SecurityWeek · Apr 2026
SecurityWeek reported the Series A, investors, total funding of roughly $26M, and the platform’s KYC/KYB/AML and transaction-monitoring use cases, including context-engine and compliance-procedure enforcement details.
Company research
Public company, workplace, funding, and market signals
Updated Jul 29, 2026
Overview
Variance (formerly Intrinsic) is a San Francisco-based B2B AI software company that builds investigative AI agents for compliance, fraud, AML/KYC/KYB, transaction monitoring, and due-diligence workflows. It sells to regulated enterprises and financial institutions, emphasizes auditability and policy-as-code controls, and is backed by Y Combinator and Ten Eleven Ventures.
Primary product
AI agents for risk, compliance, fraud, KYC/KYB, AML, and transaction monitoring investigations
Founded
2023
Headquarters
San Francisco, California, United States
Team size
11-50
Work style
Onsite
Industry
Software Development
Sub-industry
RegTech / AI risk investigations
Offices
San Francisco, CA
New York, NY
Business model
B2B SaaS
Enterprise software
API/platform licensing
Funding
People & investors
Work & culture
Mission-driven and high-ownership culture centered on impact, velocity, and craftsmanship. The company describes itself as building in-person with intense focus on trustworthy, auditable AI systems for adversarial environments.
Work style
Onsite
Compensation
Public job listings show competitive pay plus equity. Examples from YC listings include Forward Deployed AI Engineer at $115k-$200k base with 0.5%-1% equity, Business Development Representative at $65k-$120k, and Chief of Staff at $140k-$200k with 0.2%-0.6% equity, alongside strong benefits and unlimited PTO.
Benefits
Competitive salary
Meaningful equity
Platinum medical insurance
Platinum dental insurance
Platinum vision insurance
Unlimited PTO
Sick leave
Parental leave
401(k) plan
Daily catered meals
Commuter benefits
Company events
Wellness stipend
Product & market
Pricing
Custom enterprise pricing / contact sales; no public price list
Differentiators
- —Agentic workflows that investigate cases end-to-end instead of only flagging alerts
- —Policy-as-code / plain-English SOP enforcement for consistent decisions
- —Evidence trails and audit-ready reasoning for every decision
- —Context engine that maps entity linkages across systems
- —Broad toolset for web browsing, document extraction, OCR, and OSINT enrichment
- —Flexible deployment options including SaaS, private VPC, and air-gapped/on-premise options
Technology
React
Next.js
TypeScript
Python
MySQL
ClickHouse
Kubernetes
GraphQL
Google Cloud Platform
Snowflake
Customers
Fortune 500 companies
Financial institutions
Regulated financial services firms
Marketplaces
Bluesky
GoFundMe
Redbubble
IAC
Medium
Competitors
Unit21
Sardine
Hawk AI
ComplyAdvantage
Feedzai
Persona
Socure
Sumsub
Alloy
Middesk
Scale & contact
Latest news
Ventureburn · Apr 2026
Ventureburn described Variance as a San Francisco startup founded by Karine Mellata and Michael Lin in 2023, focused on agentic AI for investigative work across fragmented systems.
Y Combinator · Mar 2026
Founder Fireside interview with Karine Mellata covering the company’s stealth period, customer use cases, and product origin story.
Axios · Mar 2026
Axios covered the Series A and framed Variance as an AI compliance and fraud investigation company targeting faster review processes for complex compliance needs.
Business Wire · Mar 2026
Official Series A announcement: Ten Eleven Ventures led the round; 645 Ventures, Y Combinator, Urban Innovation Fund, and Okta Ventures participated. The company said it has raised about $26M total and is expanding investigative AI for financial institutions and Fortune 500s.
Jobs and careers at Variance
11 jobs at Variance
Agent Product Manager
On-site
Business
San Francisco
1mo ago
On-site
Full-time
Agent Engineer
On-site
Engineering
San Francisco
1mo ago
On-site
Full-time
Product Designer
On-site
Engineering
San Francisco
4mo ago
On-site
Full-time
Product Marketing Lead
On-site
Business
San Francisco
5mo ago
On-site
Full-time
Enterprise Account Executive
On-site
Business
New York
5mo ago
On-site
Full-time
Research Engineer, Evals
On-site
Engineering
San Francisco
5mo ago
On-site
Full-time
Enterprise Sales Engineer
On-site
Business
San Francisco
5mo ago
On-site
Full-time
Research Engineer, Judgment Systems
On-site
Engineering
San Francisco
5mo ago
On-site
Full-time
Software Engineer
On-site
Engineering
San Francisco
5mo ago
On-site
Full-time
Enterprise Account Executive
On-site
Business
San Francisco
5mo ago
On-site
Full-time
Product Engineer
On-site
Engineering
San Francisco
11mo ago
On-site
Full-time