AI market intelligence platform AlphaSense snags strategic investment from EDBI

THE investing arm of the Economic Development Board of Singapore, EDBI, has made an undisclosed strategic investment into artificial intelligence (AI) market intelligence platform AlphaSense.

The investment is part of the US$150 million Series E funding round announced in September 2023, and was led by Bond Capital with existing investors CapitalG and Goldman Sachs. The round valued AlphaSense at US$2.5 billion.

“EDBI’s partnership with the company highlights our commitment to attracting innovative tech companies that enhance business capabilities in Singapore and across the region, contributing to the nation’s digital transformation movement and enhancing workforce productivity,” said Charmaine Kng, partner of investments at EDBI.

The funds will be used to expand AlphaSense’s collection of searchable business content and for strategic acquisitions. The platform said that there are no immediate acquisition targets as yet.

“While we can’t comment on specific acquisition plans at this time, we will use the investment to continue accelerating R&D (research and development) to further expand our cutting-edge generative AI offerings and large language model development, grow our extensive collection of business content, and expand our customer footprint across sectors, verticals, and geographies,” said Kiva Kolstein, president and chief revenue officer, AlphaSense.

This move comes after AlphaSense announced Singapore as its Asia-Pacific (Apac) hub in July 2023. The AI platform also announced the hiring of Mark Leadercramer as the Apac regional director.

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AlphaSense will be doubling its headcount in the Singapore office, hiring across sales, marketing and customer services. The platform has over 4,000 enterprise customers, including seven of the 10 asset management firms in Apac.

“Apac is a critical economic hub to focus our expansion and build dedicated support teams across both financial services and corporate sectors,” said AlphaSense.