Defy, founded by Suat Ozkan, is redefining how financial institutions approach compliance in an increasingly complex risk landscape. Built on the need to move beyond fragmented tools and manual processes, the company integrates AI-driven intelligence into compliance operations. By focusing on faster decision-making, reduced false positives, and deeper risk visibility, Defy is positioning itself at the forefront of a shift from reactive workflows to intelligent, real-time compliance systems.

1. Every startup begins with a moment of insight. What problem or experience first inspired you to build this company?

Defy started with a conviction I could not ignore. Financial crime was becoming faster, more adaptive, and more sophisticated, while compliance operations were still built around fragmented tools, manual reviews, and slow decision cycles. I kept seeing the same structural weakness across the market. Institutions were drowning in alerts, but they were not necessarily getting better at understanding real risk. That gap was too important to overlook. I did not want to build another compliance interface. I wanted to help redefine how compliance works. Defy was founded to bring intelligence, speed, and clarity into one of the most critical operational functions in finance and digital assets.

2. What is the core problem your company is trying to solve, and why do you believe existing solutions haven’t fully addressed it?

The real problem is not lack of data or lack of alerts. The real problem is lack of meaningful decision-making. Most compliance teams already have monitoring tools, case management systems, and multiple data sources. Yet they still struggle with false positives, heavy manual review cycles, and inconsistent outcomes. Existing solutions have mainly digitised old workflows instead of transforming them. That is why the operational burden remains high. Defy creates a new compliance experience by turning human-dependent, high false positive detection processes into a machine-speed, high-accuracy operating model. We are not just helping teams process more alerts. We are helping them see better, decide faster, and operate with much greater confidence.

3. Your platform sits at the intersection of technology and innovation. Can you explain how your solution works in simple terms and what makes it technically unique?

In simple terms, Defy helps financial institutions and digital asset businesses detect suspicious behaviour, investigate complex risk, and act faster. Our platform brings together behavioural signals, risk indicators, and contextual data into one intelligent workflow. On top of that, our AI compliance expert, Vera, helps investigators understand what matters, why it matters, and what action should come next. What makes Defy technically unique is that we are not adding AI as a surface-level feature. We are embedding intelligence directly into the operating logic of compliance. That means reducing dependency on manual analysis, lowering false positives, and increasing precision at scale. The result is not just better automation. It is a fundamentally better way to run compliance.

4. Can you share a real-world example or use case that best demonstrates the value your technology brings to users or businesses?

A strong example is complex laundering activity, where the true risk is rarely visible through a single alert. In real environments, suspicious behaviour emerges across multiple wallets, counterparties, transactions, and jurisdictions. Analysts are often forced to connect weak and fragmented signals under time pressure, which is exactly where traditional systems struggle. Defy changes that dynamic. Our platform helps surface hidden relationships much earlier, so

teams can move from scattered alerts to a coherent and actionable risk picture faster. That is where our value becomes clear. We help institutions replace slow, labour-intensive review cycles with a high-accuracy investigation experience that runs at machine speed. For customers, that means faster case resolution, stronger control, and less operational drag.

5. What has been the most difficult challenge your team has faced since launching, and how did you overcome it?

The most difficult challenge has been changing expectations in a market where trust matters more than hype. Compliance is not a sector where people adopt innovation just because it sounds exciting. They need precision, explainability, consistency, and proof. Introducing an AI-driven approach into that environment meant we had to meet a very high standard from day one. We addressed that by staying deeply focused on real operational pain, measurable outcomes, and product discipline. We did not sell a futuristic story without substance. We built a system that performs in serious environments. Support from MBRIF has also helped us sharpen our strategic positioning and strengthen our scale-up approach across the region. In the end, scepticism is only overcome through results.

6. Your company operates in a rapidly evolving industry. What major trends do you believe will shape the sector over the next five years?

The next five years will separate compliance software from compliance intelligence. The market will move away from static, rule-heavy systems that generate noise and toward platforms that can interpret behaviour, reduce false positives, and actively support decision-making. AI will not be an optional enhancement. It will become core infrastructure. At the same time, regulatory scrutiny will continue to rise across both traditional finance and digital assets, especially around sanctions, fraud, transaction monitoring, and cross-border transparency. Institutions will need systems that are not only technically capable, but operationally reliable. The companies that define this market will be the ones that combine regulatory depth, machine-speed analysis, and real-world accuracy.

7. Looking ahead, what is the long-term vision for the company, and how do you hope it will reshape your industry?

Our long-term vision is to build the intelligence layer behind the future of compliance. We want Defy to become the system institutions rely on when the cost of delay, noise, or weak judgment is simply too high. More broadly, we want to reshape compliance from a reactive and resource-heavy function into an intelligent capability that improves trust, resilience, and business performance. Defy is not only building software. We are building a new standard for how compliance should work. If we succeed, the industry will move away from manual overload and toward high-accuracy, always-on decision systems that scale with the complexity of modern finance. That is the future we are building, and we intend to help lead it.