Why We Invested: Eigen Technologies
Artificial intelligence (AI) has now become a critical technology, helping organizations to solve real-world and costly problems. The ability to unlock unstructured data in a scalable fashion opens up a myriad of opportunities for industries such as financial services. In particular, banks and insurance companies have always relied on data to power business-critical decisions. More specifically, the insurance industry — as the original ‘big data’ industry — is based on the understanding that more information about individual risks in pools leads to more accurate predictions and better pricing. At Anthemis, AI and automation are a core part of our investment thesis, especially as they relate to the insurance industry, as, arguably, insurers are poised to benefit the most from such innovation. It is in this context that we are pleased to share news of our most recent investment: Eigen Technologies.
Addressing a huge market opportunity
Eigen is a no-code document AI platform that leverages natural language processing and machine learning to analyze and mine complex financial documents and legal contracts. By automating the extraction of insights from unstructured qualitative data, it enables organizations to make better-informed decisions by unlocking the value of that qualitative data. It is estimated that the global AI market within banking, financial services and insurance alone will reach $247 billion by 2026, registering an impressive compound annual growth rate of 38 percent from 2019.
Eigen has outstanding technology
Unlike typical machine learning models that require thousands (or even hundreds of thousands!) of examples to teach a system before it can make decisions that might mimic those of a human, Eigen’s technology requires only two to 50 training examples to teach its platform about a new document or to answer a new question. This, coupled with a best-in-class, pre-trained tables extraction capability, allows for scalability — from tens or hundreds of documents in ad-hoc front-office use cases, all the way to millions of documents for operational use cases.
Eigen has established successful commercial relationships with over 40 percent of the Globally Systemic Important Banks (G-SIBs) and four of the ‘Top 6’ American Banks, including Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas, ING and US Bank, as well as asset managers ranging from BlackRock to Fortress Investment Group, and insurers including Aviva. Eigen’s broad range of use cases (including automation of front, middle and back office tasks) is supporting its ability to grow with existing customers as well as to expand to new use cases in other opportunity spaces, including insurance.
Brought to life by a world-class team
Few founders have such deep domain expertise as Dr Lewis Z. Liu, Eigen’s CEO. Lewis started his career working with large financial institutions at McKinsey & Company and Aleron Partners. Lewis holds a Doctorate in Atomic and Laser Physics from the University of Oxford. During his studies at Oxford, Lewis invented a new class of X-ray laser; the mathematics behind this invention were later embedded into Eigen’s core technology. Lewis has built an incredible team of scientists, strategists, operators and advisors around him.
The insurance industry is burdened with tremendous amounts of unstructured data as well as legacy processes that rely heavily on that data. Eigen’s ability to offer a no-code solution that delivers market-leading results — with a small number of examples — has driven significant value for their financial institution partners. As the insurance industry looks to use data as a differentiator and to drive greater operating efficiencies, Eigen is the perfect example of a next-generation technology that will allow insurers to achieve their strategic priorities. We are looking forward to supporting Lewis and his team as they continue to grow into new verticals.
