• Francesca Campanelli, CCO at Axyon AI


• 18.10.2021 11:08 am

• Please tell us a little about Axyon AI’s history. Please also explain what is its current business?

Axyon AI was set up 5 years ago and is now a leading player in providing deep learning solutions to help asset managers deliver more efficient and innovative investment products. Axyon AI partners with asset managers and hedge funds to deliver consistently high-performing end-to-end AI powered quantitative insights and investment strategies.

I joined Axyon as Chief Commercial Officer last year, during a difficult time for the industry with the pandemic causing big fluctuations for the market and uncertainty. But I was attracted by the technology solutions Axyon offers to the asset management market that can help mitigate downside risk for their clients and create stronger investment strategies. 

• What is its key competitive advantage?

Axyon’s competitive advantage is its technology. Developing deep learning models for finance is a very complicated task and this can takes years and in some cases generate no results. We can provide asset managers with ready-to-use solutions that have an incredible power that traditional methodologies do not have. For example,  our AI-powered market anomaly detection is cutting-edge technology that generates automated alerts on irregular patterns in asset prices. These may be the result of undisclosed new information, ripple effects from correlated assets, or structural breaks in an asset’s behaviour versus the broader market. Our technology can promptly discover these hidden market data aberrations, which would be otherwise undetectable, and provide an early warning on potential volatility events.

• Looking a year ahead, what are the main changes that you expect to take place?

ESG is taking the financial world by storm and it’s something asset managers will have to think more about. There is potential for AI and machine learning technology to help, allowing asset managers to better utilise data analytics to understand and demonstrate how they can generate better performance and boost returns using ESG indicators. 

The pandemic is going to have a lasting impact, with many markets still suffering some volatility, AI-powered insights are certainly going to continue to be a big focus for our clients.

• What's next for Axyon AI?

We are looking to become the first true AI specialists for financial institutions which has led to a number of new partnerships to expand our offering to new markets including the FX and digital asset space.  Digital assets will inevitably reconfigure the financial sector and we believe our technology will prove valuable in identifying risk in this market, as it’s done in the traditional asset management space. 

• How has Axyon AI helped in the evolution of asset management?

Our advanced AI technology is unrivalled when it comes to portfolio management, giving strong instruments to look at the markets and find alternative sources of alpha. The amount of data that is now available to portfolio managers is huge, and this can represent a big advantage for anybody. Axyon AI offers a way to exploit this and transform data into a competitive advantage. Moreover, through our deep learning tools we can offer portfolio managers insights into the future performance of specific asset classes and asset pools, enabling analysis of the relative strengths of different drivers, risk indicators and other metrics that could produce multiple possible outcomes. 

• What are the main challenges facing your company during Covid-19?

During the pandemic, it was clear that organisations were cutting down on external costs to deal with the immediate impact. However, those who accelerated their digital transformation found it much easier to adapt to the situation. Now, investment in technology and data infrastructure are at the top of asset managers' priorities, and we expect demand for this kind of technology to continue to grow. 

AI has by no means reached its limits. Advancements in technology will mean improvements to business performance will continue, and due to the wealth of data already stored in most financial institutions, there is great potential for fintech to build on the success of previous solutions.