One of the biggest funding rounds in Israel this year has been secured by FundGuard, a startup that uses cutting-edge AI to provide asset managers with financial insights.

The $100 million Series C investment, announced at the end of March, comes as FundGuard pledges to reshape the future of investment and fund accounting.

Founded in 2018, the Tel Aviv-based company provides automated systems that help financial firms manage their investments more effectively in mutual funds, ETFs (exchange-traded funds), hedge funds, insurance products and pension funds.

It uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to make sense of vast jumbles of information known as data lakes. Doing so allows users to make faster and more accurate decisions, based on advanced data analytics capabilities that can produce real-time alerts and tailored recommendations. Users pay for FundGuard on a SaaS (software as a service) subscription basis. 

The AI can also automatically identify and resolve data mismatches, look for anomalies or deviations from expected patterns and resolve them. It performs tasks that no worker – or team of workers – would have the time, patience or dedication to perform.

FundGuard has 90 employees, with overseas offices in New York, Boston and London. The $100m raised will help the company fund product innovation and attract new customers.

“This latest significant investment round reflects the ongoing support of the industry, the confidence our investors have in the value our products bring to the market, and their trust in our leadership and strategic roadmap,” said Lior Yogev, the company’s co-founder and CEO.

Yogev and his fellow co-founders Yaniv Zecharya (CTO) and Uri Katz (VP R&D) served in the IDF’s 8200 intelligence unit and have experience in the finance and tech worlds.

“The exceptional team at FundGuard has developed a unique, cutting-edge technology platform over the last five years, empowering asset managers and fund administrators with a timely, accurate, and cost-efficient solution to support their investment accounting operations,” said Amit Pilowsky, managing partner of Key1 Capital, which led FundGuard’s latest round.

“It is rare to witness a company at this stage receiving significant attention from the largest and most sophisticated clients in an industry dominated by incumbents,” Pilowsky added. “This serves as a testament to just how valuable and unique FundGuard’s solution is.”

Startups in Israel are still attracting funding, largely from overseas, despite the war in Gaza and global economic slowdown. FundGuard’s $100m is second this year only to a $116m investment round for the cybersecurity firm Silverfort in January.