The Future of KYB: Why Companies Must Move to an All-in-One Solution

The way KYB is handled today is fundamentally flawed. Too many companies are stuck in a cycle of fragmented solutions—stitching together a data provider, a dashboard, and maybe a workflow builder, only to find that none of them truly work together. Even with attempts to integrate them into a CRM that wasn’t designed for this use case, the result is the same: siloed data, rising costs, and endless back-and-forth between providers who evolve at different speeds (if at all).

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Even worse, many organisations fall into a state of perpetual “tweaking”—endlessly adjusting their KYB setup without ever achieving the wholesale improvements that drive real innovation.

In this article, I’ll break down the options available when looking to improve KYB at any level, using the end-to-end process as a framework. I’ll then lay out the arguments for and against an all-in-one solution—because while I strongly believe in its benefits, I want to explore the topic in detail rather than defaulting to an easy claim.

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Why take this approach? Because simply saying “Detected is the best all-in-one KYB solution, and an all-in-one approach is the best” is not enough. Instead, I want to add credibility to that statement by:

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A) Demonstrating why it’s true,

B) Cutting through the exaggerated claims made by some providers in the industry, and

C) Exposing the flaws in the Build vs. Buy debate.

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KYB is evolving rapidly, but fragmentation remains the silent killer of compliance efficiency. Let’s explore why—and what the best path forward looks like.

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For the sake of ease throughout this article I will refer to ‘Platform’ and ‘Point Solution’. Platform is an all-in-one solution and Point Solution is the catch-all term for providers of specific components of the overall KYB process.

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The End-to-End Process for KYB and Which Point Solutions Can Help

Across industries and geographies the end-to-end KYB process outputs do not vary greatly. Of course the KYB process itself looks and feels different for a global financial institution V a high-volume marketplace V an insurance company etc. Thing is, at the heart of it there is one business seeking to understand information about another – the output is that information being in one place and then making a decision.

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To fully understand why fragmentation is such a problem, let’s break down the end-to-end KYB process and how companies attempt to solve each step separately.

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Fundamentals of the End-to-End KYB Process

1. Merchant sign up process

This is the application form/page where the merchant enters their information.

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2. Business verification

Gathering information about the business beyond what they have already provided in step 1.

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3. Associated people (UBO & Director) verification

Confirming the identity and background of individuals connected to the merchant.

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4. Screening

Peps, Sanctions and Adverse Media checks on the merchant and the individuals.

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5. Compliance review, follow up and decision making

Analysing the created profile, contacting the merchant for clarification if needed and approve or rejecting the application.

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6. Ongoing monitoring

Check for any changes in the credentials of the business.

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Looks simple, and often less happens than this – a lot of companies don’t even identify Associated People, complete Screenings or do Ongoing Monitoring meaning that on average it is 3 steps at least and a maximum of 6.

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The extent to which KYB is a ‘tick box exercise’ is reducing based on regulation like the Digital Services Act and FINCEN. But to put the issue into context with an example – I’ve spoken with a very well known marketplace which has 3 million business sellers actively selling goods on their platform that have never been checked for changes after the day they were onboarded.

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This means that a marketplace with 3 million business sellers has no idea if a significant portion of them have since become fraudulent, gone out of business, or are now subject to sanctions. The financial and reputational risks here are enormous.

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Point Solutions for Each Step of the KYB Process (With Examples)

Some of these are more saturated than others. There are less workflow builders than KYC providers for example - but there are plenty in each so the examples I have used are simply illustrative and this is not my opinion on who is the best (or worst).

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Merchant sign up process

Workflow builders, for example – Zenoo.

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Business verification

Business data providers, for example – Middesk.

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Associated people (UBO & Director) verification

KYC (ID) providers, for example – Jumio.

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Screening

Peps & Sanction, for example – Dow Jones.

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Compliance review, follow up and decision making

Case Management / platform tools, for example – Lucinity.

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Ongoing monitoring

Covered by business verification, people verification and screening providers.

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The confusion I see most in this industry is in 'Business Verification'. I've spoken about this at length, but just to touch on it briefly now - access to business data is not KYB. It is just one component and a lot of providers of this data continue to market themselves as a 'KYB solution' which becomes an excuse for internal teams to not fix the whole end to end process if they buy access to that data.

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Part of the challenge is that there are a lot of vendors in this space who say they do way more than they actually do. Of course, it happens in all industries and always will, but as the CEO of a business which is completely honest about what it has and doesn’t have, it is very frustrating.

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Example: Detected was down to the final 2, from 10, in a selection process to work with a payments business last year. We knew who the other vendor was so committed to closing the deal in our forecast. We weren’t selected, and the reason was that ‘the other vendor provided more intuitive front end workflow customisation’. We revisited this vendor’s technical docs and confirmed what we already knew ‘no-code builder (private beta)’. So the thing that set this business apart was something which wasn’t even live.

