Of the various banks expressing enthusiasm for Artificial Intellignece’s role in finance, JP Morgan Chase has perhaps been one of the most vocal proponents. This interest has translated into capital investment.
The US banking giant’s JP Morgan Payments led a funding round this week in Slope, an AI-backed payments platform. Joining JP Morgan were Y Combinator, Jack Altman, and Max Altman’s new fund, Saga.
Including all participants, the round reached a total valuation of $252m, with $77m in equity and $175m in debt. Slope intends to use the funding to scale the operations of its B2B payments platform, with a target customer-base of what it calls ‘the world’s largest enterprises’.
Lawrence Lin Murata, CEO and Co-Founder of Slope, said: “We announced our round late last year and were not looking to raise additional capital. However, working closely with J.P. Morgan, one of the world’s largest banks, represented a unique opportunity.
“We are excited to join the J.P. Morgan Payments Partner Network, with the equity investment and debt facility helping to support future growth.
“Working with JP Morgan will help us advance our technology so we can better serve more members of the Fortune 500. Slope embodies ‘Fin-Tech’ to the very core and is well positioned to win the opportunity to digitise the $125trn B2B economy.”
Founded by Lin Murata and Alice Deng in 2021, Slope’s core offering revolves around using AI-backed tools to provide checkout, customer and vendor risk assessment, embedded short-term financing, and payment reconciliation services.
As noted above, JP Morgan has been monitoring the development and adoption of AI in the finance space closely. Earlier this year, the bank’s CEO, Jamie Dimon, shared his views in a letter to investors that AI has significant potential in the banking sector.
James Fraser, Global Head of Trade and Working Capital at J.P. Morgan Payments, said: “The US embedded finance market is determined to be worth $20bn, with many corporates looking to implement solutions that reduce friction, streamline processes and support origination.
“Working with Slope, our team at JP Morgan Payments can help meet client demand by providing access to a financing solution that integrates directly into the point-of-sale, translating into higher conversion rates.
“By combining J.P. Morgan’s fortress balance sheet and depth of client relationships with Slope’s strengths in underwriting and credit risk monitoring as well as platform flexibility, we are a well-positioned partner to meet our clients’ needs in a rapidly evolving market.”
