Reading’s YFM Equity Partners leads £4.5m funding round for AI firm Xapien

By Daniel Face

19 April 2023

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Xapien has closed a £4.5 million funding round led by YFM Equity Partners and backed by D2 Fund, raising a total of £6 million.

Dubbed “the ChatGPT of Due Diligence”, Xapien has seen plenty of success since its commercial launch in January last year. The company uses AI to deliver a fully sourced executive-level report on any person or organisation, anywhere in the world, within minutes.

YFM brought together a team from Reading and London to head the investment, which will help Xapien to accelerate its product development, expand into new verticals and extend its footprint in the US.

David Wrench, Partner at YFM’s Reading office, said: “Xapien has demonstrated impressive growth over the past 12 months. The high calibre management team has a well-defined vision and plan to grow the business further.

“They have built technology that is providing demonstrable return on investment to its customers. What today takes days when produced manually can be done in minutes through Xapien.”

Founded by technology experts with decades of experience in intelligence and financial crime, Xapien emulates the complex process of human-led research through its AI and natural language processing approach.

The reports it produces have seen use in client onboarding, investment due diligence, compliance, reputational and integrity due diligence, and donor prospect research, among a host of other applications.

Xapien CEO Chris Green said: “YFM and D2 Fund really understand the market that we are serving and share our vision to transform it using AI and deep technology.

“This investment will accelerate our product roadmap, deepen our proprietary application of Large Language Models, enhance our Identity Resolution Engine, and turbo-charge our growth in sectors where we are experiencing strong demand, including legal, fintech, insurance, private equity, and philanthropy.

“It is an important step in our journey to help the world do better business.”

David Wrench was joined on the YFM team by Zach Francis and Jamie Roberts. They were advised by HCR, PKF Francis Clark, Emerse, and Philip Hare & Associates.

By Daniel Face

Born and raised in Berkshire, Dan fell into journalism after completing his bachelor’s degree in English at UCL.

Writing for The Business Magazine and local Biz News sites has given him the opportunity to chat with all manner of small business owners and share their success stories with a wider audience.

Outside of work, Dan enjoys live music, board games and quiz shows, and is making a slow but persistent effort to learn Spanish.