LONDON — Venture capital firm Blackbird has invested $10 million into Marloo, a startup based in London that builds artificial intelligence tools for financial advisers. The investment, announced on Tuesday, aims to support the development of software designed to handle routine administrative work. Marloo currently employs a team of developers in London who focus on automating manual data entry and compliance paperwork. The company confirmed that the $10 million injection represents the primary funding for this current round.
Financial advisers often spend more than 5 hours per day on manual record-keeping and compliance tasks, according to internal company data. Marloo intercepts this workflow by plugging into existing office software to draft documents and organize files. The system processes unstructured text from client conversations to populate database fields without human intervention. By removing these manual steps, the company claims it can save advisers multiple hours of work each week.
The $10 million funding will support the hiring of software engineers and machine learning specialists in London. These new employees will work to improve the platform's ability to sort through regulatory rulebooks and identify errors in compliance filings. Blackbird led the financing round, which includes plans to expand the engineering team throughout the remainder of 2024. The company did not disclose the total number of new hires planned for the London office.
Wealth management firms pay for access to the platform through recurring software license fees for every individual adviser. These firms currently use the technology to extract data from client meetings and populate internal systems. Marloo aims to reduce the need for additional administrative personnel at these wealth management offices. The startup has not provided specific figures regarding the number of firms currently using the system.
Marloo has not disclosed its post-money valuation following the $10 million investment from Blackbird. The company also declined to provide its current annual revenue figures or the names of other institutional investors involved in the deal. Investors have poured capital into the sector, betting that firms will pay for software that saves staff time. The startup did not provide a date for its next funding milestone.
