Joseph Twigg, CEO, Aveni

Today we're meeting Joseph Twigg, CEO at Aveni. They specialise in developing award-winning AI solutions to automate risk and compliance, and adviser workflows for financial services.

Over to you Joseph - my questions are in bold:

Who are you and what's your background?

I'm Joseph Twigg, CEO and co-founder of Aveni. I've spent most of my career in financial services, including over a decade at Aberdeen Standard Investments where I was Global Head of Strategy and Business Management. That role gave me a front-row seat to the challenges and inefficiencies that large financial institutions face, especially when it comes to compliance, risk, and adviser operations.

In 2018, I teamed up with Dr Lexi Birch, one of the world's leading NLP researchers from the University of Edinburgh, to build Aveni. Our goal was simple: bring the power of cutting-edge AI, specifically natural language processing, to financial services in a way that actually solves real industry problems.

At Aveni, we're building technology that automates adviser workflows, enhances compliance, and monitors client interactions at scale. Most recently, we've been leading the way with FinLLM, the UK's first large language model purpose-built for financial services. It's a huge step forward in building trustworthy, domain-specific AI that financial institutions can actually use.

I've always believed that the right blend of deep industry knowledge and technical innovation is the key to creating real impact. That belief runs through everything we do at Aveni.

What is your job title and what are your general responsibilities?

I'm CEO and at Aveni, my role spans a bit of everything, as you'd expect in a rapidly scaling company, but at the core, I'm responsible for setting the strategic direction and making sure we stay focused on solving meaningful problems for our customers.

I work closely with our leadership team to drive product development, build partnerships across the financial services sector, and guide how we bring our technology to market. I also spend a lot of time with clients, listening to their challenges and feeding that back into what we build.

A big part of my job is helping our enterprise clients and partners shape and scale their AI strategies, making sure they can adopt this technology in a way that's safe, impactful, and aligned with their long-term goals. Most importantly, I focus on ensuring our team has the clarity, support, and ambition they need to keep pushing boundaries and delivering real impact through our AI solutions.

Can you give us an overview of your business?

Aveni is an award-winning AI company transforming the way financial services firms manage risk, compliance, and adviser workflows. We've built FinLLM: the first large language model (LLM) in the UK trained specifically on financial services data, bringing powerful, domain-specific AI into the heart of UK FS.

Our platform delivers automation and insight at scale, enabling firms to monitor 100% of customer interactions, streamline adviser workflows, and ensure compliance is embedded into operations. From automating post-meeting admin and generating suitability reports, to conducting machine-driven quality assurance and thematic reviews, Aveni's solutions cut costs, increase productivity, and reduce risk across the entire financial advice journey.

What sets us apart is our deep specialisation. Unlike generic AI tools, Aveni's products are purpose-built for financial services by a team that combines world-class NLP researchers (including co-founder Dr Lexi Birch, a top 100 global NLP expert) with decades of industry experience. Our language models understand the nuances of financial dialogue, regulatory obligations, and the workflows that underpin advice and compliance functions.

We also offer a platform with modular products, including:

• Aveni Assist – automates adviser admin and post-meeting documentation such as suitability reports, customer emails and post meeting briefing notes.
• Aveni Detect – monitors all customer conversations and analyses documents, flags risk, and conducts automated QA allowing companies to scale compliance from 1% to 100%.

Our business model is centred on mid-size to enterprise partnerships and our platform enables firms to integrate AI solutions seamlessly into their existing systems. We work with some of the UK's leading financial institutions, including Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide, and Schroders Personal Wealth, helping them safely scale their AI strategies and stay ahead in a fast-evolving regulatory environment.

The market response has been overwhelmingly positive. Clients value our deep domain focus, the transparency of our AI, and the measurable ROI we deliver through increased oversight, reduced cost-to-serve, and stronger regulatory outcomes. As regulators push for more robust governance and firms look to modernise legacy processes, Aveni is leading the charge in making financial services smarter, safer, and more efficient through trusted, tailored AI.

