AI & Finance™ | News for the Week Ending 8/1/25

Alix, a first-of-its-kind wealth transfer platform, today announced a $20 million Series A funding round from Acrew Capital, Charles Schwab and Edward Jones Ventures*. Existing investors Initialized Capital, Scribble, Magnify, Ziegler Link•age Funds, and Cameron Ventures also participated in the oversubscribed Series A round. This additional funding will support the company’s growth strategy, bringing the power of AI-enabled estate settlement to more families in need. 

Alix is the first and only automated wealth transfer solution designed to simplify the estate settlement process. With today’s announcement, Alix has now raised a total of $30.65M. To date the company has been focused on demonstrating proof of concept, customer acquisition and brand awareness, and setting up its partnership infrastructure that brings Alix into distribution partners throughout the US. The new financing will supercharge its agentic AI strategy, enabling Alix to scale its product and onboard new executors faster, create a more seamless experience for customers and build new integrations that further connect estate settlement to the rest of the financial value chain. Additionally, Alix will expand its workforce, adding new AI-focused product and engineering talent, and strengthening its sales teams. Alix is also opening a San Francisco office to capitalize on the Bay Area’s primacy in AI, driving the company’s product development and innovation goals this year. 

As the nearly $124T Great Wealth Transfer continues over the next two decades, services like Alix will become more critical. The burden of managing an estate currently takes 12-18 months and up to 900 hours following someone’s death. Alix has cracked the code for how to simplify this inherently complex process by providing an AI and automation-assisted partner that guides executors from start to finish. Alix is future-proofing wealth management strategies for the next generation. 

Allvue Systems, LLC, a leading provider of investment management technology solutions for alternative asset managers, today announced the launch of Andi for Fund Accounting. Andi, an advanced AI-powered knowledge agent, is now available to private equity and fund administration professionals using Allvue’s Fund Accounting platform. Leveraging Allvue’s secure Agentic AI Platform, Andi acts as an AI Knowledge Agent that is capable of real-time interactive intelligence, significantly enhancing productivity and user experience. 

Designed to assist users in navigating complex workflows such as capital calls, equity pickups, issuer and security setup, fund permissions, and vendor payment applications, Andi provides instant, accurate answers sourced directly from product specific documentation on the Allvue Fund Accounting platform. Its intelligent, dynamic approach adapts responses based on situational context. 

Ease of access and security are critical components of Andi’s design. The extension is easily enabled within browsers such as Chrome and Microsoft Edge, with quick installations available directly through the Chrome Web Store and Microsoft Edge Add-ons page. 

Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE: ALLY), home to the nation’s largest all-digital bank and an industry-leading auto financing business, today announced its more than 10,000 employees have access to its proprietary enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) platform, Ally.ai. This step delivers on Ally’s long-time position that generative AI should be a supplemental, supportive resource for its workforce that also delivers value to its business. 

With access to Ally.ai, employees can leverage generative AI to streamline everyday tasks, like drafting emails, creating meeting agendas, developing first drafts and proofreading copy – allowing time to focus on other projects. Ally.ai was designed with the flexibility to integrate with commercially available large language models (LLMs) and other AI capabilities, so the platform can also help employees analyze data to make informed decisions while allowing for out-of-the box, creative thinking and brainstorming ideas. 

In support of its dedication to responsibly deploy AI technology, Ally became the first U.S. bank member of the Responsible AI Institute. As part of its generative AI approach, Ally implemented processes designed to help ensure strong data security, robust customer privacy and rigorous model risk review before deployment, and routine monitoring of outcomes. Ally integrates risk and control requirements from the outset in all data and AI projects, embedding controls in parallel to building solutions to carefully manage challenges and risks concerning the broader use of data. 

april, the embedded, AI tax platform, has closed $38 million in a Series B funding round led by QED Investors, with participation from Nyca Partners and Team8, bringing the company’s total funding to $78 million. 

The raise follows a number of key milestones for the company. In early 2025, april became the first new company in over 15 years to achieve national e-file coverage, a major milestone that only approximately ten other companies have achieved. During the 2024 tax season, april was available to millions of Americans through more than 50 partners, processing hundreds of thousands of tax returns. Year to date, the business has tripled in size, reflecting the demand for embedded tax within financial institutions. 

This season also marked an expansion of april’s filing capabilities. In addition to its self-service offering, april launched pro-assisted and pro-led tax filing services, enabling partners to support a broader set of tax needs directly within their own platforms. april’s AI powered tax infrastructure integrates federal and state filing into a single flow and leverages partner data to pre-fill forms, reducing median time to file to 22 minutes, compared to the IRS average of 13 hours. The platform also boasts an exceptional Net Promoter Score (NPS) of over 60, reflecting strong user satisfaction and trust. Partners saw refund deposit rates over 98%, underscoring the business impact of integrating tax functionality directly into financial platforms. 

