Edinburgh video conferencing fintech seals six-figure funding despite Covid complexities

An Edinburgh financial technology company is hoping to usher in a new age of “digital client service” for professional advisers after securing a six-figure funding injection.

Aveni is a past winner of the Scottish Edge competition. The company was founded as Hatch-AI in 2018 when Joseph Twigg was a student at the University of Edinburgh Business School, supported by Edinburgh Innovations, the university’s commercialisation service.

Aveni, formerly known as Hatch-AI, will use the seed investment of £520,000 for its “ground-breaking” video conferencing-based AI technology.

The investment, led by the TriCapital angel syndicate, will accelerate the capital fintech’s growth, initially focused on the financial services and legal sectors, while growing its team of specialist engineers.

The business, which has close ties to the University of Edinburgh, combines “cutting edge” software engineering with natural language processing, allowing advisers to “connect, engage and digitally serve” clients with a range of automated features.

As well as TriCapital, the funding round was supported by the Scottish Investment Bank, Old College Capital – the University of Edinburgh’s in-house venture investment fund – and Wallace Equity.

Aveni chief executive Joseph Twigg said: “A consequence of the global pandemic has been the widespread adoption of video conferencing. VC is not just a method of connecting with clients, it’s also an enabler of new technologies such as machine learning and natural language processing which can deliver transformational change for professional advice sectors.

“We see the transition from general purpose video conferencing tools to bespoke solutions designed for specific industries.

“The impact on the service industry will be dramatic. Widespread automation will drive down cost to serve, open doors to national video conferencing only channels and transform both the approach to and cost of compliance.”

Moray Martin from TriCapital said: “We recognised the exceptional ability, experience and commitment of the founding team and the perfect fit for the technology across a wide range of sectors.

“We could not though have foreseen just how relevant and important this technology will be in the post-Covid business environment – a real game-changer in so many ways.”

Aveni was advised by law firm Harper Macleod while MBM Commercial acted for the investors.

Jo Nisbet, a partner at Harper Macleod, said: “This was a pretty incredible deal to be part of and we’re delighted to help get it over the line. Not only did we have multiple investors but a global pandemic and a new level of uncertainty over future business and investment.

“Aveni’s technology is world-leading and this is proof that these deals can be done irrespective of the prevailing circumstances.”

Aveni is a past winner of the Scottish Edge competition. The company was founded as Hatch-AI in 2018 when Twigg was a student at the University of Edinburgh Business School, supported by Edinburgh Innovations, the university’s commercialisation service.

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