FinLLM Testimonial:

"Aveni's FinLLM will be a game changer for UK financial services. Recognising its potential, Lloyds Banking Group invested in Aveni in 2024, and since then have worked closely with Aveni to co-create FinLLM and test it on our live AI use cases. Having seen the FinLLM roadmap and integration with the broader Aveni product suite, I've been blown away with the progress and ambition. I am excited to see the transformative impact the Aveni FinLLM will have when deployed at scale across Lloyds Banking Group and the industry." - Ranil Boteju, Group Chief Data and Analytics Officer at Lloyds Banking Group

Aveni Assist testimonials:

"It's brilliant, it's creating a much better summary than we would ever have done with pen and paper.' - IFA

"I was incredibly impressed with the quality of the notes, it perfectly summarised it. I seamlessly added that summary to IO." - Small FA firm

"It is undoubtedly an asset to our business. The positive changes coming ahead are truly exciting and I'm once again excited to be an IFA again." - IFA

Tell us how you are funded?

Aveni is funded through a combination of venture capital investment, institutional investment and strategic grants, which have supported the company's growth, product development, and innovation in AI for financial services.

The business has successfully raised several funding rounds from UK-based venture investors, including Puma, Par Equity, Old College Capital and Scottish Enterprise, who have backed Aveni's vision to transform FS with domain-specific AI. In addition to equity funding, Aveni has secured innovation grants and support from organisations such as Scottish Enterprise, recognising the company's leadership in applied AI and its commitment to responsible innovation in regulated markets.

This blend of equity investment and grant support has enabled Aveni to accelerate development of its core platform, launch the UK's first financial services-specific large language model (FinLLM), and scale enterprise partnerships with leading institutions like Lloyds Banking Group and Nationwide.

What's the origin story? Why did you start the company? To solve what problems?

The idea for Aveni started back in 2018 when I was working as Global Head of Strategy and Business Management at Aberdeen Standard Investments. After spending years inside large financial institutions, it was clear to me that so many of the challenges we faced - overly manual processes, disconnected tools, compliance pressures - were crying out for smarter, more integrated solutions. The opportunity for AI in this space was obvious, but everything on the market felt too generic or too disconnected from the reality, complexity and risk consideration of financial services.

That's when I met Dr Lexi Birch, a world-leading expert in natural language processing at the University of Edinburgh. Lexi was doing some incredible work in applied NLP, and it was instantly clear that her research could unlock huge value in a sector like ours, where language and conversation sit at the heart of risk, compliance, and client service.

We started Aveni with a clear mission: to bring domain-specific AI into the core of financial services operations, not as a bolt-on, but as something purpose-built for the industry. We believed that if we could apply cutting-edge NLP to adviser workflows and client conversations, we could help firms automate the heavy admin, scale their oversight, and meet regulatory expectations without driving up cost or complexity.

That vision has guided us ever since, from building our platform, to developing FinLLM the UK's first financial services-specific large language model, and working with some of the biggest names in the industry. At the heart of Aveni is a belief that financial services needs AI that truly understands its complexity and specificity, and that's what we're here to deliver.

Who are your target customers? What's your revenue model?

Our target customers are enterprise-level financial services firms, particularly those in wealth and investment management, retail banking, insurance, and financial advice. We focus on businesses that are heavily regulated and reliant on human-to-human interactions because that's where our technology delivers the most value.

Our revenue model is both license and usage-based. For larger institutions, we also offer enterprise licensing and bespoke solution development and integration services, particularly relevant as we partner with firms on shaping their AI strategy.

A great example of our impact is how we've helped firms replace manual QA processes with automated, machine-driven assessments of 100% of customer interactions. One customer told us it was the first time they'd had full visibility over their adviser network without needing to increase headcount. Another said they were able to cut their post-meeting admin time by over 80%, freeing up advisers to focus more on clients and less on paperwork.

Ultimately, our goal is to help our customers do more with less, scaling compliance, improving consistency, and unlocking huge operational efficiencies through AI that truly understands their business.

More Aveni Assist feedback:

"This is one of the most significant improvements I've seen in our role as planners since laptops were introduced in the '90s!"

"Great opportunity to enhance and improve the service we can provide clients and allows me to make the most of my time as an adviser."

"I completed four cases in the time it normally takes me to do one."

If you had a magic wand, what one thing would you change in the banking and/or FinTech sector?

