AI & Finance™ | News for the Week Ending 1/17/25

Advisor360°, a leading provider of integrated technology for enterprise wealth management firms, has acquired Parrot AI, a Boston-based generative AI technology firm. The acquisition builds on Advisor360°’s existing AI capabilities with the addition of Parrot AI’s premium software—enabling advisors to record, transcribe, and summarize meetings to produce shareable notes and files that securely and seamlessly integrate with all major meeting and conferencing platforms. 

Along with integrating premium generative AI capabilities into its configurable platform, Advisor360° also plans to introduce Parrot AI’s software as a stand-alone version specifically for advisors. 

Advisor360° acquired Parrot AI’s core technology and intellectual property as part of the transaction and welcomed 12 full-time employees, including Parrot AI CEO and Co-founder Paul Morville. The team has deep experience across software and product development, large-scale SaaS, information security and privacy for enterprise companies. 

The American InsurTech Council (AITC) and the InsurTech Association (ITA) have announced the creation of a new strategic alliance to help shape the direction of how insurance carriers use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and related digital technologies. 

By merging their expertise and resources, AITC and ITA are set to offer valuable insights to policymakers tasked with establishing regulatory standards for AI in insurance. This partnership signifies a significant stride towards fostering innovation in regulatory policies and driving positive industry transformation, particularly in technology integration and advancement. 

AITC is a nonprofit, independent advocacy organization formed by seasoned insurance professionals, including former regulators, dedicated to advancing public interests through regulatory policies that promote ethical, technology-driven innovations in insurance. 

AuditBoard, the leading cloud-based platform transforming audit, risk, ESG, and InfoSec management, today announced the appointment of April Crichlow as AuditBoard’s Chief Marketing Officer. In her new role, Crichlow will harness over 20 years of global B2B SaaS marketing leadership experience to accelerate awareness of AuditBoard’s innovative solutions amidst continued rapid growth and international expansion. 

Crichlow joins AuditBoard from Centrical, a growth-stage B2B SaaS company, and AI-driven employee performance experience platform that serves customers across 150 countries and in 40 different languages. Prior to Centrical, Crichlow spent over 15 years at SAP, where she was the Chief Marketing Officer for SAP SuccessFactors, which serves 267 million users across 200 countries. She also held several customer and partner marketing leadership roles throughout her tenure. At SAP, she built the category growth of Human Experience Management (HXM), led an award-winning customer marketing organization at SAP Ariba, and created SAP’s first partner demand generation practice. 

Crichlow has led global thought leadership and strategic partnerships on inclusive culture, women’s equality, and sustainable supply chains, growing brand reputation with the United Nations, the New York Stock Exchange, AAPI networks, and Cannes Lions. She has also been honored by CRN’s “Women of the Channel” and as a “Top 100 Ethnic Minority Executive” by EmPower, presented by the Financial Times and Yahoo Finance. 

Clearwater Analytics (NYSE: CWAN) (“Clearwater”) and Enfusion, Inc. (NYSE: ENFN) (“Enfusion”) today announced their entry into a definitive merger agreement for Clearwater to acquire Enfusion, a leader in software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions for the investment management and hedge fund industry. The purchase price is $11.25 per share, delivered in an approximately equal mix of cash and stock. Additionally, Clearwater will pay $30 million to terminate Enfusion’s tax receivable agreement (TRA). This equates to a purchase price of approximately $1.5 billion. 

The acquisition of Enfusion accelerates Clearwater’s vision of building the first cloud-native front-to-back platform for the entire investment management industry. Secondly, Clearwater has built a highly robust execution infrastructure across New Delhi, Edinburgh and Boise that operates effectively and at scale. Over the past few years, Clearwater’s operating rigor and its ability to harness Generative AI has allowed the company to aggressively improve gross margin while improving customer satisfaction. Clearwater expects to bring those skills to Enfusion and has very high confidence of driving meaningfully improved unit economics, while also growing their emerging managed services business. 

And thirdly, Clearwater expects considerable efficiencies in general and administrative expenses, yielding about $20 million in cost savings, which we believe will be delivered over the first two and a half years after close. In the Enfusion business specifically, Clearwater expects to deliver 400 bps in Adjusted EBITDA margin expansion in the first year after close and an additional 400 bps in the second year after close. 

