We build intelligent software for the banks that anchor local economies.
Abuzar Royesh
Founder & CEO
A Note from Our Founder:
I'm originally from Afghanistan. Growing up, I saw what it looks like when an entire economy runs without real banking infrastructure. I watched small businesses and entrepreneurs around me stagnate, because there was simply no financial system to support them.
When we started Pastel, we started where the problem was sharpest. In Africa, banks are solving some of the hardest problems in financial services. Over the past decade, hundreds of millions of people gained access to financial accounts for the first time. Countries rolled out real-time payment systems. Banks and fintechs built solutions to bring even the most remote communities into the financial system. But with that growth came new pressure. Fraud became more sophisticated. Regulators raised the bar. And the decisions banks needed to make every day became more complex. The existing tools and manual processes simply could not keep up. We built software to fix that. The innovation in fintech was flowing to the biggest markets and the biggest institutions. We went the other direction.
Over time, we realized this isn't just an Africa problem. Mid-tier, regional, and community banks everywhere, whether in Africa, the Middle East, or the US, deal with the same issues. These are institutions that exist because someone decided to show up for a community that everyone else overlooked.
That's what Pastel is for. We build technology for these banks so they can keep doing what they do best: showing up for the communities that count on them.
What We Believe
AI is going to the wrong places first: Most AI in financial services is being built for the largest banks, the ones that already have the budgets and the tech teams. The institutions where better technology could change the most lives are the last to get it. We think that's backwards.
The people closest to the work should stay in control: AI should make a compliance officer's job easier, not replace their judgment. Our tools execute within the policies and thresholds that bank teams set. Humans make the final calls.
Local context matters: A fraud pattern in Nairobi doesn't look like one in rural Arkansas. A compliance workflow in Lagos doesn't map to one in Beirut. Generic, one-size-fits-all models miss what makes each market and each community different.
What We Build
Pastel is agentic AI for banking operations. Our software handles the operational work that keeps banks running, from customer onboarding and due diligence to fraud detection and compliance monitoring. It also turns a bank's own data into real-time, decision-ready insights for leadership. Bank teams set the policies and rules. Our AI handles the repetitive, manual work within those rules, and explains every decision it makes.
Backed By
Why Join Pastel
We are a small team working on a large problem. If you want to build software that matters for people who need it, in an environment where your work ships fast and has real consequences, this is the place.
Careers
We're always looking for people who care about doing good work on hard problems. For open positions, view our open roles. Don't see a role that fits? Send us a mail.
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