Aveni.ai, an AI fintech company, has secured £11 million in one of Scotland’s largest Series A investments this year. The funding round was led by Puma Private Equity, with participation from Par Equity, Lloyds Banking Group, and Nationwide.
Aveni.ai specializes in creating large language models (LLMs) and AI products specifically for the financial services industry. The investment will support the development of FinLLM, a new financial services-specific LLM being developed in partnership with Lloyds Banking Group and Nationwide.
This funding will also help Aveni expand its presence in the financial services sector and continue to innovate with its AI solutions. The FinLLM development team will be based at the Edinburgh Futures Institute, further solidifying Aveni’s leadership in AI for UK financial services.
Words from the movers and shakers of the funding round:
“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.”
— Joseph Twigg, CEO of Aveni
“The impact that Aveni has made in delivering AI solutions to the financial services sector is already significant and there is huge opportunity for growth going forwards. We’re really excited to be backing Joseph, Jamie, Dr. Lexi Birch and the team as they focus on this next phase. With Scotland’s position as a prominent tech hub on the rise and with the increased regulatory burden on financial services businesses, we believe that Aveni is in a unique position to solve key challenges faced by the sector.”
— Ben Leslie, Investment Director, Puma Private Equity
“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. Our collaboration aims to establish Aveni as a frontrunner of the industry’s adoption of AI, whilst maintaining a focus on responsible usage and customer-centricity.”
— Robin Scher, Head of Fintech Investments, Lloyds Banking Group
