Affinda raises USD $10 million to expand AI team & global reach

The Affinda Group has raised USD $10 million in its latest funding round, bringing the total amount raised by the company in the last 18 months to USD $22.9 million. The company is now valued at USD $120 million. This funding round was led by its existing shareholders.

The company was founded by Melbourne brothers Tim Toner and Dr Ben Toner and now operates a 65-person team across Asia Pacific, North America, and Europe. Affinda serves over 1,500 customers in 75 countries. It is financially backed by a select group of family offices and high-net-worth investors, including Paul Little, Ashok Jacob, Greg Ellis, Craig Bingham, Simon Mawhinney, and Mark De Ambrosis.

The newly acquired USD $10 million will be directed towards expanding Affinda’s global team, with plans to increase headcount to up to 100 employees in the short term. The company aims to hire professionals in AI and software engineering, partnerships, sales and marketing. Affinda’s technology aims to drive productivity and efficiency by digitising document-intensive workflows.

Affinda initially targeted the recruitment sector, offering solutions to organisations like SEEK and other international job boards to automatically review and extract candidate information from resumes. The technology has since evolved to serve a variety of industries by extracting unstructured data from documents.

Affinda now serves a wide array of industries, including financial services, insurance, and legal services. Potential clients include companies that process large volumes of documents and aim to reduce costs and errors. The company also operates a distinct business called Draftable, which offers document comparison solutions to global law firms. Draftable’s features include side-by-side comparisons and advanced redlining capabilities. Since its launch, Draftable has been adopted by over 300 law firms.

Dr Ben Toner, who holds a PhD in quantum physics from Caltech, brings technical expertise to Affinda. Meanwhile, Tim Toner, leveraging his investment banking experience at Macquarie and Lazard, provides commercial acumen.

Tim Toner, CEO of Affinda, stated, "The success of this funding round reflects the value of our proprietary technology and our ability to deliver AI-driven solutions to complex business problems, across a wide range of use cases and industries. We are currently experiencing annual revenue growth of 150-200%."

Dr Ben Toner, Affinda's Chief Scientist, remarked, "AI is fundamentally transforming our world, and the pace is only going to increase. Affinda's technology strikes a crucial balance, automating repetitive tasks while preserving human judgement where it matters most. By continuously integrating cutting-edge AI advancements, we enable our customers to confidently leverage the latest capabilities in document processing, keeping them at the forefront of efficiency and innovation."

Affinda also announced the appointment of Christine Christian to its Board as a Non-Executive Director. Christine Christian, the President of the Library Board of Victoria, brings over 35 years of experience in financial services, investment, private equity, government, and media. She joins Tim Toner and Peter Halstead on the Board. Halstead is currently the Chief Investment Officer at Little Group and has a significant career background in equity capital markets.

Tim Toner commented regarding the new funding and board appointment, "This funding accelerates Affinda’s vision to revolutionise global document processing. We are humbled by the popularity and success of our products and are thrilled with the productivity and efficiency gains our customers are experiencing."