Marketing Spotlight: Mapping Castellum.AI’s Marketing Strategy and Sales Tactics
Article summary
If there’s a superpower every business wishes for, it’s stopping crime before it even starts. But what about wielding that power with the help of AI? Here, at Milk and Cookies Studio, we believe in research and B2B marketing based on real-life data. And in today’s marketing spotlight we researched, analyzed, and we’re taking you into the world of Castellum.AI (as of July 2025), examining how this fast-rising compliance tech player has taken a “less is more” approach to marketing, turning simplicity into their secret weapon.
Castellum.AI’s specialty is battling financial crime at lightning speed, while making it almost effortless for legitimate customers to get on board. This New York based company is rewriting the playbook on how banks handle anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) processes. They bringing clarity and automation to what was once a swamp of paperwork and delays.
What really grabbed our attention? Castellum.AI just wrapped up an oversubscribed $8.5 million Series A funding round, announced in July 2025. That’s a huge vote of confidence from the market, showing that investors and industry leaders believe in their approach. With this funding, Castellum.AI is poised to integrate even deeper into compliance workflows for financial institutions, making regulatory hurdles feel more like speed bumps, than stop signs.
Ready to discover how they built their niche? How they outsmarted bigger competitors? And turned simplicity into a better strategy? Pour yourself a cup of your favorite brew, settle in, and join us as we unpack the journey of Castellum.AI, step by step, strategy by strategy, and find out exactly why their formula works.
Understanding Castellum.AI
Castellum.AI is an American tech company, founded in September 2019, by Julian Vasilkoski and Peter Piatetsky.
The company is a direct response to the complex, growing demands of financial crime compliance in a digital world. They provide a financial crimes compliance platform with in-house risk data, AML/KYC screening, and AI agents on a single, audit-ready system. Community banks, sponsor banks, crypto exchanges, and financial services firms use it, because it allows compliance teams to scale their operations while maintaining precision, accountability, and oversight.
The company is headquartered in New York, United States, but they pride themselves to be a remote-first company, with team members distributed across various cities like Boston, New York, Los Angeles, and Costa Rica.
They have AI Agents: L1 and L2 alert reviews across onboarding, perpetual KYC (pKC), transaction monitoring and other workflows. They have access to Global Risk Data: sanctions, PEPs, adverse media, high-risk ownership, export controls and more, and they take pride in their Screening and Real-Time Monitoring: 94% fewer false positives compared with legacy solutions, powered by proprietary screening engine and patented data enrichments.
Brand Promise Analysis
Castellum.AI’s first brand promise, showcased in their hero section is “Enabling financial institutions to eliminate compliance bottlenecks and speed up business.” This straightforward promise resonates because it positions their AI agents as indispensable sidekicks, much like Robin to Batman, tackling the tedious yet critical compliance alerts so that human teams can focus on the bigger fight against financial crime.
Their communication style is refreshingly clear and confident, relying heavily on hard numbers to tell their story. Key metrics like reducing false positives by up 94% or cutting review time by 83% are actual proof that their product truly works.
Another recurring element across their site is the money back guarantee badge, reinforcing trust and their confidence in delivering results.
Castellum.AI’s messages stand out by their simplicity, data-driven results and bold promises. Their claims seem almost too good to be true, yet they back them up with guarantees.
They clearly have 3 things that stand out right away: simplicity, results in numbers and promises that sound almost too good to be true.
Their About page highlights core values like Clarity, Accountability, Expertise and Urgency.
Castellum.AI’s visual identity is purposely created to build confidence in high-stakes compliance environments, reinforce brand expertise and lower psychological barriers to B2B engagement in a complex, regulated industry. They use a modern font, clean and minimal design. The text is crisp, accessible and easy-to-read.
Yellow is the star of their site, among greys, white and black. Yellow is one of the most attention-grabbing colors in the spectrum and it’s used to signal confidence, optimism and a break from tradition. In an industry dominated by blues and greys, with choosing yellow they make a bold statement. Yellow also adds warmth and approachability to a field that may otherwise seem cold or overly technical, making compliance tech feel more accessible.
This color is highly memorable, which helps with brand recall and sticks in the minds of prospects and partners. This shows that they are ready to challenge the established norms.
Overall, Castellum.AI balances compelling, trustworthy promises with straightforward communication, making their brand both approachable and reliable.
