Sentinel
Automated Compliance SaaS for Australian Banking and Financial Institutions
November 2, 2025

The Vision

To build a market-leading micro-SaaS that automates legal and regulatory compliance for Australian banking, superannuation, insurance, investment, and financial advice institutions — transforming compliance from a costly manual burden into a streamlined, intelligent process. Over time, this platform will evolve to serve other highly regulated sectors such as healthcare and engineering, extending the benefits of intelligent automation across industries.

Sentinel transforms compliance from reactive and manual to intelligent and predictive — powered by AI and integrated within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

Executive Summary

Sentinel is an intelligent compliance automation platform built for Australian banking and financial institutions. It eliminates the inefficiencies of manual regulatory tracking by delivering AI-powered monitoring, analysis, and workflow automation — fully integrated within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Designed to evolve from financial services into other regulated sectors such as healthcare and engineering, Sentinel represents the next generation of scalable, sector-specific RegTech.

The Opportunity

Australian banking and financial institutions face a significant challenge: navigating a vast and constantly evolving landscape of legal and regulatory compliance requirements. The current approach remains largely manual, making it:

Overwhelming

Keeping track of frequent changes issued by numerous legal and regulatory bodies is effectively a full-time job.

Expensive

Maintaining compliance requires significant investment in specialized staff, legal consultants, and supporting technology.

Time-Consuming

Manually analyzing new rules and implementing necessary changes is slow, inefficient, and difficult to scale.

Risky

Human error in interpreting or applying regulations can lead to severe financial, operational, and reputational consequences.

With over 15,000 regulated entities across banking, superannuation, insurance, investment, and advice, the addressable market for compliance automation in Australia alone exceeds $500 million annually, with strong potential for global adaptation. Even small efficiency gains represent a multi-million-dollar opportunity, creating strong demand for scalable automation tools like Sentinel.

Beyond Australia, similar regulatory complexity across the UK, EU, and APAC presents a $10 billion+ global RegTech opportunity, positioning Sentinel to scale internationally once validated locally.

Sentinel addresses this by providing an intelligent, automated platform to manage the entire compliance lifecycle.

Our Solution & Business Model

We offer a tiered service model that aligns with the increasing compliance maturity of our customers, from basic awareness to full automation.

Feature / GoalTier 1 — Signal (Free)Tier 2 — Insight (Subscription)Tier 3 — Autonomy (Subscription+)
Primary GoalAwarenessActionable IntelligenceAutomated Implementation
Ideal UsersSmall financial institutions, analysts, risk observersCompliance, legal, and risk management teamsLarge banks, insurers, super funds
Regulatory CoverageLimited (select regulator or topic)Comprehensive coverage across financial and legal landscapeComprehensive with predictive insights
DeliveryMonthly Outlook digest (Top 3 updates)Real-time alerts via Microsoft Teams & OutlookAutomated workflows & rule enforcement via Power Automate
Watchlists1 fixed category (e.g., Prudential or Conduct)Unlimited configurable watchlistsUnlimited + automated assignment by topic or entity
AI Summaries & Impact Classification (relevance, urgency, business area) + predictive trend analysis
Change-to-Control Traceability Automatically links updates to internal controls Continuous mapping and impact tracking
Regulatory Horizon Tracker Monitors consultations & upcoming changes Includes predictive focus areas and likely reforms
Obligation Impact Snapshot One-click impact report by business unit Automated portfolio-level impact modeling
Document Updates AI-generated redlines for policies & procedures Auto-routed redlines + tracked approvals
Control Mapping Maps changes across financial, regulatory, legal domains Automated linkage and continuous updates
Dashboards Change trends & regulatory heatmaps Regulatory readiness dashboards & compliance scorecards
IntegrationsMicrosoft 365 ecosystem (Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, Power BI)Full Microsoft 365 + API to ServiceNow, Archer, MetricStream
Data Governance & SecurityStandard encryption & access controlsRole-based access + Microsoft Entra (Azure AD) integrationAdvanced DLP, retention, Purview audit controls
Data SovereigntyHosted on Microsoft Azure (Australia)Hosted on Microsoft Azure (Australia)Hosted on Microsoft Azure (Australia)
Value PropositionStay informed about what is changingManage and act on regulatory impact using Microsoft-native toolsAchieve continuous, automated compliance — reducing reporting effort and accelerating change implementation

Proposed Technology Stack

Our technology choices prioritize rapid development, scalability, and leveraging best-in-class tools for AI and data processing.

Frontend: Next.js (React)

For a modern, fast, and responsive user experience.

