This AI startup is racking up government customers

Tax evasion, money laundering and other financial crimes are massive, costly issues. In 2021, the Internal Revenue Service estimated that the U.S. loses $1 trillion a year due to tax evasion alone. IVIX thinks AI can help with that.

The Tel Aviv–based startup uses AI, machine learning and public databases of business activity to help government entities spot tax noncompliance, in addition to other financial crimes. IVIX was founded by Matan Fattal and Doron Passov in 2020. Fattal was working at his prior cybersecurity startup, Silverfort, at the time, but when he discovered how large of an issue these financial crimes are — and how governments didn’t have the technology to fight them — he switched gears.

“I was shocked by the magnitude of the problem and the technical gap that they had,” Fattal told TechCrunch+. “State or federal, there are pretty much the same [technological] gaps.”

Three years later, the startup has landed government contracts with federal agencies, including the IRS criminal investigation bureau; made notable hires like Don Fort, the former chief of criminal investigations at the IRS; and raised a $12.5 million Series A led by Insight Partners, which was announced last week.