Service and Product Breakdown
As we head over to their Pricing section on the menu, we can see 3 options. Whether you’re looking for a Free Accountto get started, need a Starter Compliance for audit and regulatory needs, or require Enterprise Compliance for firm-wide risk mitigation, Castellum.AI has a tailored solution. Not sure what fits? They’ve got you covered with a comprehensive Screening System Buyer’s Guide and assist with API integration.
But the real magic unfolds on their Solutions Page. They offer a multi-faceted view of their capabilities through 3 distinct categories: AML Compliance, By Process and By Industry. This intuitive navigation ensures you can quickly pinpoint how their product aligns with your specific needs.
Differentiators and Unique Assets
The key features that set Castellum.AI apart are:
- They have over 1,600 Global Watchlists for tracking sanctions, PEPs, export controls, law enforcement most wanted lists and various other financial crime risk data categories.
- Their database is updated every 5 minutes by sourcing directly from issuers.
- Patented Data Processing that automatically cleans and standardizes unstructured watchlist text, extracting critical identifiers like IDs, dates of birth and addresses.
- Their Jgram algorithm analyzes text at a granular level, significantly reducing false positives.
- Flag high-risk corporate networks linked to forced labor, ensuring vendors and vessels are not subject to UFLPA restrictions or CBP/WRO findings.
- Their news feed updates every 5-10 seconds, delivering the latest information and instantly flagging changes in risk status.
- They maintain the only global database of shelf companies, with data sourced by an internal team of multilingual analysts and investigators experienced in government, intelligence, banking compliance, and investigation firms.
- Their AI agents are trained by former regulators and adhere to guidance from key bodies like OCC, OFAC, FinCEN, NY DFS, and California DFPI. The agents are explicitly trained on and have passed the CAMS (Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist) exam, aligning their AI not just with technical performance, but also with regulator-approved best practices.
- Every alert comes with detailed decisioning narratives and documentation, simplifying regulator exams and internal audits.
- AI offers money-back guarantee, showcasing a rare degree of confidence and accountability
FinCrime Book Club
The FinCrime Book Club by Castellum.Ai in an exclusive community for financial crime compliance professionals. It brings together each quarter executives, experts and enthusiasts to discuss influential books and real-world challenges in anti-financial crime, fostering deep and niche sector networking.
After they receive exclusive invitations and complimentary book of the quarter, this club provides a safe space for people in the industry, where discussions, new ideas and solutions are welcomed.
As far as thought leadership goes, Castellum.AI is both convener and a knowledge hub for the industry. They build authority beyond just marketing and provide real professional value. This way, their brand authority is only growing stronger in the financial technology space.
Leadership Presence Analysis
In this section we are looking at Castellum.AI’s team presence on LinkedIn. How do they communicate? How often? Who invests the most in this channel?
Top Management
From the About section on their site, we found out the top 3 key people behind Castellum.AI: Peter Piatetsky (CEO & Co-Founder), Julian Vasikoski (CTO & Co-Founder) and Marissa Venuto (COO).
Peter Piatetsky (CEO & Co-Founder) is a former regulator and banking executive with over 15 years of experience fighting financial crime at local, national and international levels.
He has over 15k followers and 500+ connections on LinkedIn. He doesn’t post on a regular basis, he posts either once per week, or 6 times per week. It depends on the occasion. The engagement of his posts is inconsistent, as is his posting schedule (he either has 6 likes, or around 30 likes (on a regular post). He is posting only about Castellum.AI related stuff. As a marketing funnel, he uses a link in the post, which leads to the schedule of a meeting calendar hosted by his company.
Julian Vasikoski (CTO & Co-Founder) is the technical leader with a background in high frequency trading, building fast, scalable systems for real-world compliance solutions.
He has 500+ connections and 1k followers. He posts once every 2 months and mostly reposting content of Castellum.AI’s LinkedIn page.
Marissa Venuto (COO) is a seasoned startup operator with expertise in scaling teams, processes and strategy in fast-paced environments to support growth.
She has 500+ connections and almost 2.4k followers on LinkedIn. She posts once per month and is mostly reposting Castellum.AI’s content.
In conclusion, the leadership team doesn’t rely on their personal pages to boost Castellum.AI’s notoriety. The three of them don’t use their pages to grow their personal brand either. But is there anyone on their extended team who does it? Let’s see what can we find out about their marketing team.
