UK fintech startup Itoflow has raised £1.8 million in pre-seed funding to develop an AI platform designed to automate investment research, portfolio monitoring, and risk management workflows for professional investment teams.
The round was led by Balderton Capital, with participation from angel investors including Cleo founder Barney Hussey-Yeo. The funding will be used to expand Itoflow’s engineering and quantitative research teams, accelerate product development, and support its commercial and regulatory efforts.
Founded in 2026, Itoflow was established by Aditya Jha, Abinash Meher, and Dibya Jyoti Roy, who bring experience across quantitative trading, investment banking, artificial intelligence, and large-scale technology infrastructure. Aditya Jha, Co-founder and CEO, previously spent nine years in quantitative research at JPMorgan, RBC, and Tower Research Capital, where he was Business Head for Mid-Frequency Trading. Abinash Meher, Co-founder and CTO, brings infrastructure and engineering experience from Google and Apple, while Dibya Jyoti Roy, Co-founder, previously spent nine years building Azure infrastructure at Microsoft. Vacslav Glukhov serves as Founding Research Scientist, bringing a Stanford PhD and previous experience as AI Research Director and Head of EMEA e-trading quantitative research at JPMorgan.
Building AI Agents for Investment Teams
Itoflow’s platform is designed to automate parts of the investment research process while keeping professional investment teams in control.
During deployments, teams can define their investment approach, research processes, and risk thresholds in natural language. The platform’s AI agents can then conduct quantitative research and backtesting, monitor portfolios continuously, and identify significant changes or potential risks for human review.
The system is designed to operate across multiple asset classes, including equities, bonds, ETFs, commodities, and digital assets.
“The most sophisticated investment firms spend years building the systems and research teams needed to test ideas, manage risk and respond as markets change.”
Sivesh Sukumar, Investor at Balderton Capital
The approach targets one of the major operational challenges facing quantitative investment firms: building the technology and research infrastructure required to continuously test strategies, monitor portfolios, and respond to changing market conditions.
For smaller investment teams, automating these processes could allow them to analyse more opportunities and monitor a larger number of portfolios without having to increase their quantitative research headcount at the same pace.
Keeping Humans in Control
Itoflow is also placing significant emphasis on governance and human oversight, an important consideration when deploying AI within financial services.
Investment teams can establish approval thresholds and define which actions AI agents can perform independently and which require human sign-off. This allows firms to automate repeatable processes while retaining control over consequential investment decisions.
The company is also designed to support deployment within clients’ own infrastructure, helping address concerns around sensitive financial data, security, and regulatory requirements.
“Building Cleo has taught me that financial AI only works when it’s intuitive, trustworthy and keeps people in control.”
Barney Hussey-Yeo, Founder & CEO at Cleo
Itoflow is currently working with hedge funds and family offices through early deployments while also engaging with exchanges, brokerages, and financial-data providers.
From Quantitative Research to Autonomous Investment Workflows
The founding team’s background is closely connected to the problem Itoflow is attempting to solve. Jha’s experience in quantitative trading, combined with the engineering and infrastructure expertise of Meher and Roy, has shaped the company’s focus on building investment technology that can operate continuously rather than simply providing one-off AI analysis.
Itoflow’s longer-term ambition is to develop investment agents capable of continuously improving their research processes as they operate over extended periods.
“Our long-term research goal is to build self-improving investment agents.”
Aditya Jha, Co-founder & CEO at Itoflow
The company envisions agents that can identify new signals, evaluate whether existing investment approaches continue to work, and recognise when previously successful strategies begin to lose their effectiveness.
The Bigger Picture
Itoflow sits at the intersection of AI and investment operations, a segment attracting increasing interest as investment firms look to automate repeatable research and monitoring tasks without giving up human oversight.
The startup’s focus on long-running agents, quantitative research, and governed workflows reflects a broader shift from basic AI assistants toward systems capable of performing more complex financial processes over extended periods.
The funding from Balderton Capital and angel investors underlines continued appetite for AI applications in financial services. Itoflow’s next challenge will be demonstrating that its technology can deliver consistent, auditable results as it moves from early deployments toward broader institutional adoption.
About Itoflow
Itoflow is a UK fintech developing AI-powered infrastructure for professional investment teams. Its platform uses AI agents to automate investment research, quantitative analysis, portfolio monitoring, and risk workflows while allowing investment firms to define their own processes, constraints, and approval requirements.
