London AI firm Quantexa becomes first ‘unicorn’ of 2023 after $129m funding boost

London-based artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Quantexa has become the first new British ‘unicorn’ of the year today after closing a $129m funding round at a valuation of $1.8bn.

Quantexa, which uses AI to interpret data sets and help financial firms manage risk, said the fresh cash was now earmarked for a major growth push and would help fill a war chest for potential deals in the months ahead.

The investment marks one of the largest of the year so far for a UK-based firm and marks the first British unicorn of 2023 – a firm with a valuation of more than $1bn.

Singapore-based investor GIC led the funding round alongside a host of existing investors including HSBC, BNY Mellon and state-backed investor British Patient Capital.

The investment round more than doubles the valuation of the firm following a $157m round in June 2021.

News of the unicorn status also bucks a major slump in valuations in UK tech in the past year and a drop-off in the creation of unicorns.

Quantexa boss Vishal Marria told City A.M. that the firm has seen a surge in demand in the past months as volatile market conditions sparked a scramble from banks and financial shore up their risk management.

Marria added that interest in AI and machine learning has also been on the rise following the launch of Open AI’s ChatGPT.

“There’s a lot of people talking about AI and machine learning following from ChatGPT, but there’s also a lot of caution in the market on how this will be regulated [and] how it will become mainstream but in a controlled environment and in a controlled way, ” he told City A.M.. 

“What I’ve built here at Quantexa is explainable. It’s the explainability of the machine learning algorithm that allows our clients to take our platform, put it through model risk management if you’re a bank, for example, and you need to explain [something] to the regulator or your risk stewards,” he added.