UK-based fintech company Aveni has secured a Series A investment of £11m ($14.1m) to accelerate advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) within the financial services industry.
The funding round was led by Puma Private Equity, with contributions from Par Equity and industry giants Lloyds Banking Group and Nationwide.
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Aveni’s strategy involves leveraging AI expertise combined with financial services experience to develop large language models and AI products tailored for the financial sector.
The company’s existing solutions, Aveni Detect and Aveni Assist, are already in use by the UK’s financial services companies.
Aveni plans to use the fresh capital injection to build upon the success of its current offerings, expand its footprint in the financial services industry, and innovate further with the development of FinLLM, a financial services-specific large language model.
FinLLM, which is being developed in collaboration with new investors Lloyds Banking Group and Nationwide, aims to become the benchmark for transparent, responsible, and ethical use of Generative AI in UK financial services.
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By GlobalDataFurthermore, with this investment, Aveni aims to solidify its position in providing AI solutions to UK financial services businesses and to foster the wider adoption of generative AI within the sector.
Following the investment, the team working on FinLLM will be stationed at the Edinburgh Futures Institute.
Aveni CEO Joseph Twigg said: “The financial Services industry does not need AI models that can quote Shakespeare, it needs AI models that deliver transparency, trust and above all correctness.
“The way to achieve this is to develop small, highly tuned language models, trained on financial services data, reviewed by financial services experts for specific financial services use cases.
“Generative AI represents the most significant technological evolution of our generation and we are in the nascent stages of adoption. This presents a significant opportunity for Aveni and our partners.”
Lloyds Banking Group head of fintech investments Robin Scher said: “Aveni’s cutting-edge AI solutions offer a huge opportunity for the financial services industry, streamlining operations and elevating the customer experience.
“We are keen to support Aveni’s growth as we invest in their vision to develop the FinLLM alongside partners.”
