Line Capital and First AML

Line Capital is a New Zealand-based financial services provider specialising in business lending. The company’s journey began in 2015 as Spotcap, operating out of Australia but owned internationally. Over the next four years, Spotcap grew, expanded into New Zealand and was eventually divested by its international owners to Zip.

Between 2019 and 2023, the business doubled its loan book, demonstrating strong growth and market demand. In 2023, Spotcap originals, Sam Coleman and Martin Kudelas, saw an opportunity to improve how businesses access funding. This led to the birth of Line Capital, founded on their commitment to providing “a simple, transparent and fast process of obtaining capital that [businesses] may not be able to raise from traditional sources”.

The Situation

As Line Capital prepared to launch, they recognised the urgent need for a robust AML compliance framework tailored to their specific needs. Martin reflected on the challenge, “I’d done AML before, but it was mostly manual. It worked, but it took too much time. I was juggling a lot, so manual AML wasn’t an option.”

With a small team, they needed a solution that provided:

• Maximum automation to minimise the time spent on AML tasks.
• Structured guidance for onboarding complex entities.

With only two months until launch, they evaluated several AML software providers. Beyond automation and built-in guidance, they also required:

• Strong international verification for offshore directors and shareholders.
• Seamless integration with their loan origination system.

To uphold their commitment to a simple, transparent and fast capital-raising process, the solution had to ensure compliance without adding friction to the customer experience.

The Solution

Line Capital reached out to a number of AML solution providers across Australia and New Zealand before choosing Source by First AML. Built from real-world compliance expertise, Source offered a secure, all-in-one solution designed to handle the complexities of AML compliance with ease.

Key Benefits

Automated identity verification
Delivering easy onboarding of both local and offshore directors and shareholders.

Breadth of data sources
Access to 250+ registries and independent sources (e.g. government ID databases, credit and consumer bureaus) significantly reducing manual document collection.

Centralised case management
A structured case manifest ensured that all AML checks, verifications and document submissions were organised in one place.

At-a-glance case status
Real-time status updates enabled better decision-making and more efficient compliance workflows.

Automated follow-ups
Client verification requests were set to an automatic cadence, reducing the admin and pain of chasing clients

Scalability for future integrations
The flexibility of Source ensured that Line Capital could integrate AML compliance into their loan origination system as their business evolved.

The Results

By implementing Source, Line Capital is successfully meeting their objectives and more.

Delivering on its promise
Martin was initially skeptical, “Initially I thought [Source] isn’t going to work as it says. But it did! We haven’t had anything Source couldn’t handle so far.”

Real-time efficiencies
Beyond meeting expectations, Source has saved time in ways Martin hadn’t anticipated.

“The compliance rules [specifying what documents need to be collected for who or what and when] really help. It’s already there [when we open a case] so it saves time. 

Also, all the information is in one place so we don’t have to save anything to folders.”

Regulatory reporting has also seen major improvements.

“Previously we had to go into our database, review every client structure, put their types into a spreadsheet, then upload it. But with Source it’s automated. It’s a press of a button, a quick sense check and then submit.”

We take it for granted now that we can just upload everything, send an SMS asking for the missing information and check it off when it comes in.”

Measurable impact
The benefits of Source aren’t just anecdotal:

• Significant time savings
  Line Capital saves 2-4 hours of AML admin per week, allowing Martin to focus on higher-value tasks.
• Effortless offshore verification
  Ensuring compliance across diverse business structures.
• Scalable growth
  Successfully meeting 20-25% YoY growth with no additional headcount.

With First AML’s best-in-class SaaS platform, Line Capital has transformed AML compliance from a potential business blocker into a simple, efficient process.

“When it comes to compliance we’re not the experts. That’s the reason we chose Source. It can handle the workload, automates things and gives us guidance, so we have a real sense of assurance it’s done right.”