FiscalNote Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: NOTE) (“FiscalNote”), a leading AI-driven enterprise SaaS technology provider of policy and global intelligence, today announced the launch of PolicyNote, a breakthrough policy management solution that empowers global organizations to more efficiently and effectively identify, analyze, and act on legislative, policy, and regulatory developments. 

Today’s policy, legal, and public affairs professionals face mounting challenges when managing policy and regulatory developments. What are often unexpected or material policy shifts have the potential to create significant risks and opportunities for organizations of all sizes, impacting entire lines of business and global supply chains. Teams responsible for managing policy are tasked with protecting their organization’s interests by anticipating critical developments. Leveraging FiscalNote’s breadth and depth of data, proprietary AI technology, and expert-led policy analysis, PolicyNote takes policy management to a new level of effectiveness and excellence. 

The AI-powered platform accelerates and optimizes the tasks of tracking, summarizing, briefing, and acting on policy. As a result, decision makers across enterprises can respond to policy changes faster and with more impact — thereby influencing outcomes aligned to business goals. 

Portfolio Aid Inc. (“PortfolioAid”) and FutureVault Inc. (“FutureVault”) announce today a partnership to deliver unparalleled value to wealth management enterprises, wealth advisors, and clients, signaling a new era for the WealthTech and Wealth Management industries. 

With heightened regulatory demands and evolving client-advisor expectations, this partnership leverages PortfolioAid’s award-winning wealth compliance technology and FutureVault’s award-winning Client Life Management Vault™ and Digital Vault construct to set a new benchmark for digital document management, compliance transparency and an enhanced client value proposition, ultimately delivering massive value to the wealth management industry and advisor-client experience. 

Together, FutureVault and PortfolioAid have partnered to support leading wealth management enterprises in redefining the standards for compliance, security, efficiency, trust and delivering unparalleled value to investors and clients. This partnership offers wealth advisors an opportunity to engage with clients and their next generation while at the same time affording their clients the ability to securely interact with their network of trusted professionals (estate attorneys, accountants, insurance brokers). 

Gain Life, a leader in AI-powered claims technology, announces the release of its real-time voice call translation software, designed for workers’ compensation, liability, property, and absence management claims operations. This breakthrough solution enables claims professionals to conduct immediate bilingual conversations without traditional translation services, significantly reducing claim cycle times and expenses. 

The technology delivers cost savings of 50-90% compared to traditional translation services while streamlining the claims process. Claims professionals can now conduct calls without coordinating third-party translators, enabling immediate communication with non-English speaking individuals across 30+ languages. 

The technology can integrate with an organization’s existing phone and claim systems with minimal IT setup work required, or be used instantly from a web browser. Conversations can be processed through Gain Life’s risk monitoring models, in conjunction with unstructured data from documents, texts, etc., enabling early detection and prevention of potential issues. This latest extension of Gain Life’s claims experience platform, offering end-to-end claim automation and customer-centric communication tools, continues to advance the insurance industry’s aim to modernize claims processes, lower costs, and enhance customer satisfaction. 

Guidewire (NYSE: GWRE) has achieved a significant milestone in the race to meet the rapidly evolving needs of P&C insurers worldwide, now hosting more than 110 cloud-based integrations in the Guidewire Marketplace. 

Additionally, Guidewire announced several updates in its industry-leading PartnerConnect ecosystem, including new partners, specialization achievements, and promotions. 

Every new application in the Guidewire Marketplace is cloud-based, enabling insurers to scale seamlessly by leveraging Guidewire Cloud Platform. With Guidewire Cloud Platform, the company’s PartnerConnect Consulting and Technology partners can offer preconfigured solutions tailored to insurers’ specific use cases, providing them with the flexibility to innovate quickly. 

Halcyon, a leading platform designed from day one to defeat ransomware, today announced the appointment of Oliver Newbury as Strategic Advisor. Newbury’s distinguished expertise in global cyber leadership will propel growth for Halcyon and empower more businesses to effectively combat ransomware threats. 

