Building What Practitioners Needed: An Interview with Cristiano Machado

Deputy CEO & CTO, azakaw

We didn’t start with software. We started by looking for solutions that compliance teams actually needed.

Q: Cristiano, azakaw has grown quickly — but it’s not a typical tech story. Where did it begin?

Cristiano:

Everyone is under pressure to stay compliant. Compliance isn’t just a form, a checklist or even a piece of software. It’s about how well your processes adapt across jurisdictions, industries and organisational structures. We built azakaw to be a flexible toolbox — one that helps streamline compliance by fitting the way real teams operate.

More than thinking tech, we started by living and breathing compliance, aiming to create a solution that could solve, not only isolated issues, but systemic. But solving them properly required more than great technology.

As part of the same group as j. awan & partners, we collaborated directly with our compliance leads, professionals with deep frontline experience, to build azakaw around the practical needs of regulated teams

What we built together combines great tech with the best compliance practices. It’s not just a platform, it’s infrastructure.

Q: What made you believe the solution had to come from the inside?

Cristiano:

It was built in close collaboration with the compliance professionals at j. awan & partners — people who’ve led regulatory teams, sat across from supervisors from all over the world, responded to inspections, and redesigned processes under pressure.

They’re the end users of these platform — their insight shaped every use case we addressed.

My role was to turn that experience into a platform that’s fast, modular, and built for how compliance actually happens.

That’s where our group at j. awan & partners played a foundational role. Our advisory teams, especially in compliance and risk, helped us shape azakaw around the realities of regulatory life. We know the pressure of audits. We know how supervisors think. That shared experience is what made the platform not only functional, but truly usable in practice.

azakaw is better and smarter because we built it shoulder-to-shoulder with our own regulatory teams.

Q: What’s the core principle behind azakaw’s platform?

Cristiano:

The core principle is simple: build compliance the way it’s actually done.

From onboarding and transaction monitoring to internal policy oversight, azakaw mirrors real-world processes — not theoretical flowcharts.

We do use AI, but that’s not the biggest part of the story. The core is simplicity and flexibility.

A single system to manage the entire compliance journey, giving businesses operational gains and the ability to grow across jurisdictions using the same infrastructure. Think Office 365.

Compliance tools shouldn’t create more work — they should remove friction, adapt to your process, and give teams the visibility and control they need. azakaw is a solution, not another problem.

Q: You’ve spoken before about compliance being misunderstood. What do you mean?

Cristiano:

A lot of people still think compliance slows growth. That it's reactive, or bureaucratic. That mindset is obsolete. If managed properly, compliance is a competitive edge. The faster you can onboard clients securely, the faster you go to market. The better your monitor the transactions, the more secure you are to scale. You earn trust from partners, regulators and your board.

azakaw is about operationalising that edge. We make compliance your engine, not your brake.

A lot of people still see compliance as a blocker — something reactive, bureaucratic, or just about checking boxes. That’s not necessarily the case, if you use it right.

Compliance is part of the story, but it’s not the whole story. It’s not just about meeting requirements. It’s about building trust, enabling faster onboarding, securing transactions, and protecting your reputation.

At azakaw, we don’t treat compliance as a standalone function. We help teams embed it into their operations, so it becomes a driver of growth.

Q: You’ve worked across different sectors. What made you focus on the MENA region?

Cristiano:

MENA is where regulation is evolving fast and firms are scaling even faster. It’s one of the most exciting places to build. But you can’t apply copy-paste solutions from the US or Europe. That’s why azakaw is natively aligned to GCC regulators — CBUAE, ADGM, DFSA, SAMA, CMA — not just because it’s smart business, but because it’s necessary to get it right.

And again, this is where being part of the j. awan & partners group becomes a clear differentiator. We’re not an external vendor parachuting in with a platform, we’re embedded in the regulatory ecosystem. We’re part of a group that has advised hundreds of firms on licensing, AML, governance, risk, and inspections. azakaw is their thinking, automated.

Q: What’s your message to compliance teams still struggling with spreadsheets and PDFs?

Cristiano:

Too many teams are still stitching together tools and documents just to stay compliant. We’ve been there and we built azakaw to change that.

azakaw wasn’t built in a lab. It was built from lived frustration. If you're tired of stitching together five tools, or spreadsheets, chasing version control, or explaining to auditors why something slipped through — talk to us.

We’ve built the platform we wished we had ten years ago.

And it's ready for our clients now.

azakaw: Built by compliance practitioners.

Backed by j. awan & partners, the region’s most trusted name in regulatory advisory.

From onboarding to AML, RegTech that actually works. Book a demo with our team to explore more.