# Pastel

> Pastel builds agentic AI for banking operations, aimed at the regional, mid-tier, and community banks that most fintech innovation skips over. Its flagship platform, Sigma, deploys AI agents across customer onboarding, due diligence, fraud detection, anti-money laundering, screening, and executive reporting - trained on local data and regulations rather than retrofitted Western systems. Founded by Stanford graduate students and rooted in African markets, Pastel started as a small-business bookkeeping tool called Sabi before pivoting into compliance infrastructure for financial institutions.

- **Founded:** 2021
- **Headquarters:** New York, USA (with roots in Lagos, Nigeria)
- **Founders:** Abuzar Royesh (Co-founder & CEO), Olamide Oladeji (Co-founder), Izunna Okonkwo (Co-founder)
- **Team size:** Estimated 100+ (third-party data; likely smaller and variable given seed stage)
- **Products:** Sigma, Sabi (legacy), Quick Receipt (legacy), Pastel Financing (legacy)
- **Notable:** Raised $5.5M seed led by TLcom Capital (2022), following a $620K pre-seed, Successfully pivoted from SME bookkeeping (Sabi) into agentic AI compliance infrastructure, Positioned Sigma as compliance infrastructure purpose-built on African data and CBN standards

## Products & services

- **Sigma** — Pastel's flagship agentic AI platform for banking operations. Deploys specialized AI agents across customer onboarding, due diligence, fraud detection, anti-money laundering (AML) monitoring, screening, automated regulatory reporting, customer risk assessment, and executive insights. Trained on local data and regulations (e.g. CBN standards) and designed to integrate with existing banking and risk systems.
- **Sabi (legacy)** — The company's original product - a digital bookkeeping app that let small businesses track transactions, manage customers and debtors, and understand cash flow. Part of Pastel's earlier SME-focused era before the pivot to bank compliance.
- **Quick Receipt (legacy)** — A standalone tool from Pastel's early SME product line that let merchants generate and share digital receipts.
- **Pastel Financing (legacy)** — An early offering aimed at helping small businesses access financing, part of Pastel's original merchant-focused suite.

## Achievements

- Raised $5.5M seed led by TLcom Capital (2022), following a $620K pre-seed
- Successfully pivoted from SME bookkeeping (Sabi) into agentic AI compliance infrastructure
- Positioned Sigma as compliance infrastructure purpose-built on African data and CBN standards
- Convened banks, fintechs, and regulators around AI compliance at a 2025 Lagos industry event with FintechNGR

## Latest updates

- **2025-07** — Pastel put Sigma at the center of a Lagos industry gathering with FintechNGR, rallying banks and fintech leaders around AI-driven compliance as Nigerian banks faced a N52bn+ fraud surge.
- **2025-07** — Broad press coverage (TechCabal, Techpoint, Nairametrics, Vanguard, ThisDay, BusinessDay) framed Sigma as emerging compliance infrastructure for African banking and beyond.
- **2022-08** — Closed $5.5M seed round led by TLcom Capital to scale its small-business digital and financing tools - the funding that preceded its later compliance pivot.

## Links

- Website: https://www.pastelhq.ai
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/pastelhqai
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/pastelafrica
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/OfficalPastelAfrica

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/pastel
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-03