October 2024: Top five AI stories of the month
The topic of artificial intelligence (AI) continues to dominate headlines and narratives throughout the world of fintech. Here, we take a look back at five of the top AI stories from October, featuring Citi, Interface.ai, Google Cloud, Socure and more.
Logik.io bags $25m Series B for AI-driven CPQ platform
Logik.io secures $25 million Series B
Logik.io, a US-based fintech specialising in configure, price and quote (CPQ) solutions, has secured $25 million in Series B funding.
Building on a $16 million Series A closed last year, CEO Christopher Shutts says Logik.io will use this latest capital injection to pursue and support “new projects”.
Founded in 2019, the fintech’s CPQ solution combines a product configuration and recommendation engine with a centralised transaction management hub, which are together bolstered by its Cosmo AI intelligent assistant, unveiled last year.
FCA debuts AI Lab to promote safe use of AI in UK financial sector
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has launched its new AI Lab designed to facilitate the “safe and responsible use of AI in UK financial markets, driving growth, competitiveness and innovation in the sector”.
Developed in partnership with the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum (DRCF), chief data, information and intelligence officer Jessica Rusu says the lab’s four main components will “help firms overcome challenges they face in building and implementing AI solutions”.
AI Sprint will discuss safe adoption in financial services starting 2025, with AI Input Zone for feedback, AI Spotlight for real-world applications, and Supercharged Sandbox for TechSprints.
Socure inks $136m deal to acquire AI-powered risk decisioning platform Effectiv
Socure seals deal to buy Effectiv for $136m
US digital identity verification and fraud prevention platform Socure is set to acquire Effectiv, a San Francisco-based start-up specialising in risk decisioning, for $136 million.
The deal will integrate Effectiv’s AI-powered orchestration and decisions platform with Socure’s digital ID tech, and is expected to close in November.
Socure says it will use the purchase to launch a new suite of transaction-level solutions, and support real-time payments fraud and anti-money laundering (AML) transaction monitoring capabilities specifically.
Interface.ai emerges as “most valuable AI company in banking” with Avataar-led $30m funding round
Interface.ai claims to now be “the most valuable AI company in banking” having raised $30 million through its first funding round led by Avataar Venture Partners.
Bootstrapped since its inception in 2019, Interface.ai says it will use the funding to “expand its team to enhance product offerings, strengthen customer success and services, and accelerate go-to-market initiatives”.
These offerings currently include pre-trained agentic AI solutions for community banks and credit unions, as well as a multi-modal AI agent Sphere, which enables clients to leverage the tech within customer relations.
Citi pens multi-year cloud and AI tech modernisation deal with Google Cloud
Citi enters multi-year partnership with Google Cloud
Citi has signed a multi-year partnership agreement with Google Cloud to modernise its technology infrastructure with new cloud and AI technologies.
The bank will adopt its partner’s machine learning (ML) solution Vertex AI to “deliver generative AI capabilities across the company” using pre-fitted model frameworks like TensorFlow and PyTorch.
Citi’s deployment of the ML platform is expected to power its initiatives in generative AI with regard to developer toolkits, document processing and digitisation capabilities to boost its customer servicing teams.
Meanwhile, Citi is also preparing to migrate multiple workloads and applications, including digital products and internal workflows, to Google Cloud, with a focus on “enhancing employee and client experiences on cloud-based applications”.
