Gradient Labs, a startup creating AI agents for the financial services industry and founded by former Monzo alumni, has raised $13 million.
The Series A funding was led by by Redpoint Ventures, with participation from Exceptional Capital, Liquid 2, LocalGlobe, and Puzzle Ventures.
The firm was co-founded by former Monzo alumni, Dimitri Masin, who led the data team at the neobank, alongside chief scientist Danai Antoniou and the man behind Monzo's machine-learing infrastructure, Neal Lathia.
The firm launched Otto, its first AI agent, in November. The chatbot hadles complex customer queries, and is capable of accurately identifying vulnerable customers, detecting complaints, and avoiding pitfalls such as giving unauthorized financial advice or tipping off.
Customers already onboarded include Plum, Zego, Lendable, Yonder, Nala, Sling, and the "first live autonomous AI customer support for a large regulated bank".
The company says customers reach 40-60% auto-resolution rates within days without any custom integrations.
"Our AI agent consistently achieves higher Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) scores than our partners’ best human agents," boasts Masin. "In every deployment, our AI doesn't just match the performance of existing customer service teams; it consistently surpasses them, often achieving higher CSAT scores than even the best human agents."
He says the funds will be used to train its AI agents on the complex decision-making required in money laundering investigations, technical troubleshooting, and nuanced compliance scenarios, and for expansion into the US.