Avendar raises €2.2M to deploy AI against fraud and crimeAvendar raises €2.2M to deploy AI against fraud and crime

Avendar, an emerging Dutch GovTech and AI startup, has raised € 2.2M in seed funding to accelerate the development and rollout of its platform for critical investigations and intelligence, supporting e.g. crime and fraud investigations in the public sector. The company enables public institutions to transform fragmented data into actionable insights through automated data analysis and signal detection. The investment was led by LUMO Labs and the Brabant Development Agency (BOM).

Public institutions across Europe are facing increasing pressure from more complex crime and fraud, while still relying on largely manual investigative processes. At the same time, there is a growing need for sovereign, compliant AI solutions within Europe. Avendar addresses these challenges with an end-to-end AI platform that enables institutions to significantly reduce manual investigative work and increase the speed, scale, and quality of investigations while keeping the society safe.

"We believe Europe needs its own sovereign infrastructure for critical investigations and intelligence. Currently, organisations are far too often solving their most critical problems with outdated software. This needs to change," said Marijn van Aerle, Co-Founder of Avendar. "This new funding by LUMO Labs and BOM allows us to accelerate our mission to keep our society safe and resilient by helping public institutions to turn data into fast and compliant action."

Avendar already demonstrates strong traction within the Dutch public sector. Its platform is used by organizations including the Dutch National Police and the Municipality of Amsterdam, following successful pilots and ongoing implementations through programs with the Ministry of Justice and Safety, supporting applications such as criminal investigations and Bibob screening.

"With strong execution in complex public sector environments and a team that combines technical depth with domain expertise, we believe Avendar is well positioned to reshape and improve investigations across Europe, as well as increase its digital sovereignty and resilience," commented Andy Lurling, Founding Partner at LUMO Labs.

"This team has the right experience and drive to solve a real problem: turning large volumes of public data into actionable intelligence for governments. We're proud to support them in this mission, because helping public organizations respond to threats faster means directly contributing to a safer society," said Robin Hendrickx, Team Lead & Sr. Investment Manager Key Technologies at BOM.

Avendar will use the new capital to expand its engineering and product teams and further develop its AI capabilities and platform scalability. They aim to accelerate their go-to-market efforts across Europe, enabling public institutions to operate more effectively in an increasingly complex threat landscape. Prior to this round, the startup has received funding support from Rabobank Innovation Loan (RIL), the Brabant Startup Fund, and the BIM Startersfonds.