AI startup Model ML has emerged from stealth with $12 million in funding, aiming to revolutionise how financial professionals work. The funding round was led by Y-Combinator and London-based LocalGlobe, with participation from angel investors from some of the biggest names in banking and private equity.
With fresh backing, Model ML will now focus on scaling its product, expanding its customer base, and refining its AI-driven workflow automation tools.
Solving a multi-billion-dollar problem in finance
Model ML was initially developed for financial services but is already expanding into consulting and strategy teams. The platform addresses a critical inefficiency in professional industries, where highly skilled and highly paid professionals waste nearly five weeks per year on repetitive tasks such as data retrieval, analysis, and reporting. Traditional AI tools have struggled to fix this issue because they are not designed for the highly fragmented and siloed systems of finance. These tools often lack the precision, compliance, and security required in regulated industries and fail to understand the complex workflows professionals rely on every day.
Model ML takes a completely different approach by offering an AI-driven platform that acts as a bespoke AI brain for each organisation. The system builds a cognitive architecture that mirrors how humans retrieve and analyse information, rather than relying on generic machine-learning models. This enables professionals to access relevant, real-time insights with unmatched accuracy, security, and compliance.
AI-powered decision-making revolutionised
Unlike traditional software, Model ML offers a custom-built AI system for each client, adapting to the specific needs of financial and professional services firms. The platform integrates seamlessly into existing workflows through an API, allowing businesses to embed AI-driven insights into their existing tools. It also offers an intuitive user interface designed to replace Microsoft Office Suite and Google Drive, creating a single AI-powered workspace for professionals.
By mimicking human cognitive processes, Model ML allows financial analysts, consultants, and strategists to make high-stakes decisions faster and more effectively. Professionals no longer need to manually sift through reports, spreadsheets, and databases. Instead, they can query the system in real-time and receive structured insights instantly.
Voice-controlled AI: The future of finance
One of the standout features of Model ML is its voice-first interface, accessible on both mobile and desktop. Instead of navigating complex dashboards or manually inputting queries, professionals can simply speak to the system and receive instant responses. This innovation makes querying financial data as simple as asking a colleague for information, eliminating the need for tedious typing and searching.
With real-time conversational AI predicted to become a dominant trend in 2025, Model ML is tapping into a rapidly growing market. Professionals in finance and consulting operate in fast-paced, high-pressure environments where every second counts. The ability to query and process data through voice commands dramatically speeds up decision-making and increases efficiency.
Security and compliance are central to Model ML’s architecture. The platform only pulls data from a company’s pre-approved bank of trusted sources, ensuring that all insights are reliable and regulatory-compliant. Unlike generic AI tools, which struggle with accuracy in critical industries, Model ML is built specifically to meet the rigorous demands of finance, legal, and consulting firms.
From stealth to scale
Founded by brothers – Chaz and Arnie Englander, the serial entrepreneurs behind Fat Llama and Fancy, Model ML is on a mission to become the first trillion-dollar European AI company by transforming how professionals worldwide harness data and drive innovation.
The brothers have a bold vision: to create the first trillion-dollar company built by European founders. While operating in stealth mode, Model ML has already gone live with over 20 customers, including some of the largest financial institutions in the world. Early adopters have reported a significant boost in efficiency, with some businesses even rewriting their strategies based on the platform’s impact.
The rapid traction underscores Model ML’s ability to transform how professional services firms operate. Financial institutions, legal teams, and consulting firms all struggle with inefficient workflows and outdated software. By offering an AI-driven alternative to manual data processing, the company is well-positioned to become an essential tool for the world’s most influential industries.
Chaz Englander, co-founder and CEO of Model ML said: “Traditional software requires manual data gathering for emails, financial models, and presentations—but that’s changing. Model ML has rebuilt these applications from the ground up on top of advanced AI agentic systems, eliminating the need for manual data collection. We’re leading a transformation in human-computer interaction where you’ll simply speak to your device to accomplish what once required hours of manual work.”
Ziv Reichert, Partner at LocalGlobe said: “Model ML is tackling one of AI’s biggest economic opportunities: enabling highly-paid knowledge workers to automate the vast amount of repetitive yet valuable manual work they do daily. The product is quickly changing expectations of both worker output and output quality. We’re rapidly moving toward a world where any single worker can do far more, far faster. Less than a year in, Model ML is already transforming the way the organisations it serves operate—a testament to Chaz and Arnie’s approach to building: an obsession with the customer and a relentless drive for velocity.”
