en.Wedoany.com Reported - London-based fintech company MDOTM has completed a $27 million growth equity funding round, led by Expedition Growth Capital, aiming to replace the cumbersome process of maintaining investment portfolios with spreadsheets in wealth management middle offices using its AI platform Sphere. Founded in 2015, the company has offices in New York and Milan, bringing total funding to $36.5 million after this round.
Sphere currently serves over 60 financial institutions, managing assets exceeding $100 billion, with clients including Morgan Stanley, Amundi, and Zurich Bank. The new funds will be used for hiring and expanding market presence in the US and Europe.
Sphere's core functionality focuses on daily operations before and after investment decisions: it reads market and macroeconomic data, identifies changes in conditions, allows investment teams to input their own judgments, then automatically constructs and rebalances portfolios, and generates client reports and commentary through a generative AI layer. The platform is divided into three modules: the first monitors market conditions and generates forward-looking signals; the second, Portfolio Studio, constructs and rebalances portfolios based on signals and manager views; and the third, StoryFolio, drafts client reports. Technical support comes from MDOTM Lab, an academic network of over 20 professors and PhDs, with research areas covering machine learning, portfolio theory, and AI ethics.
MDOTM's entry point directly targets a common dilemma in the wealth management industry: management fees remain under pressure, yet clients demand highly customized portfolios, making simply adding more analysts unsustainable. Steve Twomey, partner at lead investor Expedition, noted that middle-office work remains trapped in spreadsheets—rebalancing, keeping portfolios aligned with firm views, and generating client commentary are precisely areas where AI can deliver real value.
In terms of competitive landscape, MDOTM is not alone. In the US, a company founded by former Citadel quantitative analysts has raised $78 million to build AI systems for wealth management firms; large banks like Starling are also launching their own intelligent assistants. The logic of automating regulated middle offices is extending from finance to legal, healthcare, and other fields. The European fintech industry is brewing consolidation, with participants holding stable corporate contracts more likely to benefit.
Selling AI to investment institutions faces trust challenges: fund managers are accountable to regulators and distrust black-box tools. MDOTM operates in the UK as an appointed representative under the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regime, with a strategy of insisting on ultimate human responsibility and having AI display its reasoning process. CEO Tommaso Migliore stated that asset and wealth managers are no longer debating whether to use AI, but rather how to deploy it at scale across thousands of portfolios while maintaining control. This funding round also brings two seasoned board members: Twomey and James Hays, former CEO of Wells Fargo Advisors, with nearly 40 years of industry experience.
Expedition tends to support software companies that have grown with minimal external funding, aligning with MDOTM's trajectory of reaching its current stage over a decade with total funding of $36.5 million. Its bet is that the dull middle office in finance will become the next trough for AI capital inflows.
