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Arbolus snaps $15M funding to make offline human knowledge digital using AI

Arbolus
Image credits: Arbolus

Arbolus, a London-headquartered knowledge-sharing platform digitising human knowledge, has closed $15 million in a Series A funding round. The investment was led by Element Ventures alongside existing investors Fuel Ventures, an early-stage investment fund founded by Mark Pearson. 

Further, the investment has been supported by Silicon Valley Bank which will be providing a debt facility alongside the equity. The UK-based business has seen its revenue triple in the last year, it also doubled the team size to 120+, witnessed increased customer demand and expanded its operations into the US, Spain and India. The new capital will help Arbolus meet growing customer demand, develop further products and continue its disruption of knowledge sharing. 

Sam Glasswell, CEO and co-founder tells TFN, “The investment will be used to grow the team further, develop more product features and expand geographically (US West Coast, Greater Asia).”

Based out of London, Element Ventures is a fintech-focused fund that backs companies that utilise technology to deliver competitive advantages in B2B verticals. Steve Gibson from Element Ventures adds, “Arbolus is successfully disrupting one of the largest remaining analogue markets. The early client validation has been nothing short of exceptional. The vision, credibility, expertise, and passion provided by founders Sam and Will were compelling from our first meeting.”

Democratising access to knowledge

Sam Glasswell and Will Leeming, the two entrepreneurs with previous experience helping scale a $1B company, founded Arbolus in 2018. Sharing the business journey, Glasswell reveals, “Both myself and my co-founder had experience working in the industry before and were frustrated with the approach that firms took in connecting clients with industry professionals. We saw that the experience could be much better on both sides by offering a more transparent way to build these relationships, ultimately increasing value for both sides.”

The small businesses in the UK alone spend $60B a year using outside expertise to drive their business forward but rarely retain or repurpose this knowledge elsewhere in the organisation.

Consequently, Arbolus aims to help organisations build valuable expert networks and maintain knowledge by delivering a unique toolset built on AI and natural language processing capabilities to make collaboration and knowledge easier and maximise the value held by the experts. 

The UK-based company is changing the way knowledge is used in companies using powerful machine learning and natural language processing capabilities. The company’s technology helps clients source the right industry professionals and enables multiple methods of gathering information and unique data points. Glasswell notes, “Arbolus was born to democratise access to knowledge, which was previously restricted to some financial services clients.”

What’s next?

Further, Arbolus aims to transform a previously offline and closed-network industry into a digital, open ecosystem through its cutting-edge technology. “Our main differentiator is technology. While traditional firms offer a more analogue experience, Arbolus provides a wide range of tools such as video, messaging, etc that gives both clients and professionals more speed and flexibility to exchange knowledge,” he says.

Throwing light on the scale of the market, Glasswell continues, “The industry is estimated to be worth $5B, however, since we are democratising access to knowledge, we estimate our total addressable market to be significantly higher at around $100B.” 

Further, when asked about Arbolus’s secret sauce of success, Glasswell shares, “Great talent is our secret. We give our teams total flexibility and autonomy to innovate. In fact, some of the best product features were born from our account managers who are directly speaking with our clients and industry professionals and can translate their needs into innovative solutions.” Headquartered in London, Arbolus has offices in New York, Barcelona and Delhi.

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