Saris Secures $28.8 Million Series A Funding to Expand AI-Powered Workflow Automation for Banks and Credit Unions
As financial institutions navigate increasing operational complexity, growing customer expectations, and ongoing pressure to improve efficiency, many banks and credit unions are turning to artificial intelligence to modernize their operations. While customer-facing innovations often receive the most attention, some of the most significant opportunities for transformation exist behind the scenes, where employees continue to spend countless hours managing manual processes, reviewing documents, validating information, and completing repetitive administrative tasks.
Recognizing this challenge, Saris, a technology company focused on agentic workflow automation for financial institutions, has announced the successful completion of a $28.8 million Series A funding round. The investment marks a significant milestone for the company as it seeks to accelerate the adoption of AI-powered workflow solutions across the banking and credit union sectors.
The funding round was led by 8VC and included participation from Audacious Ventures, Homebrew, Btech Consortium, and Service Ventures. The new capital will support Saris’s plans to expand its platform to additional financial institutions, strengthen integrations with key industry technology providers, and grow the teams responsible for training, deploying, and optimizing AI-powered agents.
The announcement highlights growing investor confidence in the role artificial intelligence can play in helping financial institutions improve efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance customer service without requiring major disruptions to existing operations.
Addressing Longstanding Operational Challenges
For many financial institutions, digital transformation has focused heavily on improving customer experiences through mobile banking, online account opening, and digital payment capabilities. However, while customer-facing technologies have evolved rapidly, many internal banking processes continue to rely on labor-intensive workflows.
Teams responsible for lending, compliance, risk management, operations, and customer support often spend substantial portions of their day reviewing documents, validating information, processing applications, and managing administrative requirements.
These activities are essential to maintaining regulatory compliance and operational integrity, but they can also create bottlenecks that limit productivity and slow service delivery.
At the same time, banks and credit unions face increasing pressure to accomplish more with existing resources. Rising labor costs, regulatory complexity, competitive pressures, and growing customer expectations have made operational efficiency a strategic priority for institutions of all sizes.
According to Saris, its platform was designed specifically to address these challenges by introducing agentic workflow automation into core banking processes.
Unlike traditional automation tools that perform isolated tasks, agentic systems are designed to execute multi-step workflows, coordinate actions across systems, and make context-aware decisions within defined parameters. This allows organizations to automate larger portions of business processes while maintaining oversight and control.
The result is a more efficient operating environment that enables employees to focus on higher-value activities requiring human judgment and expertise.
A New Approach to Financial Services Automation
Saris describes its technology as the first agentic workflow platform purpose-built for banks and credit unions.
The platform is designed to automate complex workflows across multiple areas of financial institution operations, including consumer lending, mortgage processing, commercial lending, compliance activities, and back-office operations.
These functions traditionally require significant manual effort, often involving document collection, data verification, policy checks, risk assessments, and coordination among multiple departments.
Through AI-powered agents, Saris aims to reduce the time required to complete these activities while maintaining accuracy and compliance standards.
According to the company, tasks that previously required hours of manual effort can often be completed in minutes using its platform.
The impact can be substantial.
Saris reports that its technology is capable of automating up to 70% of tasks associated with consumer, mortgage, and commercial lending workflows. In addition to improving efficiency, institutions using the platform have reported cost reductions of up to 35%.
Perhaps most significantly, many organizations have been able to dramatically increase productivity without increasing staffing levels.
This ability to scale output without proportional increases in labor costs is becoming increasingly important as financial institutions seek sustainable growth strategies in a competitive environment.
Investor Confidence in Banking Automation
The participation of leading venture capital firms in the Series A round reflects growing confidence in the future of AI-driven financial operations.
Alex Kolicich, founding partner at 8VC, emphasized the significant challenges facing financial institutions as they attempt to modernize aging operational processes.
According to Kolicich, many banks and credit unions have historically been underserved by technology solutions that were not designed to handle the complexity of modern financial services environments.
Legacy systems often create operational silos, increase maintenance costs, and limit the ability of organizations to respond quickly to changing market demands.
Saris seeks to address these limitations by delivering automation capabilities that work alongside existing technology infrastructures rather than requiring complete system replacements.
This approach enables financial institutions to realize measurable operational improvements while minimizing disruption to critical business processes.
For investors, the combination of tangible return on investment, growing market demand, and scalable technology presents a compelling opportunity.
