PARIS, FRANCE, March 1, 2023 — SESAMm, a leader in natural language processing (NLP), a field of artificial intelligence, today announced the close of a Series B2 funding round of €35 million (USD 37 million) to accelerate its ambitious growth and global expansion plans.
Securing this funding will enable SESAMm to further expand into U.S. and Asian markets, support technology development to generate AI-powered ESG and sentiment analytics, and hire key talent across sustainability, technology, sales, and marketing.
The Series B2 round was co-led by Elaia, a deep tech VC firm, and Opera Tech Ventures, the venture capital arm of BNP Paribas (BNPP). Other participating companies include asset manager Unigestion, Raiffeisen Bank International’s (RBI) venture capital entity Elevator Ventures, AFG Partners, CEGEE Capital, and historical backers, including Carlyle (CG) and New Alpha Asset Management, who participated in the previous Series B1 round. This latest round brings the total funding raised to €50 million.
“We are delighted to support SESAMm's ambitious journey to leverage deep technology and create actionable data insights on ESG analysis and monitoring. We are impressed by the quality and seniority of the executive team, already leading operations in every continent with anchor and Tier 1 clients. The vision of bringing technology to the Finance industry and the corporate world to empower with ESG insights is a game changer, and we are very excited to be part of the adventure by their side,” said Pauline Roux, Partner at Elaia.
“In a context where it is increasingly critical for decision makers to feed their assessments with deeper data points, we found SESAMm’s product very relevant to help identify, filter out, weigh, and report key data insights on companies ranging from small private firms to larger corporations. We have found deep common ground with the team and are very proud to support SESAMm in its journey onward,” said Thibaut Schlaeppi, Managing Director at Opera Tech Ventures.
SESAMm is one of the fastest-growing natural language analytics data providers, serving global investment firms such as top private equity firms, hedge funds, and other asset management companies, in addition to corporations of all sizes. Leveraging its data lake, which comprises more than 20 billion articles and grows by 20% per year, SESAMm provides datasets and NLP capabilities to generate innovative analytics for use cases such as controversy detection, ESG and SDG sentiment scores, private equity due diligence, suppliers monitoring, and more.
“Since we started working with SESAMm as investors and clients over two years ago, we’ve been impressed with both the company’s growth and the advanced analytics that have supported our deal sourcing, diligence, and portfolio company value creation efforts,” said Matt Anderson, Carlyle’s Chief Digital Officer. “We are delighted to build on our strong partnership with SESAMm by participating in this latest round.”
CEO Sylvain Forté, COO Pierre Rinaldi, and CTO Florian Aubry co-founded SESAMm in 2014. With their team of nearly 100 data experts, they leverage the vast amount of textual information on the web, from news websites to NGO reports and social media, to translate it into powerful, digestible, and actionable insights.
Sylvain Forté, CEO and Co-Founder of SESAMm, said, “We are happy and grateful to close this €35 million Series B2 round, a testament to the dedication of our entire team and the strength of SESAMm’s C-suite leadership – my cofounders Pierre Rinaldi COO & Florian Aubry CTO, Marie-Charlotte Deucher CFO, Jorge Alvarez CMO, and Eric Sionnet CDO – to continue our growth journey and expand to new international markets such as Singapore. Raising a significant amount during challenging market conditions highlights the relevancy of SESAMm's focus on two key trends: AI and sustainability. In turn, these tools enable organizations to make better decisions and fill the data gaps, particularly in ESG, on both public and private companies.”
About SESAMm
SESAMm is a leading artificial intelligence company serving global investment firms and corporations around the globe. SESAMm analyzes more than 20 billion documents in real-time to generate insights for controversy detection on investments, clients and suppliers, ESG and positive impact scores, private equity due diligence and sourcing, sentiment analysis on financial assets, and more.
About Elaia
Elaia is a venture capital firm specializing in funding early-stage technology companies. The firm focuses on software, internet, and digital media startups and has a strong track record of backing companies that become successful and profitable. Elaia's team includes experienced investors and entrepreneurs who provide valuable guidance and support to the startups in their portfolio. With a focus on helping companies scale and grow, Elaia is a valuable partner for any entrepreneur looking to launch a technology business.
About Opera Tech Ventures by BNP Paribas
Opera Tech Ventures is BNP Paribas’ VC arm, launched in 2018 with the objective to invest in startups that transform or disrupt the financial industry. The fund is managed by BNP Paribas Asset Management France, as part of its Private Assets division, dedicated to private asset management. With a global scope, Opera Tech Ventures supports entrepreneurs building ambitious ventures from Series A to Series C with investments ranging from 3 to €15m.
About Carlyle
Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG) is a global investment firm with deep industry expertise that deploys private capital across three business segments: Global Private Equity, Global Credit, and Global Investment Solutions. With $373 billion of assets under management as of December 31, 2022, Carlyle’s purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of its investors, portfolio companies, and the communities in which we live and invest. Carlyle employs more than 2,100 people in 29 offices across five continents. Further information is available at www.carlyle.com. Follow Carlyle on Twitter @OneCarlyle.
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