Singapore-based banking chat application Active.ai has scored $8.25m in a Series A led by Vertex Ventures, Creditease Holdings and Dream Incubator.
Existing backers Kalaari and IDG Ventures India also participated in the investment. As part of the transaction Vertex Ventures managing partner Ben Mathias, and Kalaari Capital managing director Vani Kola will join Active.ai’s board of directors.
Founded in 2016 the company is an AI-powered communication platform that allows financial institutions to connect with customers. The solution helps to boost engagements between banks and clients, and offers the ability to manage certain services, such as cancelling a card.
The platform is used by retail and private banking, insurance, origination and e-commerce industries. Top-tier banks and insurance providers in India, Malaysia, Singapore and North America apply the application.
Capital will be used to expand into new geographies, hire more staff to its AI team, and boost development of its technology. In the future Active.ai plans to move into new verticals like wealth management and securities trading.
Vertex Ventures managing partner Ben Mathias said, “The threat of fundamental disruption is very real in the financial services space, and companies such as Active.ai are making it easy for incumbents to not just remain relevant, but to get ahead in an ever-evolving market. At Vertex, we have been strong believers in Artificial intelligence helping solve problems specific to industry verticals, and that has been a key driver of our decision to partner with Active.ai.”
Last month Vertex Ventures closed its third Southeast Asia venture fund, with a $210m pool of capital. The firm has already has been used to make a selection of contributions, including an undisclosed Series A into P2P cash management solution SoCash.
Singapore is one of the leading spaces for FinTech in Asia. Last year the country saw $309m invested into FinTech companies, which was more than $200m more than deployed in Hong Kong.
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