Artem Lalaiants is the Co-Founder and CEO of RiskSeal, a US-based alternative data provider for credit risk assessment. Since launching in 2022, the startup has grown quickly, attracting top fintech clients and investors.
Hi Artem, welcome! Could you take us back to the beginning – what led you to start RiskSeal?
I’ve spent over a decade building risk management and fraud prevention software for industries like fintech, gaming, and media.
Over time, I kept seeing the same problem. Companies overlooked digital signals that could reveal who their customers really were. That’s why so many ended up losing money.
Vadim Ilyasov, my co-founder, and I started RiskSeal in late 2022 to change that. The goal was to make financial products more accessible by helping lenders see beyond credit bureau data.
For those new to RiskSeal, how would you describe what it does and the key products behind it?
Our core product is a digital platform that analyzes an applicant’s digital footprint and turns it into a ready-to-use score. It helps lenders approve more reliable customers, reduce defaults, and make decisions in seconds.
Our technology analyzes an applicant’s digital footprint across hundreds of online sources.
We’ve also recently launched a watchlist screening API for compliance teams. It automates customer checks against sanctions lists, PEPs, and adverse media, helping businesses avoid secondary sanctions.
Who are your primary customers, and what specific challenges in credit risk and fraud detection does RiskSeal help them solve?
RiskSeal works mainly with fintechs, banks, BNPLs, and microfinance institutions. We help them go beyond traditional credit data by scoring applicants through their digital footprints.
Our technology improves credit risk prediction, spots fraudulent or synthetic identities, and automates decisioning. With us, lenders can approve customers faster and more accurately.
What innovation does RiskSeal bring to fintech?
Our innovation lies in how we turn digital footprints into clear, credit-relevant insights. We don’t collect random borrower data. Only signals that matter for lending decisions.
A few years ago, information like an applicant’s email address or online behavior wasn’t part of the risk assessment process. Advances in AI and data analytics have changed that, helping lenders see creditworthiness in a more complete way.
We’re part of that shift. RiskSeal helps lenders adopt this new approach in a compliant, ethical way to improve risk prediction and approve more good customers.
Your platform delivers results in under five seconds per application. What makes that possible?
Speed and reliability are core to our design. We achieve sub-five-second scoring by combining parallel data processing, in-region model deployment, and a lightweight multi-cloud architecture across AWS and GCP.
Our regional cloud clusters keep data close to clients, reducing latency and ensuring compliance with local data laws. All external lookups happen asynchronously and in parallel, so no single provider can slow down the entire decision.
We use a real-time feature store and in-memory caching layer for frequently accessed attributes, while our scoring models are optimized and containerized for instant inference. Autoscaling via Kubernetes ensures we maintain performance even during traffic spikes.
The result is a globally scalable system that can handle thousands of concurrent credit decisions with p99 latency under five seconds, without compromising accuracy or compliance.
How does RiskSeal ensure that using alternative data promotes inclusion and avoids bias?
We take compliance and ethics seriously. RiskSeal only uses non-sensitive, consent-based digital data, such as email and phone activity patterns.
We never collect information that reveals protected attributes like gender, ethnicity, or religion. Our platform is fully aligned with GDPR, LGPD, and U.S. Fair Lending principles. It ensures lawful, transparent, and fair data processing.
How does online behavior complement traditional credit bureau data?
Online behavior fills in the gaps that a credit bureau file doesn’t cover.
For example, the signals tied to borrowers’ emails can reveal real-life habits. Things like spending patterns, paid subscriptions, and even a sense of lifestyle, whether someone leans more tech geek, business professional, gig worker, Gen Z borrower, or frequent traveler.
Sometimes you can spot higher-risk patterns too, like gambling activity. It’s all part of the applicant’s digital footprint and gives lenders a clearer picture of who’s behind the application.
A phone number works the same way. You can see how long it’s been in use, and if it’s ever been flagged for spam or fraud.
Combined, these details help lenders confirm identity, detect risk, and make more confident decisions. Even when the credit report comes back empty.
Does RiskSeal operate globally? Where does the platform make the biggest impact?
Yes, RiskSeal operates globally, with the strongest focus on emerging markets across LATAM, APAC, and EMEA.
Many countries in these regions still lack traditional credit files but have active internet users. RiskSeal turns their digital footprints into actionable credit scores, focusing on region-specific digital platforms, registrations, and services.
This helps local lenders issue more loans without increasing risk, keeping portfolios healthy and businesses profitable.
Why is alternative data so important in today’s economy?
Traditional credit systems leave over 2 billion people without access to fair credit. Many of them are freelancers, gig workers, or immigrant workers who live their financial lives online.
Today’s economy is digital – how we earn, spend, and interact reflects real financial behavior.
By analyzing this digital footprint responsibly, we can build a more inclusive credit system that gives everyone a fair chance to be seen and trusted.
Conclusion
The future of lending isn’t just about bigger data, but its interpretation, sharper insights, and responsible use.
As financial systems become more connected, companies that can balance precision, privacy, and speed will set the new standard.
RiskSeal’s story is one example of how thoughtful innovation can quietly reshape an entire industry.
