Kobalt Labs recognized for achievements in AI-powered risk and compliance automation for financial institutions
New York, NY, Oct. 28, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — CB Insights today named Kobalt Labs to its ninth annual Fintech 100, showcasing the 100 most promising fintech startups in the world.
Kobalt Labs named to the 2026 CB Insights Fintech 100
The 2026 Fintech 100 identifies the startups reshaping how financial services work behind the scenes. This year’s cohort spans payments, lending, wealth, and digital assets, and what unites them is the data behind their selection: strong deal activity, top-tier investors, and partnerships with industry leaders. said Aisha Chandraker, Fintech Analyst at CB Insights.
“Compliance is one of the highest stakes functions in financial services, yet the teams responsible for it have long been underserved by technology. We built Kobalt to change that. AI can look impressive in a pilot, but vendor management, risk assessments, and compliance reviews demand rigor in production. That means benchmarking, tuning, and validating performance on real cases before go-live. Being named to the Fintech 100 reflects our team’s commitment to building AI that financial institutions can depend on every day.” – Kalyani Ramadurgam, CEO and Co-Founder, Kobalt Labs
The list spans 21 categories across six sections of the fintech market, from payments and business finance to capital markets and connectivity. Our research team picked winning companies based on CB Insights datasets, including deal activity, industry partnerships, team strength, investor strength, employee headcount, and proprietary metrics.
Kobalt Labs is an AI-native risk and compliance platform trusted by more than 50 banks, credit unions, and fintechs, including Emprise Bank, MVB Bank, Core Bank, ORNL FCU, and Smartbank. Kobalt automates third-party risk management, fintech partner due diligence, contract review, and marketing compliance, with capabilities expanding into enterprise risk management and other critical GRC functions. Its AI agents execute workflows across evidence gathering, document analysis, risk assessments, and ongoing monitoring, helping institutions reduce review cycles by up to 80% while maintaining source-backed findings and human oversight. Its customers range from community banks to national financial institutions managing more than $250 billion in assets. Backed by First Harmonic, Alloy Labs, and Y Combinator, Kobalt raised an $11 million Series A in 2025 to expand its platform.
Quick facts on the 2026 Fintech 100:
- $10.9B in equity funding raised over time, including more than $3.2B in 2026 so far (as of 10/5/2026).
- 330+ business relationships since 2025, including with industry leaders like JPMorganChase, Mastercard, and NASDAQ.
- 51 early-stage startups, 13 of which are at the seed stage
About CB Insights
CB Insights spots winners in emerging tech. Since 2009, we’ve ranked and rated the private companies reshaping their industries, drawing on proprietary interviews with operators and deep, validated intelligence on over 12 million companies. We give decision-makers an edge by enriching their AI agents with expert judgment, nonpublic signals, and a complete map of technology markets. Six of the Mag 7 and the top 10 U.S. banks rely on CB Insights to build conviction in their next investment, acquisition, partner, or customer. Learn more at cbinsights.com.
Visit www.cbinsights.com for more information.
Contact:
Media@cbinsights.com
About Kobalt Labs
Kobalt Labs is the AI-native TPRM and compliance platform built for financial institutions. Kobalt eliminates the manual steps from third-party reviews of vendors and fintech partners by extracting critical evidence, identifying control gaps, and generating defensible risk analyses within minutes. Always synchronized with evolving federal and state regulations, Kobalt helps financial institutions improve consistency, accelerate review cycles, and strengthen risk management across ERM, compliance, information security, and third-party oversight. Learn more at https://www.kobaltlabs.com.
Press Inquiries
Kalyani Ramadurgam
kalyani [at] kobaltlabs.com
https://www.kobaltlabs.com
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