In addition to advising Halcyon, Newbury currently serves as a Senior Advisor to TPG, a global alternative asset management firm; a Board Member of Immersive Labs, a cybersecurity platform; and GALLOS Technologies, a UK-based venture capital firm. Prior to these roles, Newbury was the Global Chief Information Security Officer for Barclays, a renowned multinational financial services company, and as Chief Technology Officer for BTs Security Division, where he led transformative cybersecurity initiatives. Prior to starting his career, Newbury earned his Master of Science in systems engineering from the University of Surrey. He also earned his Bachelor of Science in bioinformatics from the University of Birmingham. 

Newbury’s appointment as Halcyon Strategic Advisor closely follows the company closing $100M in Series C funding at $1B valuation. Halcyon provides the industry’s first and only anti-ransomware platform. Leveraging AI/ML Models specifically trained on ransomware samples provides Halcyon’s customers with unmatched protection efficacy. Its platform gives organizations peace of mind that impacted devices will not be taken offline, data will be exfiltrated and their business operations will not be disrupted. 

JargonAi (“Jargon”) today announced the commercial launch of its innovative new investment tool. Jargon creates intelligently summarized Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) EDGAR filings, turning complex stock market information into easily understood insights. Jargon’s state-of-the-art user interface makes it easy to find companies to follow, track public company events when they occur, and access current and historical filing information. Jargon’s users receive real-time filing alerts with instant summaries delivered via text message and email every time a “followed” company files information with the SEC. Jargon links the full text of each filing to its summaries for ease of access and review, which eliminates the need to search EDGAR to find a filing. As a result, Jargon’s users benefit from meaningful time-saving advantages due to the speed at which important stock information is received, can be reviewed and acted upon. 

Notably, Jargon isn’t a search query product – its users don’t need to come up with their own prompts or questions to receive the content they desire. Jargon has uniquely eliminated this current challenge with AI by internalizing the prompt process to automate content delivery for its users with the click of a button. Merely “follow” a company to start receiving important public company insights when they happen. 

Developed by an experienced team of legal, finance and technology experts, Jargon is a valuable resource for anyone seeking accurate tradable market information. Jargon also offers custom enterprise services for new AI investment tools and diligence solutions developed from its platform. 

LoanLynx.ai, a cutting-edge lending platform, officially launches today, redefining the real estate financing landscape. Founded by real estate veteran Jeff VanNote, LoanLynx.ai harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to make the borrowing and lending process faster, smarter, and more accessible. 

LoanLynx.ai is the first platform of its kind, offering an end-to-end digital experience for real estate investors, agents, and borrowers. With advanced algorithms and intelligent automation, the platform simplifies loan matching, reduces approval times, and minimizes traditional bottlenecks in real estate transactions. 

Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire CAPE Analytics, a leading provider of geospatial AI intelligence for residential and commercial properties. The acquisition will bring together Moody’s industry-leading Intelligent Risk Platform and catastrophe risk modeling for the insurance sector with CAPE’s cutting-edge geospatial AI analytics, creating a sophisticated property database capable of delivering instant, address-specific risk insights. 

With the acquisition of CAPE, Moody’s will provide its customers more in-depth, property-specific data than ever before, including building characteristics, firmographic data, peril risk and average annual loss estimates, geospatial AI analytics, valuation, probability of default models, and more. This rich reservoir of data will allow insurance carriers, reinsurers, and various financial stakeholders to better determine property exposures, vulnerabilities, valuations and the risks posed by natural hazards such as wildfires, hurricanes, and hailstorms.  

CAPE Analytics creates property intelligence analytics through computer vision, machine learning, and geospatial imagery, providing immediate, detailed risk assessments for properties on an individual address basis throughout the United States, and in large parts of Canada and Australia. 

Morningstar, Inc. (Nasdaq: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment insights, today introduced Direct Advisory Suite, a modern software application for financial advisors and investment professionals. The comprehensive application streamlines key tasks such as conducting research, building and analyzing portfolios, and generating client proposals. Direct Advisory Suite is built on the foundation of the Direct Platform and takes full advantage of the comprehensive capabilities across Morningstar Data+Analytics. 

Direct Advisory Suite expands the capabilities of the current Advisor Workstation application, combining a more intuitive interface with enhanced features for a simplified advisor experience. It is designed to improve workflows and efficiency, empowering advisors to more effectively engage with clients and deliver greater value. 

