Puma Private Equity, Lloyds Banking Group and Nationwide invest in Aveni to deliver
market-leading generative AI solutions for the UK financial services industry
Edinburgh, UK – 29 July 2024 – AI Fintech Aveni.ai has announced one of the largest Series A
investments in a Scottish business this year, amounting to £11 million. The investment is led by
Puma Private Equity with participation from Par Equity and financial services industry leaders:
Lloyds Banking Group and Nationwide.
Aveni combines globally-recognised AI expertise with extensive financial services experience,
to create large language models (LLMs) and AI products designed specifically for the
financial services industry (‘vertically aligned’). Aveni is trusted by some of the UK’s leading
financial services firms, seeing significant business growth over the past two years, through
existing compliance and productivity solutions Aveni Detect & Aveni Assist. This investment
will enable Aveni to build on the success of existing products, further establishing its presence
across the financial services sector and introducing revolutionary technology through the
creation of FinLLM, a financial services specific large language model.
FinLLM is being developed in partnership with new investors Lloyds Banking Group and
Nationwide. FinLLM is an industry-aligned Large Language Model, aiming to set the standard
for the transparent, responsible and ethical adoption of Generative AI across UK financial
services. The funding will further establish Aveni’s market leading position in artificial
intelligence (AI) solutions for UK financial services businesses, to drive the adoption of
generative AI across the sector.
Post investment the team developing FinLLM will be based at the Edinburgh Futures Institute,
in a state-of-the-art facility. The funding round was led by Puma Private Equity with participation from Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide and existing investors Par Equity and Scottish Enterprise.
Joseph Twigg, CEO of Aveni, explains: “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.
“Generative AI represents the most significant technological evolution of our generation and
we’re in the nascent stages of adoption. This presents a significant opportunity for Aveni and
our partners. The objective with FinLLM is to set a new standard for the controlled, responsible
and ethical adoption of Generative AI, outperforming all other generic models across our
selected financial service use cases.” Ben Leslie, Investment Director, Puma Private Equity commented: “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.”
Robin Scher, Head of Fintech Investments, Lloyds Banking Group said: “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.”
Samuel White, Venture Partner, NBS Ventures, Nationwide commented: “NBS Ventures has
been closely monitoring Aveni for some time and we’re excited to invest in the team. The
investment will enable Nationwide to work closely with world-leading experts to responsibly
and ethically utilise Generative AI to deliver better service and outcomes for our Members.”
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