Backend: Python with FastAPI

To leverage Python's unparalleled ecosystem for data scraping and AI development.

Database: PostgreSQL with pgvector

A robust, all-in-one solution for both relational data and AI-powered vector search.

Background Jobs: Celery with Redis

For reliably handling intensive background tasks like scraping and AI analysis.

Deployment: Docker on AWS/Google Cloud/Microsoft Azure

For scalable, consistent, and repeatable deployments.

Phased Development Roadmap & Timeline

We will follow a three-phased approach to de-risk the project, gather user feedback early, and build momentum towards our full vision. Our roadmap progresses from data aggregation and notification (MVP), to AI-powered insight, and ultimately to full automation and enterprise integration.

Phase 1: MVP - The Notification Engine (Level 1)
3 Months
Goal: Validate our core data aggregation and notification capabilities with a select group of beta testers.

Timeline: November 2025 – February 2026

Key Deliverables: A functional platform that monitors 1-3 regulatory sources and sends email alerts upon detecting changes.

Weeks 1–4Foundation & Backend Setup: Initialize project, design database schema, build basic user auth API.
Weeks 5–8Core Scraping Engine: Build robust scrapers for initial sources, implement change detection logic.
Weeks 9–12Frontend & Deployment: Build basic UI, integrate email service, deploy to the cloud for beta access.
Phase 2: V1 - The AI-Powered Analyst (Level 2)
4 Months
Goal: Launch the paid subscription product by introducing the core AI-powered analysis and workflow integrations.

Timeline: February 2026 – June 2026

Key Deliverables: A commercial product that provides AI-generated recommendations, redline drafts, and integrates with key business tools like Slack and Jira.

Month 1 (Feb '26)AI & Payments: Integrate Stripe for subscriptions. Set up pgvector and the data embedding pipeline.
Month 2 (Mar '26)Recommendation Engine: Build the core RAG logic and perform extensive prompt engineering for accuracy.
Month 3 (Apr '26)Frontend Polish & New Sources: Build the enhanced dashboard. Add scrapers for 3-5 more sources.
Month 4 (May–June '26)Testing & Launch: Conduct end-to-end testing, gather beta feedback, and execute the public launch.
Phase 3: V2 - The Automation Engine (Level 3)
6+ Months
Goal: Move upmarket to larger enterprise customers with full automation, a public API, and deep workflow integration.

Timeline: Starting July 2026

Key Deliverables: An enterprise-ready platform capable of automated policy updates, with robust audit trails and advanced analytics.

Q3 2026API & First Integrations: Design and build a secure public API. Deliver the first major workflow integration.
Q4 2026Advanced AI & Analytics: Refine AI for generative tasks (document drafting). Build compliance dashboards.
2027 OnwardsEnterprise Focus: Add more integrations based on customer demand. Implement enterprise features like SSO and RBAC.

Success Metrics

50 beta users

Onboarded by early 2026

≥ 80% user satisfaction

From pilot cohort

10–15% conversion rate

From free to paid tier by mid-2026

Competitive Positioning

While established solutions in the Australian market—such as LexisNexis, Ascent, and Compliance.ai—offer automated regulatory updates and horizon scanning, these platforms often serve large enterprises with complex systems that can be costly, slow to deploy, and less tailored to everyday user workflows. Many focus primarily on alerting rather than delivering instant, actionable updates seamlessly integrated into compliance workflows.

Sentinel stands apart by being built by industry experts who deeply understand the real challenges faced by compliance teams, enabling us to design a solution that not only provides real-time regulatory updates but also automatically maps changes to obligations, assigns tasks, and tracks completion—all within a Microsoft-native platform that enhances ease of use and speed of deployment. This instant, end-to-end automation reduces risk by minimizing lag time between regulatory changes and organizational response, offering a cost-effective, user-friendly alternative that fills critical gaps left by existing providers.

Go-to-Market Strategy

Our go-to-market strategy for Sentinel will leverage executive-level connections to secure internal sponsorships, complemented by targeted account-based selling that addresses each institution's unique compliance challenges. We will offer pilot programs to demonstrate clear value and ROI, supported by thought leadership content and active participation in industry events to build credibility. Engaging multiple stakeholders—including compliance officers, risk managers, and IT teams—will ensure broad internal alignment, while a strong customer success program will foster ongoing satisfaction and upsell opportunities.

Team Snapshot

Founder / Product Lead

Legal and compliance background with experience in financial services legal and regulatory.

Technical Lead

Full-stack developer with AI and automation expertise.