UK-based data insights analytics platform Signal AI has closed a $50m series D round featuring media groups Guardian Media Group and Hearst, which participated alongside financial investors.
Investment firms Highland Europe and Aberdeen Investments (Abrdn) co-led the round, which included Redline Capital and MMC Ventures, taking Signal AI’s total funding above the $100m mark. Guardian Media Group (GMG) Ventures and Hearst Ventures respectively represented the corporates in the round.
The post-money valuation was undisclosed but the company’s co-founder and CEO David Benigson told TechCrunch it increased 100% since the $25m series C round in late 2019. GMG Ventures and Hearst Ventures had already backed that round, which saw participation from fellow returning investors including MMC and led by new backer at the time, Redline.
Founded in 2013, Signal AI has built an artificial intelligence-equipped decision augmentation software tool that helps organisations analyse data gathered from podcasts, regulatory filings and public records in over 100 languages and act on business trends, risks and opportunities.
“Organisations still do not have an effective radar to get ahead of threats and opportunities, and turning challenges into opportunities,” Benigson was quoted as saying by TechCrunch. “We have been diversifying the data that we inject in the platform.”
The funding will be used to conduct further research and development efforts, increase machine learning and AI engineering headcount and expand its operations in the United States, according to Benigson in a statement.
He added: “The opportunity is huge, with Gartner predicting that by 2030, decision augmentation will surpass all other types of AI initiatives to account for 44% of the global AI-derived business value.
“As the responsibilities of business leaders continue to increase, and the number of key stakeholders continues to grow, business leaders need more help than ever to make informed and confident decisions.”
Intriguingly, the latest deal represents UK’s largest asset manager Abrdn’s foray into venture capital investment, with the firm generally focusing on public and private bonds, sovereign wealth funds and real estate.
As the incoming Global Corporate Venturing’s Leadership Society Advisory Board chairwoman Jacqueline LeSage – founder and managing director of reinsurance group Munich Re’s corporate venturing arm Munich Re Ventures – pointed out to GCV, this may signal an accelerated blurring of asset classes.
Private markets now have probably as much liquidity as the public ones, and as many larger and more mature companies remain private, it has triggered financial investors such as hedge funds, sovereign wealth funds, private equity firms and growth equity funds to join the venture scene.
James Anderson, a technology investor investment manager Baillie Gifford, said at the Go Further Forum co-hosted by GCV last month, that in the last 25 years, institutional investors have failed to recognise that companies paying back more in buybacks and dividends to current shareholders has been denuding these businesses of the armour needed to fit the innovation wars.
This backdrop has created an interesting window of opportunity for corporate venturers – who are increasingly mature and professional in the VC ecosystem – to explore options beyond financial and strategic returns and re-establish themselves as asset managers.
– Image courtesy of Signal Media Ltd.