A new startup with a bold pitch just came out of stealth with over $5 million in funding. The Antifraud Company is building what its founders call a “private-sector DOGE,” a reference to the government’s own short-lived Department of Government Efficiency. The goal is to use AI and investigative journalism to hunt down a slice of the estimated $500 billion lost to US government fraud each year.
The company, which has raised capital from Abstract Ventures, Browder Capital, and Dune Ventures, isn’t selling SaaS. Its business model is pure bounty hunting. The Antifraud Company finds fraud, reports it through official government whistleblower programs, and takes a cut—typically 10 to 30 percent—of whatever the government recovers. It’s a high-stakes, long-game approach, as payouts can take years to materialize.
The founding team brings a unique mix of activist and regulatory experience. Co-founder and President Alex Shieh, a 20-year-old sophomore at Brown, previously made waves by emailing the university’s entire payroll to ask what they do all day. CEO Sahaj Sharda is an antitrust author whose book, *The College Cartel*, spurred class-action lawsuits against Ivy League schools. And Chief Strategy Officer David Barclay is an alum of the Federal Trade Commission, where he worked on cases against pharmaceutical companies defrauding Medicare.
A for-profit fix for public fraud
The founders argue that private-sector incentives and technology are better suited for this work than the government itself. “The private sector can be more efficient in going through the data and finding the fraud,” Shieh said in an interview. The company uses AI to sift through public data for anomalies and discrepancies, with its team of investigators then building out full cases.
This model contrasts with government-led efforts, which the founders believe lack staying power and the right incentives. “Changing the government from within is just inherently difficult,” co-founder Sahaj Sharda said.
The Antifraud Company claims it has already identified as much as $250 million in potential fraud since its launch in June. While the claims are early and the payout pipeline is long, the startup is betting that its blend of technology and old-school investigation can turn civic outrage into a profitable enterprise, clawing back taxpayer money that would otherwise be lost.