Direct Advisory Suite is the advisor application for the Direct Platform, Morningstar’s unified foundation of data, analytics, and research that supports its enterprise solutions. The Direct Platform is designed to enhance connectivity and information flow across Morningstar’s offerings, including data feeds, APIs, and software. With the addition of Direct Advisory Suite into the Direct Platform, Morningstar’s enterprise clients benefit from more efficient workflows—such as creating investment products or models and seamlessly delivering them to advisor distribution channels through Direct Advisory Suite. 

New Mountain Capital, LLC (“New Mountain”), a leading growth-oriented investment firm with more than $55 billion in assets under management, today announced a definitive agreement to acquire Machinify, Inc. (“Machinify”), a leading provider of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered software transforming healthcare payments. Machinify will become a core part of the company recently formed through the merger of The Rawlings Group (“Rawlings”), Apixio’s Payment Integrity business (“Apixio PI”), and VARIS. The combined organization, to be named Machinify at close, will bring together revolutionary technology, clinical expertise, and a wealth of data to transform healthcare payments and build a frictionless foundation for healthcare administration for all stakeholders. 

Founded in 2016, Machinify has developed an innovative cloud-based data intelligence platform that enables the secure, safe, and transparent deployment of purpose-built AI-powered applications to optimize the healthcare claims lifecycle. Machinify’s foundational operating system, which powers the company’s Audit and Pay workflows, has advanced the level of automation, efficiency, and accuracy within healthcare payments infrastructure. 

With the addition of Machinify’s cloud AI platform and highly accomplished team of developers, data scientists and AI experts, the combined entity will be well-positioned to accelerate the shift to a more automated, accurate healthcare payment reconciliation paradigm. The combined company will have more than 2,000 employees serving more than 60 health plans, including 13 of the top 20 payers. Upon closing, David Pierre will lead the combined company as CEO, with Machinify’s Founder and CEO Prasanna Ganesan assuming the role of EVP and Chief Product Officer and joining the Board of Directors. Rawlings, Apixio PI and VARIS will maintain their respective legacy sub-brand names. 

RBC (TSX: RY) (NYSE: RY) today announced it has partnered with Cohere, a leader in security and privacy-focused enterprise AI, to co-develop and securely deploy an enterprise generative AI (genAI) solution optimized for financial services. The platform, called North for Banking, will integrate with RBC’s and Cohere’s own proprietary foundation models, as well as RBC’s internal platforms with the goal to accelerate the development of genAI solutions at RBC securely and efficiently. This collaboration leverages the expertise of each organization to develop more accurate and verifiable models, with a focus on risk and security features to protect companies in the financial services industry. 

RBC recently ranked #1 in Canada and third globally for artificial intelligence (AI) maturity among 50 global financial institutions in the Evident AI Index. The Index scores financial institutions across four key pillars: Talent, Innovation, Leadership and Transparency. 

Savvy Advisors Inc. (“Savvy” or “Savvy Advisors”), a federally registered investment advisor (RIA) affiliated with Savvy Wealth Inc., today announces it has surpassed $1 billion in client assets under management (AUM), tripling its assets since the start of 2024. At the same time, Savvy added four more experienced financial advisors in December, capping off a transformative year of expansion. These developments follow Savvy Wealth’s $26.5 million Series A funding round earlier this year, and underscore its affiliated RIA’s strong trajectory heading into 2025. 

Central to Savvy’s success is its commitment to delivering human-centric advice supported by advanced, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered technology. This approach allows advisors to focus on building strong client relationships while leveraging tools that streamline financial planning and operations. The appeal of this model is illustrated by industry benchmarks from Schwab’s 2024 RIA Benchmarking Study, which reported total AUM growth of 18% (including market performance) and organic growth rates of ~5% at the median and ~12% for top-performing firms. By tripling its AUM and advisor headcount in 2024, Savvy far exceeded these benchmarks, further validating its mission to modernize human financial advice. 

Savvy now employs 40 advisors who have access to its AI-powered technology platform. With experience spanning private equity, corporate banking and holistic financial planning, this latest cohort of high-caliber advisor recruits further solidifies the firm’s aspirations to be a top destination for elite advisor talent. Collectively, these new additions bring a wide range of experience, from navigating complex tax and generational wealth planning to advising executives in the technology and venture capital sectors. 

