Western Union teams up with two fintech startups Bridged and Rebric to enhance its global cross-border platform using AI and machine learning

Western Union, a global company in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments, today announced it is forging business relationships with two fintech start-ups in the first class of the Western Union Accelerator Powered by Techstars. Both companies, Bridged and Rebric, are innovators in artificial intelligence and machine learning. In addition to providing business mentoring and funding through its accelerator program, Western Union is now working with both.

Both Bridged and Rebric were part of 2019 class of the Western Union Accelerator powered by Techstars. Bridged AI helps companies with Data Sets and Ground Truthing to train their AI/ML models.  Rebric on the hand, uses machine learning and AI systems to help companies stay compliant with financial regulations and keep terrorists, human traffickers, and other criminals from receiving or sending money.

“We’re fostering innovation internally and externally through our accelerator, and these initial projects with Bridged and Rebric are just the beginning,” said Jeff Hochstadt, chief strategy officer for Western Union. “As we continue to transform our business and leverage our global platform in new ways, tapping into innovations from emerging companies is an important part of our broader technology strategy.”

“We will draw the best of what these companies offer to enhance different parts of our global platform – as part of our commitment to continuously be at the cutting edge of innovation for our customers and partners,” he said.

Based in Denver, Bridged uses a combination of technology and crowdsourcing to deliver artificial intelligence as a service, providing scalable data solutions to help organizations build out their own AI and Big Data models for a range of applications. Rebric, also headquartered in Denver, uses machine learning and AI systems to identify bad actors and help companies stay compliant with sanction list regulations.