Expanding Strategic Technology Partnerships
The newly raised capital will also support Saris’s efforts to deepen integrations with several major financial technology providers.
Among the company’s key partners are Fiserv, Encompass, and MeridianLink, all of which provide important technology solutions to banks, credit unions, and mortgage lenders.
Integration with these platforms enables Saris to embed its automation capabilities directly into existing operational workflows.
Rather than requiring employees to learn entirely new systems, the company’s AI agents can operate within familiar technology environments, accelerating adoption and reducing implementation challenges.
This interoperability is particularly important in financial services, where institutions often rely on multiple software platforms to manage various aspects of their operations.
By strengthening these partnerships, Saris aims to make its automation capabilities more accessible to a broader range of institutions while supporting more seamless workflow execution across systems.
The strategy aligns with broader industry trends emphasizing ecosystem-based innovation and platform interoperability.
Delivering Measurable Business Results
One of the primary factors driving adoption of AI solutions within financial services is the growing demand for measurable business outcomes.
Financial institutions increasingly evaluate technology investments based on their ability to improve efficiency, reduce costs, increase revenue opportunities, and enhance customer experiences.
Several organizations already using Saris’s platform have reported meaningful results.
Matt Mayo, Chief Revenue Officer at Community Bank, noted that his institution sought an AI strategy capable of delivering clear returns while supporting growth objectives.
According to Mayo, Saris provided a comprehensive solution that streamlined workflows while integrating effectively with existing technologies.
The implementation enabled the bank to improve operational performance without creating significant disruption for employees or customers.
Importantly, the platform’s adoption was well received by internal teams, demonstrating that effective automation can complement rather than replace employee contributions.
This balance between technological advancement and workforce enablement remains a critical consideration for financial institutions evaluating AI initiatives.
Enhancing Accuracy While Maintaining Oversight
Another key concern surrounding automation in financial services involves maintaining accuracy, compliance, and appropriate oversight.
Financial institutions operate within highly regulated environments where errors can create significant financial, operational, and reputational risks.
As a result, successful AI implementations must balance efficiency gains with strong governance frameworks.
Diana Hennel, Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President at Catalyst Corporate Credit Union, highlighted the benefits her organization experienced through the use of Saris’s platform.
According to Hennel, the technology helped reduce labor-intensive processes while simultaneously improving accuracy and preserving human oversight.
This combination is particularly important because financial institutions generally do not seek complete automation of decision-making processes. Instead, they aim to automate routine activities while allowing employees to focus on exceptions, complex cases, and strategic responsibilities.
Saris’s approach reflects this philosophy by positioning AI agents as collaborative tools that support employees rather than replace them.
The result is a model in which technology and human expertise work together to improve overall performance.
The Future of Human-AI Collaboration in Banking
For Saris co-founder and CEO Danial Jameel, the company’s vision extends beyond process automation.
He believes the future of financial services will be defined by collaboration between humans and artificial intelligence.
Rather than replacing employees, AI technologies can provide workers with additional leverage, enabling them to accomplish more while reducing operational strain and repetitive workloads.
This perspective reflects a growing consensus within the financial services industry.
As AI capabilities continue to advance, the most successful institutions are likely to be those that combine technological innovation with human expertise. Employees remain essential for relationship management, strategic decision-making, customer engagement, and complex problem-solving.
Automation can free them from repetitive administrative tasks, allowing them to focus on activities that create greater value for customers and organizations alike.
According to Jameel, Saris’s platform is already demonstrating measurable benefits for institutions that have embraced this approach. The new funding provides an opportunity to bring these capabilities to a larger number of banks and credit unions while accelerating product development and deployment efforts.
Positioning for Continued Growth
The completion of the $28.8 million Series A funding round positions Saris for a new phase of expansion.
As financial institutions continue searching for ways to modernize operations, improve productivity, and navigate increasing complexity, demand for intelligent workflow automation solutions is expected to grow significantly.
By combining AI-powered agents, deep financial services expertise, and strong technology partnerships, Saris aims to establish itself as a leading provider of operational automation solutions for the banking sector.
The company’s focus on measurable outcomes, seamless integration, and human-centered automation aligns closely with the priorities of today’s financial institutions.
As banks and credit unions continue their digital transformation journeys, platforms that enable organizations to do more with existing resources while maintaining service quality and compliance standards will likely play an increasingly important role.
With fresh capital, expanding partnerships, and growing market momentum, Saris appears well positioned to help shape the next generation of operational efficiency in financial services.
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