Desia Secures $3.3 Million in Funding to Revolutionize AI Applications for Investment Professionals

Desia Raises $3.3 Million to Expand AI Applications for Investment Professionals | PYMNTS.com

Desia has raised $3.3 million in pre-seed funding to fund the development and growth of its artificial intelligence (AI) applications for productivity, automation and analytics in the financial investment industry. The company's product employs AI to help investment professionals use data and information in an automated manner, Desia said in a Tuesday (Sept. 24) press release. "I recall sifting through data and information until the early hours during my time at Goldman Sachs in order to make fully informed decisions and strategies," Raffaele Terrone, co-founder and CEO of Desia, said in the release. "With Desia the whole process would have been more efficient and successful. I wish it was available back then." Desia extracts knowledge and data about potential investments and performs analyses in an automated way, according to the release. Its capabilities save time and resources for investment professionals who still sort through data and information manually and deal with data that is often unstructured, the release said. "The complexity of unstructured data and inefficiencies in data processing are significant challenges, but the potential value we can deliver to our users is massive," Alessandro Amaro, co-founder and chief product officer of Desia, said in the release. Desia's solution already has users, and the company is looking to expand in the United Kingdom, the United States and Europe, per the release. Ross Mason, founding partner at Dig Ventures, which led the company's funding round, said in the release that Desia's founding team is positioned to address an essential challenge in the financial industry. "Their innovative approach to automating data analysis leveraging AI promises substantial advancements in productivity for finance professionals," Mason said. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) said in June that the financial sector is among the "most exposed" to both the benefits and the risks of AI. The benefits of AI for the sector include improvements for lending and payments, while the risks include more sophisticated cyberattacks, according to the BIS. Eighty-three percent of bank executives are eyeing generative AI with both hope and hesitation, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence and AI-ID collaboration, "Banking on AI: Financial Services Sector Harnesses Generative AI for Security and Service."

Scalapay co-founder raises $3.3m for new venture

This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author. Despite the wider financial industries making significant technological leaps in recent times, investment professionals are still required to manually sort through significant amounts of data and information. Doing so is both time-consuming and costly. The data is often without any structure and productivity is severely impacted as a result. Desia is being developed to revolutionize the investment professional's work stack. Using AI, the system extracts knowledge and data about potential investments and puts it to work by analyzing the data in an automated way, saving investment professionals significant time and resources. The problem Desia intends to solve was experienced firsthand by co-founder and CEO Raffaele Terrone during his time in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and Barclays, and in Private Equity at ICAMAP Investments. Raffaele Terrone, co-founder and CEO at Desia, says: "I recall regularly sifting through data and information until the early hours during my time at Goldman Sachs in order to make fully informed decisions and strategies. With Desia the whole process would have been more efficient and successful. I wish it was available back then." At the same time, co-founder and CPO Alessandro Amaro and CTO Mehmet Öner Yalçin were leading the development of AI products for the investment team at Advent International that was facing similar issues. The trio initially started working on Desia to help Raffaele streamline the analysis of his angel investments, following the success of his first company, BNPL unicorn Scalapay. However, they soon realized the commercial potential of what they were building and began to seek external funding to bolster the growth. Terrone continues: "This initial funding round is a major step towards developing the system for more structured and complex investment analyses". Ross Mason, Founding Partner at DIG Ventures, said: "Desia's founding team, marked by their impeccable execution and deep market insight, is perfectly positioned to address an essential challenge within the financial industry. This reminds me vividly of the formative days at MuleSoft, where we similarly targeted a critical inefficiency in the market. Their innovative approach to automating data analysis leveraging AI promises substantial advancements in productivity for finance professionals." The team headcount is currently 11, of which 4 are from Advent International, with experience in building and launching successful products at the intersection of technology and finance. Alessandro Amaro, co-founder and CPO at Desia says: "We are privileged to have a team of brilliant people on board to help in our mission. We are tackling a tough problem that has challenged investment professionals for years. The complexity of unstructured data and inefficiencies in data processing are significant challenges, but the potential value we can deliver to our users is massive. With our experience in the investment industry and in building great products, we are well equipped to solve this problem and bring about meaningful change to the industry." A Return to the Start Line Desia is Terrone's first business venture since the runaway success of BNPL service Scalapay. In February of 2022, the company raised $497 million in a Series B funding round at a valuation in excess of $1 billion, becoming Italy's first unicorn company. In his latest venture, Terrone can now lay claim to the serial founder mantle, noting that after taking a brief respite from the intensities of startup life, his focus is now squarely on developing Desia, both the product and the team. The pre-seed round was led by Dig Ventures, with the participation of leading VCs including 2100 Ventures, Exor Ventures, and Octopus Ventures. The round was joined by a group of angel investors, including Niccolo Maisto, Founder of FaceIT, Mark Ransford, Senior Advisor at CVC, and Massimo della Ragione, former Partner at Goldman Sachs. Desia already has users live and making use of it. The team has its eyes set on the UK, the US and Continental Europe. Ultimately, Desia intends to transform the entire financial services landscape by harnessing the power of AI to extract and make the best possible use of data and information in an automated manner.