Carlyle Group-backed NLP specialist SESAMm brings home €35 million

Paris-based SESAMm has raised €35 million in, what it’s titling a Series B2 (is that like the bomber?) funding round. The company says that the investment will be used to further expand into the US and Asian markets alongside supporting the continued development of its technologies to generate AI-powered ESG and sentiment analytics.

The round was co-led by Elaia and Opera Tech Ventures, the venture capital arm of BNP Paribas (BNP). The round saw participation from Unigestion, Raiffeisen Bank International’s (RBI) venture capital vehicle Elevator Ventures, AFG Partners, CEGEE Capital, as well as existing backers, including Carlyle Group and New Alpha Asset Management. Since mid-2016, SESAMm has raised approximately €50 million.

“Raising a significant amount during challenging market conditions highlights the relevancy of SESAMm's focus on two key trends: AI and sustainability,” says SESAMm CEO and co-founder Sylvain Forté. “In turn, these tools enable organisations to make better decisions and fill the data gaps, particularly in ESG, on both public and private companies.”

At its heart, SESAMm is a fintech company. Just not exactly the way you might think. As a natural language analytics data provider, the company provides services to global investment firms including private equity firms, hedge funds, and other asset management companies, by way of content summaries.

And by content (sourced from news websites, NGO reports, social media, etc.) summaries, I mean that SESAMm uses a data lake comprised of some 20 billion+ articles, one that’s growing by 20 percent per year, according to the company, to deliver analytics for use cases such as controversy detection, ESG, and SDG sentiment scores, private equity due diligence, suppliers monitoring, and the list goes on.

SESAMm's client list includes Tokio Marine, Raiffeisen Bank, Asset Management One, Carlyle, Unigestion, Natixis, and Oddo BHF, to name a few.

“Since we started working with SESAMm as investors and clients over two years ago, we’ve been impressed with both the company’s growth and the advanced analytics that have supported our deal sourcing, diligence, and portfolio company value creation efforts,” said Matt Anderson, Carlyle’s Chief Digital Officer.