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This highlights a wider industry issue: buyers sometimes make decisions based on features that don’t even exist yet, falling for marketing over substance. In this case, we lost to a competitor whose differentiator was still in private beta—a reminder that flashy promises often win over proven capabilities.

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What is increasingly happening is that Point Solutions are beginning to build connectivity to other Point Solutions and refer to themselves as a platform.

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Example: Detected explored a partnership with an established global identity business to see if there were complimentary features. We knew this business did a great job in business verification and had a wide range of connections to business data providers and saw this, at the time, as an opportunity to accelerate our global coverage. When we saw a demo, their back end platform had none of the tooling compliance teams need to do their job (checklists, escalations etc) – it was a rudimentary approvals screen that had been bolted onto the core data orchestration capability.

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Build V Buy – The Real (and Often Hidden) Decision

Now that I’ve covered the end-to-end KYB process and the type of Point Solutions available as well as some of the challenges, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: Build V Buy. I’m going to keep it really simple by sticking to the assumption that “Build” means stitching together Point Solutions, internal systems, and processes (which I’ve seen hundreds of times) and “Buy” or “Platform” means using a single all-in-one KYB solution.

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It’s easy to underestimate the reality of managing multiple providers. When you build, you end up with various “best in class” bits and pieces glued together. It sounds smart—until you notice the glue is messy, the bits and pieces keep changing versions or requiring maintenance, and each provider has a different roadmap. Suddenly, you’re herding cats… or, more accurately, herding never-ending compliance updates, data format mismatches, and more.

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Every compliance team tracks vendor costs—but few track the hidden cost of constantly maintaining a DIY KYB system.

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Here’s the question every compliance, product or operations team should ask themselves: How much time, money, and mental energy am I spending on simply making different systems talk to each other? Because that’s the “cost” nobody puts on the invoice, but it’s definitely coming out of your pocket in the form of dev resources, operational overhead, and missed opportunities.

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The Real Cost of a “Build” Approach

1. Integration Overheads

Every time you add a new Point Solution for a different territory or verification feature, you need to integrate it—again. That’s developer time, project management, testing, and ongoing bug fixes in addition to training the team that are using it day to day.

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2. Vendor Management

You’ll have multiple SLAs, multiple support teams to juggle, multiple price points. If you need a quick fix or a new feature, you could be left waiting while any of the vendor’s roadmap or backlog dictates your schedule.

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3. Inconsistent External User Experience

Imagine if your merchant sign-up flow is in a different format to your compliance team outreach format. If one part of the journey looks and feels wildly different from the rest, it can create friction (not to mention confusion) for the end user. You’re essentially assembling experiences, rather than offering one smooth funnel.

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4. Inconsistent Internal User Experience

Whether it's the sales team supporting with the start of applications or the work completed by compliance teams when applications get to Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) stage – working across multiple systems is the cause of significant errors and huge inefficiencies.

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5. Data Silos and Fragmented Reporting

Even with the best of intentions, data ends up siloed. One system has partial business info, another has screening data, and a third tracks notes or compliance decisions. Good luck getting a single source of truth when half your time is spent collating (and reconciling) spreadsheets.

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The Argument for an All-in-One (Platform) Solution

What does “all-in-one” even mean in KYB? It’s more than a tagline. A genuine all-in-one solution knits together everything you need: customer-facing interfaces, compliance ops, smart configuration, case management, risk scoring, global data network connectivity, real-time analytics, and automation. Each piece clicks into place seamlessly, covering the entire journey from initial sign-up to final verification and ongoing monitoring.

Unlike the piecemeal strategy of incremental improvements, an all-in-one platform can deliver a major leap forward in efficiency and innovation.

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Let’s be honest, I could skip all the nuance and repeat this statement: “Detected is the best all in one solution and an all in one solution is by far the best approach.” But again I’d rather lay out why having everything in one place is the best choice if you want to make meaningful improvements to KYB, then I will talk about Detected specifically.

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1. Single Source of Truth

The biggest advantage of a Platform is having everything in a central location. That means data, business verification, UBO checks, screening, compliance workflow, decisions, and ongoing monitoring all live under one roof. I see it all the time, emails and spreadsheets being the glue that holds everything together – not good enough. Of course connecting the live data to a CRM might be required but the central hub is the Platform.

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2. Faster Time to Decision

When you don’t have to bounce between different systems—or wait for them to talk to each other—it’s far easier to speed up onboarding and reduce friction for both you and your customers. Automation within the best Platforms is possible in part because of the single source of truth.

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3. Unified Roadmap

With a Platform, upgrades happen across the entire product. Rather than waiting for each separate provider to roll out improvements, you benefit from a single development team that’s continuously enhancing all components together with every customer on the same version.

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4. Focus

Working with a partner who is solely committed to making their KYB platform even better adds enormous value. As evidenced in the internal ‘products’ created by many business with Point Solutions, this is a complicated process and needs experts in the driving seat.

