Rulesbase, a Nigerian startup building AI agents for financial services back-office operations, has closed a $2.1 million pre-seed round led by Bowery Capital, with participation from Y Combinator, Commerce Ventures, Transpose Platform VC, and angel investors.
Founded in 2024 by Gideon Ebose and Chidi Williams, the company has developed Coworker, an AI agent designed to handle the grunt work that bogs down customer service teams at banks, fintechs, and other financial institutions. Think support ticket resolution, dispute management, quality assurance, and regulatory compliance — all the tedious but critical tasks that typically require armies of human operators.
The pitch is straightforward: financial services companies burn through massive resources managing customer support operations, and much of that work is repetitive and rule-based. Rulesbase’s AI agent automates the bulk of it, evaluating customer interactions, identifying potential regulatory risks, and triggering appropriate follow-ups across existing tools like Zendesk, Jira, and Slack.
“Financial services firms spend enormous amounts of effort on support tickets, resolving disputes, ensuring quality assurance, and regulatory compliance,” the founders said. Coworker aims to reduce that burden by acting as an intelligent layer that sits on top of existing workflows, rather than requiring companies to rip and replace their current systems.
Why this matters
The timing is notable for a few reasons. First, AI agents — autonomous systems that can complete multi-step tasks without constant human oversight — are having a moment in enterprise software. We’re seeing a wave of startups building verticalized agents for specific industries, and financial services is a particularly attractive target given its combination of high operational costs and heavy regulatory requirements.
Second, Nigeria continues to punch above its weight in fintech innovation. The country has produced multiple unicorns and has become a hub for financial technology across Africa. Rulesbase joining the Y Combinator cohort adds another data point to Nigeria’s growing reputation as a source of globally competitive startups.
Third, the involvement of Bowery Capital and Commerce Ventures — both known for backing B2B fintech infrastructure — suggests institutional investors see real potential in vertical AI agents for regulated industries. These aren’t consumer-facing chatbots; they’re backend automation tools that can meaningfully impact unit economics.
The road ahead
For a pre-seed company founded just last year, raising $2.1 million is a solid start. The real test will be adoption: can Rulesbase convince financial institutions — notoriously cautious about new technology — to trust an AI agent with compliance-sensitive operations?
The integration with existing tools like Zendesk and Jira could be a smart wedge strategy, allowing companies to pilot Coworker without overhauling their tech stack. But questions remain about accuracy rates, edge cases, and how the system handles genuinely complex disputes that require human judgment.
Still, if Rulesbase can prove its AI agent actually reduces operational costs while maintaining compliance standards, there’s a massive market opportunity. Every bank, fintech, and insurance company deals with these same pain points, and the global financial services BPO market is worth tens of billions annually.
The funding gives the startup runway to refine its product and likely expand beyond Nigeria to other markets where financial services firms face similar operational challenges.
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