Auctionomics, the world’s leading market design firm, and OCX Group Inc, parent company of OneChronos, the technology company leveraging advances in auction theory and computer science to optimize financial markets, today announced a partnership to develop the first financial market for GPU and compute capacity. This collaboration aims to create the financial infrastructure needed to help organizations including investors in data centers, data center operators, power generators, chip manufacturers, and enterprise buyers navigate unprecedented demand for AI compute over the next decade. 

Auctionomics was co-founded by Paul Milgrom, a co-recipient of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Economics for auction theory, and Dr. Silvia Console Battilana, who serves as CEO and led the team’s Emmy-winning design of the FCC auction that enabled television streaming. Together they use game theory and mathematical models to create the right incentives to make the most complicated auctions go smoothly. Auctionomics’ market designs have generated billions in economic value while addressing critical challenges in telecommunications, natural resources, and digital markets. The incentive auction forever transformed media consumption by enabling television streaming and high-bandwidth mobile applications, and is poised to have a similarly transformative impact on the global compute market. 

Combined with a new application of OneChronos’ Smart Market technology, the new off-exchange marketplace will be designed to deliver real-time price discovery and liquidity through bi-lateral forwards which will provide users with the ability to lock in future capacity and pricing in advance. This auction-based approach is a step toward more efficiently allocating data center and energy resources, including GPU capacity, and addresses a fundamental challenge facing any organization providing access to compute or building and deploying AI applications: the inability to reliably hedge against price, availability, and efficiency of compute resources and upstream supply chains in a market that is rapidly growing and changing. 

Cleo, the world’s first AI financial assistant, today launched its most advanced product yet: Cleo 3.0, introducing two-way voice conversations, long-term memory, and advanced reasoning to the platform. Designed to feel more like a human coach than an app, Cleo now helps users understand and improve their finances through deeply personalized, emotionally intelligent interactions. This transforms Cleo from a helpful chatbot into a human-like money coach that learns each user’s habits and provides expert, 24/7 guidance once reserved for the wealthy. 

Unlike traditional money apps or chatbots, Cleo 3.0 is built for behavior change, not just tracking balances. Cleo is already helping millions build better money habits, with users engaging 20x more than they do with typical banking apps. 

In 2025, Cleo is on track to surpass 1 million paid subscribers, with year-to-date momentum crossing $250 million in annual recurring revenue—growing more than 2x year-over-year—all while maintaining net profitability. 

Conduent Incorporated (Nasdaq: CNDT), a global technology-driven business solutions and services provider, today announced a strategic collaboration with Fairmarkit, an autonomous AI-powered sourcing platform designed to optimize procurement workflows from RFP to award for all levels of spend. The Fairmarkit sourcing technology will complement Conduent’s FastCap® Finance Analytics, which improves financial performance by identifying cost-saving opportunities within procurement and spend management. 

The data from FastCap, a finance analytics tool that prevents and recovers payment errors, can identify opportunities to improve tail spend. Combining the capabilities of FastCap and Fairmarkit automates the capture of those tail spend opportunities to accelerate savings. 

By preventing or recovering overpayments, FastCap identified over $800 million of savings and recoveries, representing up to 10% of addressable spend, since 2021. Through spend compliance, automated bidding and enhanced supply options, FastCap and Fairmarkit together could drive 3-6% more in savings for companies. 

Conquest Planning Inc. (“Conquest”), a technology platform modernizing planning with customized and convenient advice, today announced a strategic partnership with BMO. Together, the firms have built My Financial Progress, a digital, self-serve experience available in the bank’s Mobile Banking app and Online Banking platform to help BMO’s clients take control of their financial journey. 

BMO’s My Financial Progress leverages Conquest’s proprietary planning technology to help users set financial goals, monitor their progress and build a comprehensive snapshot of their financial health. At the centre of this partnership is Conquest’s Strategic Advice Manager (“SAM”). SAM models financial scenarios and suggests optimized strategies that balance the client’s immediate needs with their long-term goals. By handling complex calculations and clearly explaining recommendations, SAM empowers informed decision-making for clients in all phases of life. 

As part of My Financial Progress, BMO clients will benefit from interactive planning features that identify gaps, opportunities and risks within their plans—offering proactive recommendations to help sustain progress and optimize strategies. Users can easily see how different strategies impact each goal and their overall plan, with automatically updated visuals that highlight goal and plan health. As life events unfold, plans will adjust in real time, presenting alternative paths to help clients stay confident and prepared for whatever the future brings. 

