A US-Headquartered artificial intelligence startup Rulebase has raised US$2.1 million in pre-seed funding to expand its operations and strengthen its position in the rapidly evolving fintech automation space.
The round was led by Bowery Capital, with participation from Y Combinator, Commerce Ventures, Transpose Platform VC, and several angel investors. Co-founded in 2024 by Gideon Ebose and Chidi Williams in the UK, Rulebase has built Coworker, an AI agent designed to automate back-office operations for financial service providers.
“We automate workflows that start with a customer interaction, areas we’re already great at handling end-to-end,” CEO Ebose said in an interview.
“While much of that is QA, compliance, and disputes tied to customer calls and messages, long-term our goal is to take on as many manual back-office tasks as possible by pulling these fragmented steps and tabs into one coordinated workflow.”
What Does Rulebase Do?
Rulebase operates at the intersection of artificial intelligence and financial services, targeting the often-overlooked back-office functions that keep banks and fintech firms compliant and efficient.
Traditional customer service operations require significant human effort to respond to queries, resolve disputes, and ensure every process adheres to regulatory standards. Rulebase’s software replaces much of this manual labour through intelligent automation.
The company says its technology can cut operational workload by up to 60%, reduce human error, and speed up resolution times, a critical advantage in Africa’s fast-growing digital financial ecosystem.
Inside Coworker: The AI “Digital Colleague”
At the heart of Rulebase’s innovation is Coworker, described by the team as the first AI agent built specifically for customer service back-office operations in financial services.
The system integrates seamlessly with workflow tools such as Zendesk, Jira, and Slack, analysing customer interactions in real time. It automatically flags potential regulatory risks, triggers follow-up actions, and assigns tasks to the appropriate teams.
“Our ‘Coworker’ tool integrates across platforms and collaborates with human agents and back-office teams to fully manage the dispute life cycle while saving time, reducing errors, and maintaining compliance,” said co-founder Williams, who leads product development.
Coworker leverages large language models and custom-built compliance algorithms to maintain contextual accuracy across complex financial processes.
Who Does It Benefit?
Rulebase’s product is aimed primarily at banks, digital lenders, insurance firms, and fintech startups handling large volumes of customer interactions daily.
The automation of repetitive administrative work allows teams to focus on higher-value activities, like customer relationship management and strategic decision-making.
Analysts believe that innovations like this could mark a turning point for the African financial industry, where poor customer experience and slow dispute resolution remain persistent challenges.
Experts further note that African financial institutions lose an estimated US$1.5 billion annually to inefficiencies in customer support and compliance-related delays.
Rulebase’s AI-driven approach, therefore, promises both cost savings and competitive advantage.
The Founding Vision and What Lies Ahead
Rulebase was founded in 2024 and quickly gained attention for its technical precision and market relevance. Both founders, Ebose and Williams, are software engineers with experience in AI product development and financial systems.
Within its first year, the startup reportedly handled pilot projects with multiple Nigerian fintechs, processing thousands of support tickets through its AI framework with over 85% accuracy in compliance flagging.
With the latest funding, the team plans to scale across Africa, Europe, and North America, deepening its partnerships and enhancing Coworker’s multilingual and multi-regional capabilities.
“We’re in a moment where small teams can deliver more value, more quickly, than ever before, so limiting yourself to ‘X for Y’ or a narrow vertical feels like a missed opportunity,” Williams noted.
Talking Point
Rulebase’s $2.1 million pre-seed raise presents a powerful statement of confidence in Africa’s emerging AI innovation space, particularly within fintech automation, where operational inefficiencies have long stifled growth and customer trust.
The company’s approach, automating complex back-office processes like QA, compliance, and dispute resolution, positions it as a trailblazer in transforming Africa’s financial customer service infrastructure.
However, the scale of its ambition also exposes it to key challenges: the continent’s uneven data infrastructure, limited regulatory harmonisation, and the steep trust curve for AI adoption in finance could slow implementation across diverse markets.
Yet, Rulebase’s Coworker technology, boasting 85% compliance accuracy and integration with global workflow tools, reflects a pragmatic understanding of both local and international financial operations.
If sustained, this mix of innovation and precision could redefine how African financial institutions view automation, from a luxury to an operational necessity, while setting a precedent for how indigenous AI startups compete on a global stage.
