Infima Appoints Fintech and ESG Veteran Hendrik Bartel as CEO, Closes Early Investment Led by Radical Ventures
Founded by a pioneer in deep learning finance, Infima emerges from stealth to bring predictive accuracy to securities investing
SAN MATEO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / August 2, 2022 / Infima Technologies, a provider of advanced solutions for fixed income markets, today announced that it has emerged from stealth and has raised a $5 million seed funding round led by AI-focused Radical Ventures. Additional investors include Franklin Templeton and ThirdStream Partners. The firm also announced that it has appointed fintech veteran Hendrik Bartel as CEO.
Infima is a Stanford University spinoff co-founded in 2020 by Kay Giesecke, a pioneer in large-scale deep learning systems in mortgage markets. Giesecke, who directs Stanford’s Advanced Financial Technologies Laboratory and directs the Mathematical and Computational Finance program, will transition to Chief Scientist and Chairman of the Board. Infima takes AI a step further, bringing deep learning technologies to help fixed income market participants make superior investment, trading and risk management decisions. Originally focused on the $10+ trillion mortgage market, Infima leverages data of unprecedented scale and granularity to provide investors, dealers, lenders and servicers with accurate and timely forecasts of future borrowers, collateral and market behavior.
Hendrik Bartel, former co-founder and CEO of Truvalue Labs, the pioneering ESG analytics provider, steps into the role of CEO. At Truvalue Labs, Hendrik oversaw the company’s growth from inception to the acquisition of Factset Research Systems in November 2020. Hendrik will drive the strategic direction of Infima, drawing on nearly two decades of experience leading high-growth technology companies and product initiatives.
“I am personally delighted to see Infima enter this next chapter in our growth and let Hendrik take the reins,” said Kay Giesecke, Chief Scientist and Chairman. “Combined with a confirmation of confidence from our investors, these changes signal that our solutions and our vision are gaining recognition from market players.”
AI-focused Radical Ventures led the seed round investment, which will enable Infima to accelerate its solution roadmap, integrate climate risk coverage and rapidly grow its customer and employee base across the entire mortgage-backed securities market.
“The massive mortgage market represents a huge opportunity, as Infima promises to unlock immediate value for asset managers by generating more accurate pricing for the credit markets,” said Parasvil Patel, partner at Radical Ventures. “As Infima continues to expand its offering, we believe now is the time to strengthen the management team with a CEO at the helm. Hendrik has a proven track record of successfully scaling operations and driving innovation in technology companies at all stages, and we are excited to partner with him as we look to Infima’s next phase of growth.”
“We have been impressed with Infima’s analytics technology since our initial investment in the company,” said Margaret King, VP, Fintech Partnership and Corporate Strategic Investments at Franklin Templeton. “Given the tightening of the housing market and rising interest rates, we see enormous potential for Infima’s platform, and we are pleased to play a role in advancing the company’s ambitions.”
About Infima
Infima’s unique deep learning technologies are transforming mortgage collateral analysis. The solutions provide actionable predictive insights into future borrower, security and market behavior, enabling investors, dealers and other market participants to make better decisions to drive performance. A 10-fold improvement in predictive accuracy vs. legacy solutions provide superior security selection and portfolio construction to portfolio managers and traders. Infima currently covers more than 325,000 mortgages backed by approximately 25 million mortgages and represents a total market capitalization of nearly $8 trillion. Infima has raised $5 million from Radical Ventures, Franklin Templeton and ThirdStream Partners. To learn more, visit infima.io
About Radical Ventures
Radical Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in people using artificial intelligence to shape the future of how we live, work and play. From healthcare and financial services to infrastructure and manufacturing, Radical partners with entrepreneurs who understand the transformative power of AI. Learn more at www.radical.vc.
Media contact
Elise Ouellette
Caliber Corporate Advisers for Infima
[email protected]
SOURCE: Infima
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