At $145 trillion, debt capital markets are the largest asset class in the world.
Yet the technology underpinning them is still stuck in the 1980s. Think PDFs, endless email chains and decades-old Bloomberg terminals.
9fin was built to change this. Today, we’re delighted to continue our support by participating in their $170 million Series C funding round, valuing 9fin at $1.3 billion.
The round was led by HarbourVest, with participation from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) and earlier investors Redalpine, Highland Europe, Spark Capital and (of course) us. 9fin has now raised more than $250 million in total.
The problem 9fin set out to solve is a very real one. Data fragmentation has long blocked innovation in debt markets, with crucial information trapped across email chains and data rooms.
9fin’s AI-native platform centralises all of that valuable proprietary information, and uses it to build AI workflows, allowing finance professionals to identify, analyse and act on opportunities within a single platform.
More than 300 leading banks, asset managers, law firms, and advisory firms now rely on it as their core platform.
We first backed Steven Hunter and Hussam El-Sheikh in 2017, writing their pre-seed cheque on St Patrick’s Day. Both were former finance professionals (Steven from J.P. Morgan, Huss from Deutsche Bank) who had walked away from their careers to fix a problem that had plagued their working lives.
We were impressed by their conviction. Steven once told the Financial Times that he had “complained to anyone who would listen about how archaic the technology was” in debt markets. We believed them then, and we’ve backed them consistently ever since.
The results speak for themselves. 9fin have achieved multiple consecutive years of 100% ARR growth, and their US expansion is accelerating even faster, driven by a bustling New York office at the heart of global debt markets.
It’s a blueprint for transatlantic scaling, and one we’re proud to have supported from the very beginning.
Our Partner Sia Houchangnia, who has worked closely with the 9fin team from the earliest days, says:
“We backed Steven and Huss at day one, and it’s incredible to see them reach a $1bn+ valuation nine years later, knowing there’s still so much growth ahead.”
“When we first met them in their mid-twenties, it was clear they were special founders, with a crystal clear view that debt markets were broken and the ambition to rebuild them. Well before AI became mainstream, they were already taking a deeply technical approach, using machine learning and computer vision to unlock data others couldn’t access. What’s been most impressive is their consistency through the early headwinds, and their ability to expand both product and market over time.”
"When we first met them in their mid-twenties, it was clear they were special founders, with a crystal clear view that debt markets were broken and the ambition to rebuild them."Sia Houchangnia ~ Seedcamp
“Today, 9fin is becoming a core platform for leading financial institutions globally, and we’re excited to continue backing them as they scale.”
Seedcamp Partner Hilary Howe, who supports our breakout companies and US expansion, adds:
“From the very first cheque we wrote for Steven and Huss, we knew 9fin had the ambition to go far beyond Europe — and nothing has been more exciting than watching them take on massive incumbents and win.”
"From the very first cheque we wrote for Steven and Huss, we knew 9fin had the ambition to go far beyond Europe — and nothing has been more exciting than watching them take on massive incumbents and win."Hilary Howe ~ Seedcamp
“Their AI-native platform is transforming how the world’s largest asset class operates, and with their explosive US expansion in full swing and a world-class team firing on all cylinders, we believe 9fin is rapidly becoming a truly category-defining company. We couldn’t be more proud to keep backing them.”
Visit 9fin’s website here.