NetGuardians: The pioneer in bank fraud prevention

Vaud-based NetGuardians has developed an innovative technology using artificial intelligence to combat financial crime. The company was founded in 2007 by two HEIG-VD students, Raffael Maio and Joël Winteregg, as a spin-off from the school. Today, it offers its solutions in over 30 countries worldwide.

NetGuardians is a company based in Yverdon-les-Bains that is active in fintech and has gained worldwide recognition for its financial crime prevention solutions developed by experts specializing in risk, in particular among financial institutions. “We combine our understanding of the sector and our advanced analysis technology to lead the fight against financial crime,” explains spokesperson Mine Fornerod.

NetGuardians’ solutions help banks to fight internal, payment, and digital banking fraud as well as external fraud resulting from a growing number of hard-to-detect scams (e.g., romance scams, invoice fraud...) and account takeover fraud. The company launched its Anti Money Laundering (AML) transaction monitoring solution in 2022 to help financial institutions uncover money laundering risks and meet regulatory requirements. Their solutions are available on premise or in the cloud.

Since 2023, Twint has joined NetGuardians' customers, which also include Pictet, Lombard Odier, and Zürcher Kantonalbank. In 2024, 60% of all Swiss cantonal banks trust NetGuardians' solutions to support them prevent financial crime.

Machine-learning & AI

NetGuardians’ solutions help financial institutions to fight fraud and money laundering. What makes NetGuardians, who employs over 90 people, unique is the use of profiling, machine-learning and AI.

NetGuardians software uses advanced behavioral analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning to build up highly accurate customer profiles. All transactions linked to an account are continuously monitored across all channels, compared against the customer profile and given a risk score. The bank only contacts the customer when the risk score reaches a pre-determined level.

The result is a massive reduction in the number of false positives, thereby maintaining an excellent customer and user experience while cutting the bank’s operational costs. Further protection comes from machine-learning algorithms that can discover new fraud schemes, helping banks stay on top of emerging threats.

NetGuardians specializes in financial crime prevention serving financial institutions worldwide. It currently has over 100 clients in 30 countries in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.

NetGuardians was the first company to come out of the Y-Parc incubator, and it continues to carry out research projects into machine-learning and artificial intelligence with the HEIG-VD. In addition to its headquarters in Yverdon, it has offices in Kenya, Poland, and Singapore, with yet more expansion planned.

Invaluable support from the economic promotion

When it first began, NetGuardians received financing from the Foundation for Technological Innovation (FIT), enabling the company to get started. “Our attachment to the region is deep-seated,” says Fornerod. “We were born here. The prototype of the software was developed by Joël Winteregg at the HEIG-VD. We have a global vision, but with Swiss roots firmly planted in the canton of Vaud.”

Over the years, the company has established partnerships and synergies with companies such as Finastra, Swisscom, SWITCH-CERT, KPMG Geneva, and Google. NetGuardians is now classed as a scale up, having raised capital on four occasions – the first for a million francs in 2011, the second for CHF 5 million in 2014, the third for CHF 8.5 million in 2017, and the fourth for CHF 17 million in 2021. The business owes some of its global success to the support it received from the Office for Economic Affairs and Innovation (SPEI).

«This department has helped us financially in recent years in the scope of our sales and marketing activities abroad,” Fornerod says. “For example, we obtained financing for the international events which we took part in and where we presented our solutions. This enabled us to branch out into new markets and to get Scale Up Vaud certification.»

Dr. Mine Fornerod
Director of Marketing & Communications, NetGuardians