“Digital transformation” and AI are still very hot terms in the world of enterprise software, and today there is a Romanian startup that has built a platform that leverages both concepts. and has attracted the attention of users in the financial sector and is well funded. FlowX.ai — helping companies port traditional and new software in one place to build and run applications and services based on them — raises $35 million in Series A funding and use it to continue product development and growth. international business.
Dawn Capital led the round, with participation from PortfoLion, SeedBlink and DayOne Capital (who previously backed the company in a $9 million seed round).
FlowX.ai currently works mainly with companies in the financial sector, customers include BNP Paribas, OTP, Bank of Transylvania, Alfa Bank, and third parties such as system integrators (IBM, KPMG, etc.) depends a lot. -Be a user. That sweet spot is that these large legacy players will sooner launch new services that can be used internally or externally to compete with new products being brought to market by so-called neobanks and other new players. helps raise. FlowX.ai claims that nearly 30 million users have used products and services built using its platform since its launch four years ago.
FlowX.ai has not disclosed its valuation, but PitchBook has provided some of the startup’s recent financials. It reported revenue of just $1.55 million in the year ending December 2022, but an increase of more than 735% year-on-year. We’ll be speaking to CEO Yoan Iacob, who co-founded the company with Radu Kautis and Selvan Chirichescu, later on, asking about the numbers and as soon as we have more details, this post. will be updated.
The problem FlowX.ai is tackling is not new. Companies like MuleSoft, Boomi, Sapho, Tray.io and Snaplogic are making it easier for businesses to lock in and consume traditional and new applications and build services around them faster and easier. I have been working on a solution for many years. .
The fact that the first three companies on that list have been acquired by Salesforce, Dell and Citrix respectively is a strong indication of just how big the business potential in this space is and how much it is worth to the industry’s big tech companies. It’s a powerful sign.
The startup’s particular approach to the space is the application of AI, specifically to automate some of the integrations, applications, and services that companies spend a lot of time and money manually creating. using AI.
This is a particularly interesting problem and solution given FlowX.ai’s target market, the financial sector.
Many banks and other financial services organizations have been on a long “digital transformation” path for years. Some new software has been added to meet more regulatory requirements, some to improve or launch specific new products, and some to improve newer software or new products. is for the release of Startups are stealing customers with better service. But the reality is that many of these companies are still using a mix of tools that includes many very old legacy systems. The perennial challenge in these organizations is how to make old software (and old data) work with new applications and new data, or simply how to make old software work in a more modern and less siled way.
This is not a phenomenon unique to finance, and is often viewed as one of the most painful industries when it comes to modernization and what Aikob believes to be empty promises.
“For too long, companies have been promised useful tools to modernize their businesses. But these promises have not been kept,” he said in a statement, adding, “Instead, companies get thousands of disjointed point solutions and end up with inflexible solutions. , Vendor, became a captive of proprietary technology.” FlowX.AI addresses this issue. We are proud that our platform has enabled our customers to accelerate their application modernization in unprecedented ways. What used to take years now takes weeks. ”
Romania is an interesting country when it comes to corporate startups.
The company has been known for its technical prowess for many years, but is relatively new to marking its place on the map of the European startup ecosystem. A few years ago, another startup outside the region, UiPath, turned out to be one of the fastest growing and successful enterprise startups to emerge in recent years. Many investors grabbed the gold when it turned out to be essentially leading the way in the emerging category of robotic processes. Automation (now listed).
As a result, many people started to look more at foreign startups. For comparison, UiPath’s Series A in 2017 was just over $29 million. The $35 million announced today by FlowX.ai is a huge sum, not just for Romania, but for the market as a whole, with the average round size dropping significantly last year as tech finance was further squeezed.
Part of the argument here is that this is valuable because it helps drive more business in another valuable area, finance. FlowX.ai cites research that estimates that about $2 trillion was spent on digital transformation projects last year, with software errors likewise costing him $2 trillion over the same period. The idea is that FlowX.ai’s tools can earn some of that investment. But some of that loss is also mitigated.
“Technology innovation continues to accelerate, but the businesses that underpin our daily lives run on technology that is 100 years old. Itineraries can be created in seconds, but it will take banks years to offer new mortgage products,” Dawn general partner Evgenia Plotnikova said in a statement. As the pace of change accelerates, FlowX.AI offers an elegant and intuitive solution. This abstracts the legacy infrastructure of the horse-drawn carriage and allows the user to experience only the spaceship experience. Ioan and his team are further proof that innovation is happening across Europe and we are thrilled to support them as FlowX.AI becomes a true global player. ”