Marketing Team
Castellum.AI’s has no CMO. They don’t have a specific marketing team leader. From August 2023 to November 2024, they had Brandon Landowski as their Digital Marketing Manager.
As per today, we could find only Sudeshna Roy as their Content Marketer.
According to her Role Description on LinkedIn, she’s been holding that position from September 2024. She is responsible for founding content marketer and overseeing multi-channel content marketing, including website, blog, webinars, social, email, sales enablement, events, and partner co-marketing.
She has 895 followers and 500+ connections. She is not posting consistently right now, but the latest posts are only about her journey with Castellum.AI.
No big marketing team, no fuss. Only a good, dedicated woman that takes care of Castellum.AI marketing line.
Social Media Strategy
As far as we’ve seen X (ex-Twitter) account, but no activity and a not-yet-confirmed Youtube channel with some demos posted years ago. They don’t have Facebook, Instagram or TikTok account.
So we decided to analyze only the LinkedIn page.
Castellum.AI has 4k followers on LinkedIn. Just like Peter, they post only when it’s relevant. No consistent strategy or recurring themes. They don’t have any visual coherence or designated hashtags. But let’s see how this thing works out for them in the next section.
Content and Engagement
Their pinned post is the one that announced the $8.5M Series A funding. They have only 52 reactions, 19 comments and 3 reposts, compared to Peter Piatetsky’s post with the same visual, that gathered 253 reactions, 110 comments and 14 reposts.
They sometimes have a link at the bottom of the post, redirecting to either some page on the site or schedule a call calendar.
They also reposted some of Peter Piatetsky’s posts, which is a smart move, considering that Peter has a better engagement rate than Castellum.AI’s page.
Top-Performing Content
As mentioned above, they have their FinCrime Book Club. They posted about the event from NYC and got 23 reactions and 2 comments.
This really long post, with no link, just 2 hashtags (#GENIUSAct, #Stablecoins) got 17 reactions, 1 comment and 6 reposts.
This carousel of 5 images telling us there’s a new e-book available for download has had 16 reactions, 4 comments and 5 reposts.
Conclusion
There’s a significant disconnect between their website brand identity and social media execution. While they have active accounts on LinkedIn and X, the lack of consistent messaging and visual identity suggests minimal strategic investment in their digital presence.
Sales Funnel from LinkedIn
Castellum.AI mostly uses links as part of their strategy. At the bottom of the post text, you will see a Learn more link. In the post below, you are redirected to their site, on the Adverse Media page, and from there, you can click on the Schedule a Demo button.
If you click the button, you can see their calendar, powered by Calendly, where you can choose the next available date for a meeting.
You can also see links in their posts to Register to some Webinars, a blog post page, or a link to download their guides. (as shown on the top 3 Castellum.AI’s LinkedIn posts above)
Reviews and Social Proof
We couldn’t find any reviews on G2, Capterra or Trustpilot platforms.
The only reviews that we could find are on their site, in the form of client testimonials, on the bottom of each page from the Industry section, like here.
Also, they have a banner on multiple pages, like the Supply Chain page, where you can see the list of companies that vouch for them.
You can also find a banner at the Partnership page with the partners list
And of course, the probably most used banner throughout the site: the investors banner.
The fact that they don’t have reviews all over the place, but they received such big funding and they are backed up by big important companies, shows that their marketing strategy is word-of-mouth. They don’t rely on social media, reviews or other traditional tactics used by other competitors, because they don’t need them. Their product is so good, that the business is growing continuously and their audience is clearly not impressed by the little things. They can show you results, not just pretty marketing.
Paid Advertising Strategy
Some of Castellum.AI’s LinkedIn posts are sponsored. Twelve, to be exact.
They usually sponsor carousels, with links attached to them.
Their ads lead usually to their guide.
Others, like this one, lead to a webinar register page.
Content Marketing and Demand Generation
We wanted to understand how Castellum.AI creates content around financial technology and using AI agents to explore their demand generation strategies. After analyzing their approach, we’re ready to share the insights with you. In this section, we’ll focus on their blog page, community and webinars.
Events & Webinars – You can register for the upcoming events – on site and online.
Compliance Guides & Reports: Here you can find the featured report, as well as other reports and guides.
