- HQ
- San Francisco, USA
- Company size
- 201-500
- Funding raised
- $389M
- Lead investors
- Andreessen Horowitz, First Round Capital, Insight Partners, Spark Capital, Stripes, SV Angel, Union Square Ventures, Y Combinator
- Team location
- Eastern Europe
- Cooperation time
- since 2021
- Product
- AI-powered digital fraud prevention and risk-based authentication platform
- Notable clients
- X (formerly Twitter), Airbnb, DoorDash, Yelp, Patreon, Kickstarter, Zillow, Indeed, Remitly
Sift is a leading US-based AI platform for online fraud detection and revenue protection. Trusted by over 700 global brands, it turns machine learning signals into decisions that stop fraud in real time without slowing down legitimate customers. In 2021, Sift closed a $50 million funding round, reaching a $1 billion valuation and joining the unicorn club.
Issue
Sift had made the right strategic call for tech expansion: Eastern Europe, Kyiv. Senior talent with deep AI and backend expertise. Strong cost efficiency vs US hiring. A technical culture that matched Silicon Valley output expectations.
The destination was right. The engine to reach it didn’t exist yet.
Plans to scale from 180, 50 of which were software developers, to 280 talented specialists in a new market mean infrastructure must come first. Compliant employment, a senior pipeline built on real market knowledge, and operational readiness before the first offer goes out. Sift had no local employment entity and only one internal recruiter to cover all of it. With 5-10 hires expected in Q1 and 30-35 targeted for the year, there was no runway to build that piece by piece.
Every empty engineering seat was a gap in the product roadmap. Fraud detection doesn’t wait for hiring infrastructure to catch up, and competitors weren’t planning to wait either. Every week without the right foundation was a week of losses.
Sift needed one accountable partner with its own legal entity and infrastructure already running: in-house recruitment, tech-focused Employer of Record, and full operations support. That was the only path that kept the hiring plan intact.
Solution
Sift got that tech expansion engine built by Alcor.
10 researchers and 3 tech recruiters hit the ground on day one, exclusively on Sift’s vacancies. A dedicated Customer Operations Manager ran point on the entire relationship – one contact, full process visibility. Sift’s 3-stage panel interview was demanding. The offers kept coming anyway – every week, without gaps.
The weekly losses the roadmap had been absorbing stopped immediately.
Getting Kyiv’s top engineers to choose Sift over a market full of competing offers took more than a job description. Alcor ran an employer-branding campaign centered on a video shoot with Sift’s own Hiring Manager. Specific, direct, and human enough to stand out in a market where every company was chasing the same senior engineers. Candidates in communication with multiple companies started opting for Sift.
The operational side ran in parallel. Every laptop, monitor, and headset was sourced and delivered before engineers needed them.
Every week that had previously meant roadmap losses became a week of team growth.
Results:
Build Your AI Engineering Team in 30 Days
No vendor chaos. 0 compliance risk. No more recruiting delays.
Alcor Helped Build the Foundation for Everything That Followed
Alcor builds Sift’s Eastern Europe engineering R&D team, Sift raises $50M, surpasses $1B valuation – becomes a unicorn
G2 Leader recognition across Fraud Detection, E-Commerce Fraud Protection, and Risk-Based Authentication.
Sift’s revenue grows to $30.3M
Launches the ActivityIQ tool, which uses generative AI to surface and summarize user activity for ATO detection, saving fraud teams hundreds of hours
G2 Spring 2026: Sift maintains #1 across all fraud prevention categories – Leader, Momentum Leader, Most Implementable, Best Relationship, Best Results, EMEA Regional Leader
Use our calculator to estimate your team budget before any conversation starts
Clients Love Us. Teams Do Too.
“The Alcor team has always been supportive and approachable whenever assistance was needed. Rather than feeling like an external resource, engineers working through Alcor are able to integrate closely with the client’s teams. This creates a more collaborative environment and allows engineers to have a greater impact.”
“My overall experience has been outstanding. Alcor’s model offered the right balance — strong operational support combined with genuine ownership and long-term collaboration. In this model, I am a core member of the team. Rather than rotating between projects, I can invest meaningfully in improving the product and establishing processes that deliver lasting value.”
“Whenever I’ve had tricky bank requests or needed extra documentation, Alcor has resolved everything rapidly. I also love their support with business trips and expense tracking—it’s incredibly convenient. Their team is always available via messenger and ready to help. Highly recommended for anyone who wants a hassle-free professional life!”
“Alcor has been a reliable partner throughout, especially in complex situations. Issues are resolved quickly — often within minutes or hours. Their ability to adapt and support us in complex situations has made a real difference for our team.”
