AI boost for syndicated loans market
3 December 2018
ING Ventures and Unicredit have invested €1.3 million in Italian fintech Axyon AI to apply the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to the syndicated loans market.
Axyon AI will use the investment to speed up growth and develop its product offering, among which SynFinance, an AI-powered platform that uses predictive analysis to identify the investors who are most likely to participate in a syndicated loan.
Currently, the financial data analysed to provide clients with advice is complex and often fragmented, creating a cumbersome and time-consuming process for banks.
“Extracting value remains a painful manual process,” said Daniele Grassi, CEO of Axyon AI.
This is where SynFinance comes in.
Based on an algorithm that learns from hundreds of thousands of historic transactions, SynFinance can review over 300 potential investors and their likelihood to participate in a syndicated loan. This enables banks to be more effective and offer better advice to clients.
“We are excited to solve this problem through deep learning, an incredibly powerful branch of AI,” said Mr Grassi.
Long-standing partners
“ING Ventures is constantly looking for fintechs that help us to provide a differentiating experience for clients,” said Benoît Legrand, chief innovation officer at ING.
“We invest in companies that are of strategic relevance for ING to accelerate its strategy.”
ING’s investment via ING Ventures is part of a second round of financing for Axyon AI. The collaboration between ING and Axyon AI started in 2016, when Axyon AI joined ING’s accelerator programme and received start-up funding from the bank.
“Axyon AI is of interest because of its use cases in AI, which can bring value to financial institutions thanks to their predictive solutions,” explained Benoît.