Scienaptic AI, a global leader in AI-powered credit underwriting, today announced that Members Choice Credit Union, based in Kentucky, has chosen its platform to enhance credit access for its member community. By adopting Scienaptic’s AI-powered, regulatory-compliant technology, Members Choice Credit Union aims to make faster, smarter credit decisions, streamline processes, and extend lending to underserved members. 

Founded in 1932 by steelworkers from Armco Steel, Members Choice Credit Union (MCCU) was established on the principle of “people helping people,” with a mission to encourage thrift among its members and provide credit at fair and reasonable rates. In the early 1990s, MCCU expanded its reach to serve additional employee groups, reflecting its commitment to improving the financial well-being of its members and their families. Over the decades, it has evolved into a trusted financial cooperative with six locations, serving the broader Eastern Kentucky community. 

Today, Spring Financial, a Canadian financial technology company simplifying the lending process for everyday Canadians, announces the launch of Bloom, an AI-driven financial concierge mobile app for everyday Canadians. Bloom redefines financial management by harnessing Artificial Intelligence to make banking, spending and budgeting completely transparent and exceedingly easy. 

At the core of Bloom is Oscar AI, an intelligent financial assistant that is ready to answer any question users have about their finances. Users can ask Oscar how much they spent on Uber last month, how much they’re spending on subscription services, and even compare their spending habits to average spending behaviours on any given item. 

Real-time access to financial insights enables users to make smart financial decisions that are customized to their spending patterns. From automatically categorizing transactions to building credit for Canadian renters through rent reporting, Bloom empowers users with the tools and knowledge they need to take control of their finances. 

TIFIN AMP Inc. (“TIFIN AMP”), an AI-powered distribution intelligence platform, is proud to announce a strategic partnership with Janus Henderson Investors (“Janus Henderson”), a leading global active asset manager overseeing approximately $382 billion in assets under management. This collaboration introduces a fully-integrated, insights-based tool designed to streamline data management, enhance productivity, and drive growth. 

Over the last several months, TIFIN AMP and Janus Henderson have collaborated to equip wholesalers with actionable insights to identify growth opportunities and align efforts across teams. TIFIN AMP’s tool further enhances productivity by providing precise, contextual recommendations. These capabilities enable wholesalers to deliver valuable intelligence, seeking to help advisors identify the best products for their clients. 

This partnership represents a pivotal step in harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to revolutionize distribution strategies, enhancing synergy and alignment among asset managers, wholesalers, and advisors. 

Sandia Area Federal Credit Union (Sandia Area), a leading New Mexico credit union with nearly 90,000 members and over $1.2 billion in assets, has announced its partnership with Upstart (NASDAQ: UPST), the leading artificial intelligence (AI) lending marketplace, to offer personal loans to more consumers. 

Sandia Area started lending as a partner on the Upstart Referral Network in April 2024. With the Upstart Referral Network, qualified personal loan applicants on Upstart.com who meet Sandia Area’s credit policies will receive tailored offers as they seamlessly transition into a Sandia Area-branded experience to complete the online member application and closing process. 

Wolters Kluwer Compliance Solutions has launched iLien Borrower Analytics, an AI-powered offering that helps lenders streamline the associated processes of lien search and due diligence when onboarding borrowers. The solution analyzes UCC (Uniform Commercial Code) search documents and delivers actionable intelligence reports in a timely, compliant manner, representing the latest innovation in Wolters Kluwer’s portfolio of award-winning, automated lending solutions. 

iLien Borrower Analytics compiles critical information about a debtor’s collateral assets used to secure their commercial loans’ lien positions, and other risk factors, in addition to the public records data extracted by its iLien UCC search. 

iLien Borrower Analytics generates an organized chain of filings to show the current status of collateral assets and parties for active liens. Its functionality helps shift the onboarding process from an internal staff focus to one that is technology-driven, helping minimize the time-consuming and often labor-intensive review of asset documents, reducing manual processes and providing lenders with actionable insights based on the intelligence gleaned from key UCC analysis about the borrower’s assets. Those insights allow lenders to make better and faster lending decisions.