CPE News (7/9/2020) – Senso.ai has officially announced the closing of US $3 million Series Seed II round of financing led by Mendoza Ventures with participation of Breakaway Growth Fund, Luge Capital, Rising Tide, and Inovia Capital.
The financing closed in February 2020. Adrian Mendoza of Mendoza Ventures, has joined Senso co-founders Saroop Bharwani, Nick Seelert, investor Kailash Ambwani, and Chris Albinson of Breakaway Growth on Senso board of directors.
Toronto based Senso is a provider of predictive intelligence to financial institutions Senso’s platform generates high-confidence predictive intelligence for financial institutions to predict behavior and take proactive steps to strengthen client relationships, driving improved retention and loyalty.
The investment will accelerate the expansion of Senso’s operations and product offerings into the US market.
photo credit: Senso
News Release
Fintech AI startup Senso raises US$3 million to help financial institutions strengthen client relationships
New funding was raised during COVID-19 pandemic to fuel expansion into the US market and transform the way the financial services industry builds client relationships and loyalty during volatile times
TORONTO, July 9, 2020 — Senso, a provider of predictive intelligence to financial institutions, today announced the closing of a US$3 million financing round from a syndicate of investors with deep expertise in financial services, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), and artificial intelligence. The round is led by Mendoza Ventures (Boston, MA) and Breakaway Growth (San Francisco, CA), with participation from Luge Capital (Toronto, ON), Rising Tide (San Francisco, CA) and iNovia Capital (Toronto, ON). The investment will accelerate the expansion of Senso’s operations and product offerings into the US market.
Founded in 2017, Senso’s platform generates high-confidence predictive intelligence for financial institutions to predict behavior and take proactive steps to strengthen client relationships, driving improved retention and loyalty. Its cloud-based platform analyzes first- and third-party data to generate predictive insights about every consumer in the market, which improves over time.
“Now more than ever, financial institutions of all sizes need to take a proactive, data-driven approach to providing their clients with timely and personalized services in a way that builds loyalty and trust,” said Saroop Bharwani, CEO and co-founder of Senso. “We’ve made it intuitive and seamless for banks, lenders, and loan servicers to predict behavior, and make adjustments throughout the entire client lifecycle, so that each individual feels like a private banking client.”
Senso’s technology seamlessly embeds into financial institutions’ marketing and sales workflows and has broad applicability across lending products, including mortgages, credit cards, point-of-sale lending, automotive, and student loans. Senso’s product offering has become even more relevant during the COVID-19 crisis with many banks allowing their borrowers to defer mortgage payments. As the loan forgiveness cliff approaches this fall, servicers equipped with Senso’s predictive intelligence will be empowered to proactively engage appropriate clients more cost-effectively, and retain them with best in class service. This is especially important in the US market where average mortgage retention rates continue to sit at historical lows.
Since graduating from the inaugural cohort of Toronto’s NextAI accelerator in 2017 and Techstars in 2018, Senso has helped Canada’s most renowned financial institutions, that carry well over US$1 trillion in total mortgage debt, identify opportunities to earn millions in additional revenue. As a result, they are able to adopt a scalable approach to enhancing all of their client relationships by leveraging data-driven tools and tactics typically used by big tech firms to increase retention and transform the client experience.
“The Senso team is redefining how the financial services industry leverages predictive intelligence at a crucial moment in history when it needs it most,” said Mendoza Ventures General Partner, Adrian Mendoza. “Financial institutions, globally, require a competitive advantage to deliver delightful experiences, and the ones who adopt Senso’s data-driven strategy will be able to confidently build loyalty and lifetime value.”
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About Senso
Senso is a Toronto-based Fintech AI company which transforms fragmented data into meaningful interactions to improve loyalty and profitability. Senso’s products help financial institutions strengthen client relationships using a scalable approach to seamlessly embed predictive intelligence into sales and marketing workflows. Its cloud-based data infrastructure platform anonymously analyzes first- and third-party data and generates predictive insights about every consumer in the market. This helps financial institutions allocate their marketing budgets proactively, manage inbound channel capacity, and proactively service their clients to enhance client retention and increase profitability. For more information, visit www.senso.ai.
About Mendoza Ventures
Mendoza Ventures is a Boston based Fintech, AI, and Cybersecurity venture capital firm that is location agnostic. We provide an actively managed approach to venture capital by investing in areas where we have deep industry expertise, companies with early revenue, a clear value proposition to a market and using a proven due diligence model. Mendoza Ventures is both minority and woman owned. For more information, visit www.mendoza-ventures.com.
About Breakaway Growth
Breakaway Growth Fund (“BGF”) is a venture capital firm that invests in and supports bold founders helping them throughout the startup journey to global dominance. BGF’s leadership team has decades of experience leading and investing in capital-efficient growth startups that have created over $50 billion in shareholder value including investments in DocuSign, Juniper Networks, Pinterest, Thousandeyes, Turo, and MongoDB. For more information, visit http://breakawaygrowth.us/.
About Luge Capital
Luge Capital is a fintech focused venture capital fund, investing in early-stage teams shaping the way the world experiences financial services. We invest in fintech and AI solutions applied to financial services and love entrepreneurs challenging the status quo. We work with dedicated teams who are driven to solve real problems that affect people on a global scale. We are an experienced team with value-added investors and a deep industry network to help founders build successful companies. For more information, visit www.luge.vc — Building fintech champions.
About Rising Tide
Rising Tide Fund Managers, LLC and its affiliates (“Rising Tide” or “We”) is a United States venture capital firm investing primarily in the information technology and healthcare / life sciences markets. Over the last 35 years, we have partnered with family funds, high-impact investors, and strategic partners to help launch and expand startups in a variety of industries across three continents. We are dedicated to cooperating with our entrepreneurs at all stages: from financing to leveraging our international networks to facilitating exits by design. For more information, visit www.rtf.vc.
About iNovia Capital
Inovia Capital is a full-stack venture firm that partners with audacious founders to build enduring global technology companies. We seek to transform venture capital by perfecting the craft of investing in people first. We roll up our sleeves to serve founders with dedicated, long-term mentorship, a global talent network, and strategic support for global scale. Together, we rewrite the rules of complex legacy industries, push technology frontiers and pursue bold visions of a better future. Inovia Capital manages over US $1B across five funds including early and growth stages, and holds offices in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, San Francisco and London. For more information, visit inovia.vc.