azakaw recognised in the Chartis RiskTech KYC Data and Solutions 2026 Quadrant Report
Updated: 3 hours ago
On its first submission, azakaw has been recognised in the Chartis RiskTech KYC Data and Solutions 2026 Quadrant Report, with a placement in Point Solutions. Chartis Research published the report on 19 October. You can read it here.
For azakaw, a platform built by compliance officers who still do this job every day, it's a moment worth celebrating. An independent firm has looked at what we built and placed it alongside KYC providers from around the world. This article explains what Chartis assessed, what the placement means, why we took part, and what a compliance team should still ask any vendor, us included.
What Chartis Research assessed
Chartis Research is an independent research and advisory firm that provides market intelligence, analysis and benchmarking on risk, compliance, governance and financial technology. Its vendor assessments are designed to help institutions evaluate solutions and make technology and vendor-selection choices.
The RiskTech KYC Data and Solutions 2026 Quadrant Report looks at the data and technology firms use to identify, verify and monitor their customers. It is a global view, which makes it a useful starting point for a buyer comparing options.
What Point Solutions means, in Chartis's words
Chartis places vendors in four categories: Category Leaders, Enterprise Solutions, Best-of-Breed and Point Solutions. No category is a ranking. Each describes a different kind of provider, suited to a different kind of buyer.
Chartis describes Point Solutions providers as vendors that focus on "a small number of component technology capabilities, meeting a critical need in the risk technology market by solving specific risk management problems with domain-specific software applications and technologies". It adds that they "are often strong engines for innovation, as their deep focus on a relatively narrow area generates thought leadership and intellectual capital".
What Point Solutions means for azakaw
Our domain is compliance: the work regulated firms do to onboard, verify and monitor their clients, and to run the governance behind it. That focus is deliberate. We don't try to cover every risk discipline. Within compliance, though, we cover the whole process in one platform, so nothing falls between one tool and the next.
Deep focus also means we can move quickly when the rules change. When a regulator updates its guidance, the compliance officers behind azakaw are already advising regulated firms on the same change.
Philip Mackenzie, Research Principal with Chartis Research, said:
"Azakaw’s positioning as a Point Solution in Chartis’ 2026 RiskTech Quadrant® for KYC Solutions reflects its clear focus on efficient digital onboarding,” said Philip Mackenzie, Research Principal with Chartis Research. “The platform's modern architecture and integrations with regional identity infrastructure are differentiators that make it particularly relevant to Middle Eastern clients."
Why we submitted
Until now, when a firm asked us for proof that azakaw works, our answer was our clients and our own compliance team at j. awan & partners. Those are strong answers, based on years of practice and real client cases, but they are ours.
An independent assessment adds a voice that isn't ours, and gives any firm comparing KYC platforms an outside view to weigh alongside its own checks. We submitted for that reason, and we're delighted that Chartis placed us on our first submission.
Zohaib Awan, Group Director, Business Development at azakaw, said:
"Chartis assessed the global KYC market and placed azakaw among its Point Solutions, a category defined by deep focus on critical risk problems. Our focus comes from j. awan & partners, where compliance officers and MLROs built azakaw and still answer to regulators for their own clients. Any firm choosing a KYC platform should ask who built it, and whether those people have ever defended a decision to a regulator. Our answer is yes."
Built by people who do the job
Those officers bring years of regulatory practice to the platform. j. awan & partners is a regulatory compliance practice with twelve offices in nine countries and twelve years of practice, and has supported more than 500 licence applications and more than 200 compliance mandates.
That background shapes how the platform works:
Your officers approve the decisions. A person signs off every decision. The platform never makes that call on their behalf.
Every step is on the record. When a regulator asks, a team can show what was checked, who approved it and why, without rebuilding the file.
AI takes on the routine work. Officers spend their time where judgement matters.
The same officers can step in. When a client's team needs more capacity, the compliance officers behind azakaw can support them directly.
One platform, from onboarding to governance
Compliance doesn't stop at a single check. A client is onboarded, screened and monitored for as long as the relationship lasts, and all of it has to fit the firm's own policies and governance. azakaw covers that whole process in one platform:
Client onboarding: KYC and KYB for individuals and companies, including ownership and control structures.
Screening: sanctions, PEP and adverse media checks, with every hit reviewed and decided by an officer.
Transaction monitoring: rules the compliance team sets itself, with alerts investigated, escalated and closed on the record.
Governance and regulatory obligations: policies, training, disclosures, filings and the internal frameworks behind them, each with an owner and a due date.
Because it is one platform, a client's record follows them from the first document to the latest review, and every team works from the same file.
Regional depth, global outlook
The platform starts with the standard every regulator builds on and adds each regulator's own rules on top, so it works the same way in whichever market a firm operates. azakaw is headquartered in the UAE, with a team across Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the wider GCC, and the compliance practice behind it advises regulated firms well beyond the region.
Where a market asks for more, the platform goes further. azakaw works in Arabic and English and matches customer names in both scripts. In Saudi Arabia, it can host customer data inside the Kingdom and is integrated with Nafath, the national identity service, so firms can verify customers against official sources during onboarding.
Cristiano Machado, Deputy CEO and CTO of azakaw, said:
"Compliance teams told us their tools covered a check here and a check there, but nothing held the whole process together. So, we built azakaw as one platform, from client onboarding through screening and monitoring to the governance frameworks behind it. It follows each regulator's rules, so it works the same way whatever the market. Chartis recognising that depth is a milestone. We will keep building azakaw as the technology arm of the compliance team, for the region or in whichever country that team sits."
What to ask any KYC vendor, us included
An independent assessment is a good starting point for a shortlist. It can't tell you whether a platform fits your regulator, your customers or your team. These questions can:
Who built it, and have they ever defended a decision to a regulator?
Does it cover the whole process, from onboarding through screening and monitoring to governance, or only individual checks?
Who approves each decision, and can you export the record for a regulator: what was checked, who approved it and why?
Which regulators' requirements are set up in the product today, not on the roadmap?
Does it verify customers against official sources in the markets you operate in?
Where is customer data hosted, and can you confirm it in writing?
Are customer names matched across the languages your customers use, such as Arabic and English, not just translated on screen?
We're happy to answer each of these for azakaw, in a demo or in writing.
What doesn't change
Recognition is welcome, but it doesn't change the work. Our clients still need onboarding that holds up to scrutiny, screening and monitoring their officers can trust, governance that runs on time and records a regulator can follow. That is what we'll keep building, with the same people and the same approach.
We'd like to thank our clients, whose questions shaped the platform, and the team who built it.
You can read more of what our clients say about us here.
See how azakaw runs the whole process
From onboarding a client to the record a regulator sees.