DXC Technology (NYSE: DXC), a leading Fortune 500 global technology services provider, today announced DXC Assure Risk Management, a next-generation solution that unites AI and human expertise to help self-insured organizations better manage employee care, control healthcare costs, and accelerate return-to-work outcomes. 

Self-insured organizations use their own funds to cover employee insurance claims instead of purchasing traditional insurance. As a result, they often face a distinct set of challenges: delivering effective employee care, navigating complex and time-consuming regulations, managing escalating healthcare costs, and improving return-to-work outcomes. 

With over 40 years of industry expertise, DXC is the trusted partner of choice for 21 of the top 25 insurers. As the leading provider of core insurance systems, DXC continues to innovate—helping insurers reduce complexity and costs across more than 1 billion policies processed on DXC software. 

EquiLend has expanded its capabilities as a global leader in securities finance with the acquisition of Trading Apps, a front-office technology provider known for its automation tools and modular trading solutions used by many of the world’s leading securities finance desks. 

The acquisition aligns with EquiLend’s broader strategy to streamline the entire securities finance ecosystem – from front-office through post-trade – by embedding automation and flexibility at every stage. By integrating Trading Apps’ solutions, EquiLend expands its capabilities and offers clients tools that can be used independently or integrated with existing services. 

Trading Apps offers a suite of innovative tools that enhance trading efficiency and automation across the securities finance ecosystem. Among its flagship offerings, the Lender and Borrower Apps are designed to automate front-office workflows, maximize execution speed, and accelerate trade flows. These tools help with identifying short positions, negotiating rates, and optimizing returns, while reducing manual workload, increasing trade volume capacity, and providing traders more control over lending and borrowing decisions. 

FNZ, a leading end-to-end wealth management platform has today announced a global, five-year strategic partnership with Microsoft to transform the wealth management industry through technology, innovation and AI-driven digital solutions. 

The partnership combines FNZ’s industry-leading technology, wealth management expertise and global reach with Microsoft’s advanced AI capabilities, cloud infrastructure and engineering excellence. 

By integrating Microsoft Azure AI Foundry at the heart of its platform, FNZ is redefining how financial institutions, advisors and their clients interact by delivering more personalized, intelligent and resilient digital wealth management experiences. This collaboration with Microsoft accelerates this transformation by helping FNZ bring new solutions to market faster, enhance client outcomes, boost advisor productivity and drive innovation across industry. 

GReminders, a leading end-to-end meeting and automation management platform for financial advisors, announces the launch of its fully autonomous “Do Anything” assistant. The new features mark a major leap forward in agentic artificial intelligence (AI) for the wealth management industry, moving from reactive prompt-based AI to proactive execution across the full lifecycle of client meetings. 

Building on the “Ask Anything” assistant released in March of this year, “Do Anything” takes the next step forward by no longer waiting for advisor input. Now, the GReminders solution proactively anticipates upcoming meetings, curates relevant information and automates meaningful action. 

“Do Anything” builds on the GReminders mission to simplify and automate day-to-day operations for financial advisors by putting their own data to work. The assistant operates entirely within the firm’s existing systems, helping to ensure that every action is both context-aware and compliance-ready. 

Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU), the global financial technology platform that makes Intuit TurboTax, Credit Karma, QuickBooks, and Mailchimp, announced today the launch of a series of new product innovations in Intuit QuickBooks, that deliver a more intelligent and automated accounting experience for businesses and their accountants across international markets. 

These enhancements reflect Intuit’s commitment to continuous innovation—delivering both everyday efficiencies and breakthrough capabilities that redefine how businesses run and grow, and how accounting is done. They also mark the ongoing evolution of the Intuit platform, offering all-in-one-place business solutions that leverage AI to automate everyday tasks and manage complex workflows, bringing together the data they need, and eliminating the use of multiple disconnected tools. 

The full suite of innovations can be explored in detail at Intuit’s new QuickBooks Launchpad; a central resource supporting users in staying up-to-date with what’s new and what’s next, in terms of product features and innovations. 

PCI Pal® (LON: PCIP) today announced the launch of its new Fraud Management Suite, beginning with AI-powered risk scoring for customer engagements. Designed to protect against rising card-not-present (CNP) fraud, the new capability delivers real-time risk insights to agents and AI bots before a payment is collected — reducing chargebacks and revenue loss without adding friction to the customer experience. 

CNP fraud remains one of the most costly threats for global businesses. While e-commerce channels benefit from tools like 3D Secure and biometric authentication, the voice channel — still central to many contact centers — has lacked equivalent protection. PCI Pal is closing that gap with a platform-led approach that combines security, compliance, and usability. 