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The Counterargument (Because Nothing Is Perfect)

I’ve heard the pushback many times: “But what if the all in one solution doesn’t have the best X or Y?” Fair enough. If you’re in a super-specific niche (say you have a very particular biometric ID requirement or a local data source that no global platform covers), you might feel more comfortable bolting on the exact solution you need.

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Or maybe you have an internal development powerhouse that thrives on building custom flows and plugging in exotic data sets. In those cases, your business might be prepared to own the complexity. But for 99% of organisations, especially those scaling fast or dealing with multi-jurisdictional compliance, the “best X or Y” argument quickly pales compared to the overhead of constantly stitching new features into your existing environment.

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Planning kills progress in KYB and as I have highlighted before, there are far too many companies wasting time here when they could be live with an all in one solution in months. Instead, years (literally) down the line and compliance team has tripled and nothing has changed.

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For the vast majority of companies, the ‘best-in-class’ argument crumbles under the weight of integration challenges, inconsistent workflows, and compliance risk. The smarter bet? A platform that ensures everything works together from day one.

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Dismissing “Build V Buy” Myths

Myth #1: “We’re just a small startup, we can do this in-house.”

Reality: Even if you can spin up some code quickly, ongoing compliance demands can overwhelm an internal team. Regulatory changes happen rapidly, and building is only the beginning—maintenance is forever.

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Myth #2: “Point Solutions give me more control.”

Reality: They might, in theory. But in practice, you become a project manager for multiple providers, each pushing their own updates, each with their own quirks. “Control” can quickly turn into “barely-controlled chaos.”

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Myth #3: “Our environment is so unique, no platform can handle it.”

Reality: Unless you’re in an extremely rare vertical, most robust Platforms are flexible enough to adapt. What’s more, they often have direct integrations with the major data providers and can accommodate special workflows or rule configurations.

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Now that we’ve covered the importance of an all-in-one KYB platform, the next logical question is: what options are out there which one is right for you?

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There are a few players in the market, each with a different approach. Two platforms that once competed in this space were acquired by multinational companies in 2021. Since then, their focus has shifted—one has integrated more deeply with its parent company’s data services, while the other has undergone a rebrand with fewer visible advancements in product development. While both still win deals, their evolution raises an important question: how much ongoing innovation can you expect from a platform that is no longer independently driving KYB advancements?

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In North America, some providers act more as data orchestrators than full KYB platforms. These solutions can be useful for companies that prefer to build custom workflows in-house. There is also a banking-specific provider that recently acquired legacy KYB technology—how that technology will adapt within the complexities of banking infrastructure is something to watch.

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Meanwhile, in Europe, a few platforms focus more on workflow and UI rather than the full compliance stack, making them well-suited to fintechs but less robust for enterprise-level compliance needs.

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Finally, some companies position themselves as KYB platforms but primarily offer point solutions. When evaluating your options, it’s important to distinguish between a true all-in-one platform and a solution that still requires multiple integrations to function effectively.

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Why Detected Leads the Pack

Focus

Unlike competitors who pivoted after acquisition or dilute their offering with unrelated services, Detected has always been 100% focused on KYB. We’ve built our platform based on industry needs, not investor demands or short-term revenue plays.

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Timing

KYB has only recently become a must-fix priority. Regulation and competition are forcing companies to overhaul outdated systems, and many are realising too late that their fragmented approach no longer works. Detected was built ahead of this shift, meaning we’re already solving these problems while others scramble to adjust.

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Capability

Some platforms have UI without compliance depth, others are data orchestrators without full workflow automation, and some simply rebrand outdated solutions. Detected is different—we combine seamless onboarding, global data access, built-in compliance workflows, and ongoing monitoring—all within a single, purpose-built platform.

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Independence & Innovation

Unlike acquired platforms now serving larger corporate strategies, we remain independent. That means we innovate at our pace, not someone else’s roadmap. Every feature, integration, and improvement we ship is designed to make KYB easier, faster, and more effective—not just to fit inside a wider corporate ecosystem.

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Built for Global Compliance from Day One

Unlike many providers that specialise in a single geography, Detected is built for global KYB. Our platform ingests and verifies business data across multiple jurisdictions and gives unique workflows to request exactly what is missing from those sources directly from customers, providing a single source of truth regardless of where your customers operate. Whether you’re onboarding businesses in North America, Europe, APAC, or beyond, Detected ensures a consistent, compliant, and scalable KYB process.

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No Build Required – Just Plug In & Scale

Other solutions leave compliance teams managing multiple vendors, integrations, and never-ending maintenance cycles. With Detected, there’s no stitching together, no endless tweaking—just a fully functional KYB solution that works out of the box. Our platform reduces operational friction, eliminates integration headaches, and lets compliance teams focus on decisions, not maintenance.

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Confidence

This isn’t just positioning—it’s proven by the customers and partners who trust us. While others are still figuring out what KYB should look like, we’ve already built the future.