ABAKA

ABAKA is a UK-based provider of an enterprise SaaS platform that utilizes artificial intelligence for the financial services industry. Founded in 2016 by Fahd Rachidy and Benoit Launay, the company offers solutions for digital savings, retirement, and banking. Fahd Rachidy, a serial entrepreneur with a background from Ecole Centrale and Sorbonne University, previously co-founded Scientificbeta.com, a smart beta index platform. Benoit Launay serves as the company's CTO.

The company's core offering is an AI-driven recommendation engine that enables financial institutions to deliver hyper-personalized digital experiences. The platform analyzes customer data—including lifestyle, behavioral, and transactional information—to predict customer needs and deliver tailored recommendations and communications. This allows banks, insurers, and wealth managers to enhance customer engagement, retention, and cross-selling opportunities. ABAKA's business model is based on licensing its technologies to enterprise clients, which include major institutions like HSBC, Prudential, and NatWest.

ABAKA's modular platform includes features such as conversational AI and chatbots for financial guidance, intelligent behavioral nudges, and digital financial dashboards with account aggregation capabilities through Open Banking APIs. In January 2024, ABAKA was acquired by ieDigital, a portfolio company of Parabellum Investments, as part of a strategy to become a global leader in financial services digital software. Following the acquisition, ABAKA was integrated with ieDigital and its US-based sister company, Connect FSS, to form a new group under Fintilect.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, financial services, SaaS, recommendation engine, hyper-personalization, conversational AI, fintech, digital banking, wealth management, retirement planning, customer engagement, machine learning, data analytics, behavioral science, Open Banking, API, financial advice, digital savings, chatbots, enterprise software