FundGuard raises $12 million to help manage assets with AI

FundGuard, an AI-powered software-as-a-service investment management platform, today announced that it closed a $12 million funding round. The investment will spur product development to support existing partnerships, FundGuard says, in addition to helping to meet demand from alternative funds and insurers.

AI is increasingly being used to manage assets toward the goal of maximizing returns on investments. For example, trading algorithms leverage AI to devise novel signals and execute trades with lower overall transaction costs. AI can also bolster risk modeling and forecasting by generating insights from previously untapped data sources.

For its part, FundGuard offers a cloud-based investment funds solution powered by AI. It’s designed to help asset and fund managers administer investments across mutual funds, ETFs, hedge funds, insurance, and pensions with utilities that execute reconciliation, exception management, and reporting.

FundGuard can apply AI to automatically identify and resolve data mismatches and breaks for things like positions, general ledger, and trades. At a more basic level, the platform’s algorithms can perform portfolio validation checks and benchmarking as well as investment news research, anomaly detection, and exceptions resolution.

Using FundGuard, managers can add layers of oversight for more detailed reviews of cash, corporate actions, and holdings movements, with day-to-day change summaries. They also get access to sets of predefined controls and customizable thresholds for rules-based trading.

There’s growing interest from the private sector in such technology. A report the Bank of England published in October 2019 found that two-thirds of financial services in the U.K. use AI and that many expect to more than double the number of business areas to which they apply AI within the next three years. Be that as it may, skepticism abounds — Canada-based Horizons vowed to revamp its AI-powered exchange-traded fund after a year in which it “significantly underperformed.”

But FundGuard cofounder and CEO Lior Yogev is quick to beat back skepticism. “We are seeing growing demand for our innovative cloud-native and API-first platform from banks and asset managers globally,” he said in a press release. “Our team is excited to be able to accelerate our mission to drive efficiencies through AI, enhance investor transparency and digital engagement, and provide a single source of truth for funds.”

New York- and Tel Aviv-based FundGuard’s series A financing announced today was led by Team8, Blumberg Capital, LionBird Ventures, and JPMorgan operating committee members Heidi Miller and Jay Mandelbaum. It brings the company’s total raised to date to over $16 million.