March 24, 2021

illumis Named "Best RegTech Startup"

We are excited to announce that illumis has been named “Best RegTech Startup” in the 2021 FinTech Breakthrough Awards! The award recognizes our creativity in mitigating operational risk related to political contributions and pay-to-play risk.

The FinTech Breakthrough Awards recognize the top companies and products in the financial services and technology industries today. They perform comprehensive analyses of the industry to recognize the ‘breakthrough’ innovators in the FinTech market. illumis was selected from thousands of nominees as a winner — winning the “Best RegTech Startup” award for our sophisticated and best-in-class monitoring platform for regulatory compliance.

We are honored to be recognized for our ongoing work to help our customers use public data to enhance transparency and reduce risk.

At illumis, we provide the leading monitoring solution to help reduce risk and increase transparency around pay-to-play rules. Our platform continues to set the standard, with cutting-edge technology to help ensure comprehensive coverage. Interested in a demo of the illumis Compliance platform? Click here or email solutions@illumis.com.


In November of 2021, ComplySci announced the acquisition of illumis, a premier data aggregator and technology provider whose solutions are used by financial services firms to identify and mitigate risk from employee political contributions. While the initial acquisition saw the firms operating as two independent organizations, we are thrilled to announce the merging of the illumis and ComplySci brands. With this initiative, we aim to arm our clients with a more comprehensive solution to mitigating compliance risk, which includes the increased risk associated with employee political contributions.

Political contributions made by firm employees pose a significant threat to investment advisory firms. And even firms with the best compliance teams can be at risk of violating pay-to-play regulations, like the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) rule 206(4)-5, given the complexity of the rules and the myriad of regulations to which firms must comply.

Because of this, investment firms must arm themselves with the access to and support of real-time data, which can help identify potential violations and anomalies in the political donation process.

By leveraging real-time data, investment firms can quickly detect suspicious or unauthorized activities and take prompt action to prevent pay-to-play violations.

SEC Rule 206(4)-5 is arguably the most well known regulation regarding political contributions compliance or pay-to-play compliance. However, it certainly isn’t the only regulation to which firms must comply.

In fact, beyond federal regulations, firms which take part in government contracted work must contend with numerous and varied state and local regulations as well. Such regulations present unique challenges because of the various requirements within each, which should they be neglected, can cause significant financial and reputational damage.