Finnish startup Inven just raised a $12.8m Series A for its AI-native deal sourcing platform. The pan-European VC firm Ventech and Nordics-based investor Vendep Capital led the round, with the former Nokia chair Risto Siilasmaa and existing backers Lifeline Ventures also participating.
Inven helps private equity firms, investment banks and consultants discover high-potential private companies globally. Its platform is solving the issue for users of insufficient or unclear data, as well as the manual work required by financial professionals.
The platform analyses data from millions of sources to suggest hard-to-find opportunities using AI-powered tools such as natural language search, enrichment and predictive signals.
“The very core of our platform is about analysing companies — that’s when we really shine,” says cofounder Niilo Pirttijärvi.
With the new capital, Inven is doubling down on plans for a US expansion and will increase hiring across engineering, product and go-to-market teams. With a current team of around 50, it plans to at least double that number this year.
The use of AI in investments is on the rise among VCs and other investors alike. Last week, Sifted reported Revolut founder Nik Storonsky’s VC firm QuantumLight had closed a $250m fund. The VC bases all its investment decisions on its AI-led deal platform. Another example is EQT Ventures, which has used its AI engine Mother Brain for years.
With two of its cofounders having work experience in investment banks and management consultancies, they witnessed the issue first-hand. It was there the idea for Inven was born.
“Thomas, a cofounder, was working in an investment bank. He was analysing a few thousand companies and manually going through their websites one by one to check if they were doing the right thing. At the management consultancies, we noticed the same issues and a really outdated way of building lists of companies and analysing markets,” Pirttijärvi says.
According to Inven, there is demand for a service like theirs. Since 2023, the startup has achieved 670% year-on-year growth, and has over 700 clients across Europe and the US — the company’s largest market.
But there is a lot of competition in the market, led by large companies in the US. “Everybody has their own thing, where they’re the world’s best. And for us, it’s really about just having the largest possible database of companies and then having the best AI capabilities,” Pirttijärvi says.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/ai-deal-platform-inven-series-a/
