BNP Paribas has led a $30 million funding round in artificial intelligence outfit Digital Reasoning. Barclays and Square Capital also participated, as well as previous investors Goldman Sachs, Nasdaq, Lemhi Ventures, HCA, and the Partnership Fund for New York City.
Digital Reasoning's AI platform parses unstructured communications data to add context to human coversations, spotlighting compliance failings and potential fraudulent behaviour and delivering insights on future client interactions.
Founded in 2000, the firm moved into financial market in 2012, with clients including UBS and Point72 Asset Management, who use the company's Synthesys technology to scan internal e-mails in search of unfamiliar patterns between employees.
Previous investors include the CIA and Credit Suisse.
The firm says the new round of funding will be used to expand its product portfolio for capital markets and wealth management and work on technology for natural language processing.
Tim Estes, president and founder of Digital Reasoning, says: “The new investment will enable us to use our novel and patented AI technology to turn all forms of communications data - including now audio and voice data - into discoverable, understandable, and actionable insights that help to accelerate customer-centric data strategies in the world’s largest Enterprises.”
For BNP Paribas, the investment is in line with its 2020 digital transformation strategy. "It’s a transformation based on reinventing our clients experience, advancing the use of data and analytics and improving our operating efficiency,” notes Olivier Osty, head of global markets BNP Paribas. “The partnership amplifies BNP Paribas’ commitment to innovative technology and harnessing it to help us better serve our clients.”