A team of former ServiceNow leaders, (Kara (Donato) Anderson, Abhishek Bajpai and Chirag Jindal) have announced the launch of Plutus, a bold new entrant into the ServiceNow partner ecosystem focused on delivering Agentic AI solutions tailored for the insurance industry. The startup has secured pre-seed funding from Moneta Ventures, underscoring strong investor confidence in its vision to transform insurance carriers and brokers using ServiceNow. 

ServiceNow recently announced its vision to be the leader in CRM, and Plutus aims to be the leader in not only furthering that vision but also advising carriers and brokers on how to consume innovations across the entire ServiceNow platform. 

TresVista, a global enterprise that has established itself as a leader in delivering scalable, technology-enabled solutions that drive operational excellence across company types and industries, has entered into a multi-year, exclusive partnership with Model ML, the premier AI-native orchestration platform powering intelligent agents for enterprise-scale workflows. 

Together, the firms are building bespoke AI agents that will set a new standard across the investment services space. By combining Model ML’s agent orchestration architecture with TresVista’s unparalleled expertise in financial workflows, the partnership is poised to deliver capabilities the industry has never seen before, combining sophisticated and customized AI tools with human intelligence and accountability at the front end. 

The first wave of intelligent agents will be deployed to clients in TresVista’s highest-value investment research workflows, tackling complex, high-touch mandates with enhanced precision, speed, and scalability. 

Trovata, the next-generation multibank data platform powering cash and liquidity management for today’s leading companies, announced its acquisition of ATOM, the enterprise Treasury Management System (TMS) developed by Financial Sciences Corporation. This move marks a bold step forward in Trovata’s mission to modernize and democratize treasury technology, unlocking the full capabilities required to serve large global enterprises. 

With ATOM’s deep treasury feature set—including support for debt and investment instruments, intercompany transactions, in-house bank support, credit facilities, FX hedging, full domestic and international payment workflow, bank fee analysis and bank account management—fully integrated into Trovata’s cloud-native platform, Trovata becomes the first modern, viable TMS alternative to the legacy incumbents. The combined offering delivers unprecedented scale, flexibility, and performance for corporate finance and treasury teams seeking to modernize. 

Trovata also announced a $9 million strategic extension to its Series B round from new investors State Street Corporation and The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. This brings the company’s total funding to $80 million, with over $50 million previously raised from a consortium of some of the world’s largest financial services companies, including J.P. Morgan, Wells Fargo, National Australia Bank, Capital One Ventures, and Mastercard. 

Vanilla, the modern estate planning platform that simplifies and elevates the advisor-client experience, announced today that it has been granted a U.S. patent for its innovative event-based resource allocation system. This proprietary technology underpins many of the platform’s most advanced capabilities, including report automation, waterfall calculations, estate visualizations and abstractions, and AI-powered opportunity discovery. 

The patented system represents a major breakthrough in estate planning technology, utilizing advanced machine learning models and real-time event processing to transform how financial advisors manage and allocate client resources. This technology addresses the complex challenges of estate planning by automatically generating personalized resource allocation visualizations, notifications, and projections based on dynamic client circumstances and regulatory changes. 

The newly issued patent broadly covers methods and systems for dynamically processing, allocating, and visualizing resources through rule-based and machine learning models. It enables real-time estate modeling and recalculation in response to document-driven inputs, streamlining previously manual and error-prone processes. Core elements of the patented system allow Vanilla to automate highly complex estate planning operations, including the transformation of static estate documents into interactive visualizations, and the dynamic computation of asset transfers across beneficiary structures. 

Zafin, the strategic platform partner that banks trust to accelerate innovation and deliver transformative customer value, is collaborating with OpenAI to apply ChatGPT Enterprise across its product development and delivery operations. By embedding AI into how its teams work and investing in training and enablement, Zafin is driving greater development velocity improving product quality, and strengthening its ability to support banks with precision. 

Banks today face mounting pressure from outdated infrastructure, nimble digital challengers, and evolving customer expectations. To help them deliver personalized products and services at speed, Zafin is scaling platform capabilities and empowering its teams to build with sharper focus and efficiency. OpenAI was selected not only for its technical leadership, but because its approach to human–AI collaboration aligns closely with Zafin’s own AI principles. Together, the two companies are shaping how intelligent systems and human expertise can work in concert—accelerating innovation while maintaining the trust, control, and precision that banks demand. 

Zafin is embracing generative AI not as a tool, but as a capability embedded across the organization, one that creates a strategic edge for both its teams and clients. By applying OpenAI’s models through ChatGPT Enterprise across internal workflows from prototyping and documentation to enablement and collaboration, Zafin is reducing manual cycles, and freeing up teams to focus on high-impact innovation. What began as a clear vision to make teams “superhuman” has become a core part of how Zafin builds, supported by strong adoption and a sustained focus on responsible scaling.