.
Why European Investors Are Backing AI Compliance
Outward VC’s lead investment reflects growing conviction that AI-native compliance solutions will define the future of regulated industries. “Adclear is one of the most compelling examples of this taking place within financial services,” explains Andi Kazeroonian, Principal at Outward VC. “The founders have combined product obsession with a deep understanding of their clients’ pain points to deliver a solution that’s intuitive, accurate, and transformative in its impact.”
The timing is strategic. With marketing teams now able to create 10x more content through AI tools, traditional manual compliance reviews have become the bottleneck. The EU AI Act adds another compliance layer, making automated solutions essential rather than optional.
Outward VC brings more than capital—their portfolio includes several fintech compliance specialists, creating potential synergies for Adclear’s European expansion.
From UK Market Leader to Global Expansion
Founded in 2024 by Doni Hoti (CEO), Joe Jordan (CCO), and Cameron Ward, Adclear launched with a clear mission: enable compliance to move at the speed of marketing creation. The platform automates compliance checks on social media posts, videos, emails, digital ads, websites, and product interfaces.
“In the world of AI-powered marketing, teams are able to create, personalise and disseminate more content, more quickly than ever before,” states Doni Hoti. “But if brands in the finance space want to 10x their marketing, they need powerful tools to ensure it doesn’t become a regulatory nightmare.”
The traction speaks volumes. Adclear’s client roster includes some of the UK’s biggest finance brands: Lloyds Banking Group (the UK’s largest neobank), PensionBee, Plum, Yonder, InvestEngine, ActivTrades, and Trade Nation. With ARR increasing 10x since its pre-seed raise in January 2025, Adclear is rapidly becoming the dominant player in the UK’s financial promotions market.
The platform’s AI analyses content against regulatory standards from multiple jurisdictions—UK (FCA, ASA), EU, and US markets. It delivers real-time feedback, automated claims evaluation, and detailed audit trails. On average, review time drops by 88%, transforming the traditional back-and-forth process that burdens both compliance and marketing teams.
Ambitious International Growth Plans
The seed funding will expand Adclear’s current 8-person team and accelerate market penetration beyond the UK. After establishing dominance in the UK market, the company recently extended platform capabilities to cover EU and US regulations. Regions across APAC and MENA are set to go live in the coming months.
Adclear is also developing products that support the full lifecycle of the financial promotions approval process, including post-publication monitoring of affiliates, partners, and finfluencers—a critical capability as finance brands increasingly work with content creators.
“The speed of our growth over the last year is testament to market demand for an effective, dynamic FinProm platform that can keep pace and deliver peace of mind,” adds Joe Jordan. “To be trusted by some of the UK’s leading finance and investment brands, as well as backed by such an esteemed group of investors, is a true testament to the quality of what we’re building.”
This seed round signals broader momentum in European regtech, where AI-native startups are transitioning from optional vendors to essential infrastructure partners. As financial services navigate unprecedented regulatory complexity, Adclear’s approach positions them uniquely to capture a market hungry for compliance solutions that don’t slow down growth.