Gradient Labs, a Monzo alumni-founded startup building AI agents for finance, has doubled its Series A funding round from $13m to $26m.
Sifted reported on the initial Series A in July last year, led by US VC Redpoint Ventures with participation from LocalGlobe, Puzzle Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures and Exceptional Capital.
New investors Octopus Ventures and CommerzVentures led the additional investment with follow-on backing from Redpoint Ventures and Exceptional Capital.
The London-based startup develops vertical AI agents built to automate customer service operations in finance like lending, disputes, and Know Your Customer (KYC) checks. Its customers include payments giant Wise, digital bank Monzo and insurtech Zego.
Gradient is one of the several businesses that have popped up in recent years building AI agents for customer services.
San Francisco-based startups Sierra and Decagon provide enterprise AI for customer services and raised $950m and $250m this year, respectively. They target large enterprises broadly while Gradient focuses on finance.
With the new capital, Gradient plans to accelerate its US expansion and further its product strategy.
“What we’re building is the agent layer that financial services need to run their customer operations autonomously,” says Dimitri Masin, cofounder and CEO of Gradient Labs.
Masin founded the business in 2023 with fellow former Monzo engineers Neal Lathia and Danai Antoniou.