FundGuard raises $4m funding to “revolutionise” investment funds tech
FundGuard raises $4m
FundGuard, a cloud-based investment funds operating system powered by artificial intelligence (AI), has launched and raised $4 million in funding led by venture firms Blumberg Capital and LionBird.
FundGuard states it is “designed to revolutionise the investment funds technology space”.
It says it will use the capital “to accelerate the development of its platform and Contingency NAV product as well as to bring operational efficiencies afforded by AI and cloud technologies to market”.
FundGuard helps asset managers, custodian banks and fund administrators manage investments across mutual funds, ETFs, separately managed accounts, pension funds as well as insurance.
Using machine learning and AI to identify unstructured financial and operational anomalies or potential fraud, the platform provides real-time support while providing insights and recommendations to its customers.
“With continued pressure on management fees driven by the proliferation of ETFs, robo-advisors, ‘zero fee’ offerings, and frequently changing regulations, the industry is clearly now in need of an operating system that’s highly accurate across all asset classes and efficient to operate,” says Lior Yogev, CEO and co-founder of FundGuard.
“Our Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform is built to meet the needs of today’s investment industry, designed to support sophisticated trading environments and new technologies such as distributed ledgers. Users will find a modern UX, APIs, plus workflow and collaboration tools that will add tremendous value to their companies and keep them ahead of the competition,” he claims.
Many of today’s industry challenges can be traced back to “archaic technologies” powering the industry, the majority of which were built in the 1980s. FundGuard’s Contingency and Oversight NAV product, meanwhile, provides “an unparalleled daily-resetting, fully automated operating system”, the vendor states.
FundGuard was founded by Yogev, Yaniv Zecharya and Uri Katz. The trio met more than 20 years ago as officers in Israel’s Defense Forces’ Unit 8200 (one of the world’s top intelligence and technology agencies).
Yogev, who previously led Multifonds’ business in North America, was part of the executive team that sold Multifonds to Temenos for $265 million, and was previously an investment banker at Goldman Sachs.
Zecharya, the company’s CTO, previously led Salesforce’s AI R&D efforts. He joined Salesforce through the acquisition of BlueTail, a machine learning (ML) sales insights company he co-founded.
Katz, the company’s vice-president of R&D, has years of financial technology experience that includes building enterprise cloud systems and ML.
