Y Combinator-backed Rulebase aims to streamline fintech with AI-powered coworker

Y Combinator alumnus Rulebase is on a mission to bring automation to some of the least glamorous, but most essential, functions in financial services: back-office compliance and customer support. Founded by Nigerian engineers Gideon Ebose and Chidi Williams, Rulebase recently landed a $2.1 million pre-seed funding round, led by Bowery Capital and with participation from Y Combinator, Commerce Ventures, and Transpose Platform VC.

The Problem: Manual Back Office Operations

For many fintech companies, compliance checks, dispute resolution, and quality assurance still soak up a vast amount of employee time. Most of these processes are handled manually, leading to high costs, slow turnaround, and risk of human error. Rulebase addresses these pain points by offering an AI-powered ‘coworker’—a software agent that evaluates customer interactions, flags regulatory risks, and orchestrates tasks across popular platforms like Zendesk, Jira, and Slack—while still keeping human oversight firmly in place.

How Rulebase Works

According to CTO Williams, "Our 'Coworker' integrates across all the customer service and back-office tools a company uses, managing disputes and compliance with speed and precision." The solution is already being used by notable clients such as U.S. banking platform Rho and a top Fortune 50 financial institution.

Previously, founders Ebose and Williams accelerated through various product ideas—including an AI for customer feedback—before focusing on fintech back offices, an area they saw as universally broken. Williams formerly worked as a backend engineer at Goldman Sachs, while Ebose led product at Microsoft, giving them deep firsthand insight into the inefficiencies common in financial operations.

Impact: Cutting Costs and Boosting Compliance

Traditional banks and fintechs often review just 3–5% of support interactions for quality and compliance. Rulebase’s system can analyze 100% of these cases, dramatically improving oversight. For clients like Rho, this approach has reportedly reduced escalations by 30% and lowered costs by up to 70%.

Expanding The Platform

Today, Rulebase focuses on workflows triggered by customer service actions, but the roadmap includes extending its AI coworker to new areas like fraud investigation, audit prep, and regulatory reporting. Ebose notes, “You need precision in financial automation—understanding rules from organizations like MasterCard and the CFPB is our key differentiator.” While focused on banks, neobanks, and card issuers across Africa, Europe, and the U.S., future applications could include insurance and other heavily regulated sectors.

Growth Track and Business Model

Since its participation in Y Combinator’s Fall 2024 batch, Rulebase has posted double-digit month-over-month revenue growth. The business charges clients based on the number of interactions reviewed or workflows automated, emphasizing scalability.

Navigating the YC Path as African Founders

As rare African founders building an AI SaaS accepted into Y Combinator, Ebose and Williams emphasize the importance of global ambition. Williams, who previously developed Buzz, an open-source speech-to-text tool downloaded over 300,000 times, encourages founders to think beyond local markets: “With AI, go for a massive opportunity. Anything less isn't enough.”

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Why it matters

This shift toward AI-driven back-office automation signals a broader trend where startups can disrupt legacy processes—not just consumer-facing experiences. For founders, it shows that transformative SaaS ideas still abound in overlooked corners of regulated industries like finance, unlocking value by automating compliance, QA, and dispute management.

Risks & opportunities

The main risk revolves around regulatory sensitivity. Automation must maintain transparency and satisfy auditors—failures can lead to fines or loss of trust. Yet, the opportunity is enormous: if the model proves reliable, similar AI coworkers could be adapted to insurance, real estate, or healthcare, where compliance drains resources. Success stories like UiPath’s rise in robotic process automation show how winning a small niche can lead to market dominance.

Startup idea or application

Inspired by Rulebase, a potential idea is a no-code AI policy compliance hub for mid-sized financial firms and fintechs, letting teams train custom workflows and audit trails around internal rules—without needing in-house AI talent. This could become a platform for continuous compliance monitoring across shifting regulations, plugging into existing ticket and messaging tools.

Fintech AI Automation Compliance Startups

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