I'd change the pace and mindset around AI adoption in financial services. There's a huge amount of interest and excitement, but the sector is still bogged down by legacy thinking, risk aversion, and fragmented governance frameworks that make it really hard to move fast, even when the value is clear.

What's missing is a clear path to responsible, scalable AI implementation that's tailored to the unique challenges of financial services. Firms are rightly cautious, but that caution often turns into inertia. If we could remove the fear factor, replace it with trusted frameworks, clearer regulatory guidance, and better cultural and customer education, we'd see the industry enjoy massive productivity gains, reduce systemic risk, and create far better outcomes for customers.

That's exactly why we built FinLLM and why we work so closely with our clients to shape their AI strategies from the ground up. The potential is enormous, but without the confidence to act, a lot of that value is just sitting on the table.

What is your message for the larger players in the Financial Services marketplace?

Now is the time to lead.

The financial services industry is standing at a crossroads with AI. The tools are here, the capability is real, and the competitive advantage is shifting towards those who act decisively, but safely. My message to the C-suite is simple: you don't need to wait for perfect clarity to start building meaningful, responsible AI strategies. In fact, waiting is the risk. Speed is a strategy in and of itself.

The winners in this space will be those who embed AI into the fabric of their operations, not as isolated pilots, but as part of a clear vision for modernising compliance, adviser enablement, customer engagement, and operational resilience.

At Aveni, we're already helping firms shape this future through FinLLM. That's not just innovation for the sake of it, it is targeted, scalable transformation that's tailored to the regulatory, operational, and cultural realities of this industry.

If you're sitting in a boardroom wondering how to embrace AI safely, my advice is: partner with people who understand your domain, even if you start small just start now. The clock is ticking, and the opportunity to lead or transform won't stay open forever.

Where do you get your Financial Services/FinTech industry news from?

I get a daily summary of Fintech News via AI using Perplexity. And I read almost anything and everything about AI and Fintech that I can, from general news to very technical and most of the in between.

Can you list 3 people you rate from the FinTech and/or Financial Services sector that we should be following on LinkedIn, and why?

• Ranil Boteju, Chief Data and Analytics Officer at Lloyds Banking Group and Non-Exec Director at the Information Commissioner's Office. Champion on how to positively maximise data and AI for the future of financial services.
• Andrew Ng, Founder of DeepLearning.AI, AI Evangelist and visionary
• Yann Lecun, Everything AI in the Metaverse

What FinTech services (and/or apps) do you personally use?

• ChatGPT
• Gemini
• Perplexity
• Manus

What's the best new FinTech product or service you've seen recently?

Robinhood Strategies (in the US) has launched an AI-powered investment advice with real-time insights called Robinhood Cortex. It claims to be an AI research assistant, leveraging the current trend of AI agents doing things for customers, like delivering market data and trading recommendations.

Finally, let's talk predictions. What trends do you think are going to define the next few years in the FinTech sector?

Over the next few years, I think the most defining trend in FinTech will be the rise of agentic AI; systems that don't just generate information but take meaningful, autonomous action within business workflows. We're moving from a world of passive chatbots and copilots to one where AI will handle tasks end-to-end, orchestrate processes, and make real-time decisions within guardrails.

But this shift demands a much higher standard of trust, safety, and domain alignment. You can't deploy general-purpose models into regulated environments and expect them to perform reliably or responsibly. That's why I believe the future belongs to vertically aligned LLMs, language models like FinLLM, which are purpose-built for specific industries, deeply trained on domain-specific data, and wrapped in frameworks that support governance, traceability and explainability.

As agentic frameworks mature, you'll see financial services firms designing AI agents that can trigger next-best actions, escalate compliance risks, or dynamically generate regulatory disclosures. But none of that works unless the model understands the domain, the risk context, and the regulatory backdrop.

So my prediction is this: the convergence of agentic AI, domain-specific LLMs, and robust orchestration layers will define the next generation of FinTech. The firms that embrace this shift early, who invest in safe, scalable infrastructure rather than piecemeal tools, will be the ones to lead the industry through its next major transformation.

Thank you very much, Joseph!

Read more about Joseph on LinkedIn and find out more about Aveni at aveni.ai.