Romania’s FlowX.ai Raises $35M for AI-Based Approach to Application Integration

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“Digital transformation” and AI are still very hot terms in the world of enterprise software, and now a Romanian startup is building a platform that leverages both concepts. and has attracted the attention of users in the financial sector and is well funded. FlowX.ai, which helps companies port traditional and new software in one place to build and run applications and services based on them, raised $35 million in Series A funding. , used to continue product development and grow the business internationally. .

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, while connecting with aspirants includes system integrators (IBM, KPMG etc.). 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 talking to Yoan Iacov (CEO who co-founded the company with Radu Kautis and Servan Chirichescu) later, ask him about the numbers, and we’ll update this post when we know more. .

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 demands, some to improve or launch specific new products, and some new companies to enter the market. It’s meant to meet the facts. Win 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. “Instead, companies got thousands of disjointed point solutions and ended up stuck with inflexible solutions, vendors and proprietary technologies. FlowX.AI addresses this problem. We are proud that our platform has enabled our customers to accelerate their application modernization in unprecedented ways – what used to take years, now It will be completed in a few 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 both earn some of that investment, but also mitigate some of that loss.

“Technology innovation continues to accelerate, but the businesses that underpin our daily lives run on technologies that are 100 years old. An itinerary can be created in seconds, but it will take years for banks to offer new mortgage products,” Dawn general partner Evgenia Plotnikova said in a statement. “Enterprise leaders want to rapidly increase the pace of change, and FlowX.AI provides an elegant and intuitive solution. Ioan and his team are further proof that innovation is happening across Europe, and as FlowX.AI becomes a true global player, we are excited to support them.”