Insights & Analysis: Articles with news updates about the company, industry insights or case studies.
Free Sanctions Sample Data: A static sanctions sample file that includes 20,000 sanctions designations.
Knowledge Base: This is like a mini-Google of their own, with a dictionary and other useful free resources.
Global Sanctions Index: An interactive map where you click on a country and follow the link to learn more about their autonomous sanctions lists.
And the last two, Russia Sanctions Dashboard and Israel & Palestine Sanctions Dashboard offers numbers, graphics and specifics for each situation.
Marketing and Sales Funnel Stages
In this section, we will focus on their marketing and sales funnels.
Top of the funnel
Castellum.AI focuses on thought leadership through sector-specific resources (webinars, case studies, industry insights). These are tailored to compliance and financial crime professionals.
They build their authority by their presence at events, webinars, rather than mainstream social media promotion.
Middle of the funnel
Direct engagement at events like FinCrime Book Club or other seminars/webinars nurture leads with hands-on discussions, relevant to compliance challenges.
Prospects are encouraged to create a free account, access comprehensive product demos and buyer’s guides. They can request case studies or interact through Contact Form for more complex questions.
Bottom of the funnel
Prospects can schedule demos or trials, giving hands-on experience with the platform. The testimonials, partners, detailed metrics and money-back guarantees provide assurance and reduce friction at the point of purchase.
The Sales Funnel
Leads are generated organically from website conversion (trials, demos, guides). Sales are driven by deep-dive sessions into client’s compliance workflow problems and regulatory drivers. Castellum.AI’s agents are trained and certified on the same exams as human specialists and integration flexibility helps seal the deal.
Each customer gets a tailored profile and quote, depending on the needs. They can get support throughout each step or process, reducing the buyer’s hesitation.
In conclusion, Castellum.AI’s funnel revolves around high-trust, B2B sales: narrow targeting, measurable proof and bespoke engagement, renouncing mass-market tactics for a specialized, expert-driven acquisition model.
Future Plans and Growth Indicators
At the Careers section we can see that as of July 2025, they are looking for a Demand Generation Specialist and a Content Marketer.
Their Series A funding announcement outlines a growth strategy focused on three pillars: scaling engineering capacity, expanding customer success operations, and strengthening go-to-market execution. This investment directly targets the increasing market demand for AI-powered compliance solutions in banking and financial services.
Inspiration Points
- Bold Visual Differentiation: AI’s unmissable yellow branding sets them apart from the blues and greys of competitors. Distinctive color schemes, paired with minimal and crisp design, dramatically increase recall and brand visibility in oversaturated B2B markets.
- Transparency and Ease of Use: Showcasing precise product outcomes (e.g., “94% fewer false positives”) and coupling them with a money-back guarantee reduces buyer skepticism and builds immediate trust. This is proof that accountability can be a disruptive marketing lever. Easy sign-ups, immediate demo access lower friction, empowering users to experience value directly, which is critical for complex product categories where buyers demand proof.
- Community-Driven Thought Leadership: Their FinCrime Book Club and exclusive, niche events deepen brand authority and foster engagement within a targeted professional audience, replacing volume with relevance and expertise.
- Regulator-Aligned, Audit-Ready Positioning: Aligning AI features and claims with leading industry certifications (e.g., CAMS) and compliance standards instantly addresses the high stakes of regulated buyers, standing out as both innovative and auditable.
In conclusion, what you can learn from Castellum.AI is that it’s OK to have a different strategy than your competitors. Own your niche and focus relentlessly on the unique parts of your company and find the ideal tone of voice for your ideal clients, rather than chasing broad exposure. In a digitally-driven world, where face-to-face discussions are usually avoided, you need to invest in your community, not just focus on the content. Reduce possible end of the sale friction by showing your clients actual results, actual numbers. Offer them support and easy access to you. Stop hiding behind the screen, if you want to make the sale. Castellum.AI exemplifies how focused, credible, and creatively differentiated marketing can punch far above its weight, even without a large traditional marketing team or heavy social media presence, delivering lessons for any ambitious B2B brand targeting a discerning, high-trust audience.
We hope you found this article helpful and full of inspiration for your future digital marketing campaigns. There’s much more to come, so be sure to follow us as we continue to analyze and share insights from tech companies digital marketing and sales strategies.
