Behavox seeks funding that could lead to ‘unicorn’ status

THE boss of artificial intelligence start-up Behavox could soon be worth more than $400m after it emerged his company is targeting “unicorn” status in a forthcoming funding round.

Erkin Adylov, who appeared on The Daily Telegraph’s Tech 100 list this year, owns more than a third of Behavox, whose systems help firms monitor their employees’ emails, texts and calls in real-time.

Its technology is largely used by financial institutions including Jefferies, Arrowgrass and Anglo American to spot everything from rogue trading to bribery and expenses abuse. Adylov is by far the company’s largest shareholder.

The Telegraph understands the company is in talks over a $100m round that would be likely to propel its valuation to more than $1bn.

Sources suggested Behavox could do a smaller round before the end of this year, and then would look to potentially secure funds from a sovereign wealth fund in 2021 to achieve a “unicorn” status with a value in excess of $1bn.

Filings on Companies House suggest it last raised cash in late 2017 amounting to around £20m and giving it a valuation of around £200m.

However, the company has since received significant interest from investors, it is understood. Behavox was founded in the UK in 2014, by Adylov, a former Goldman Sachs analyst, with Slav Slavinski and Kiryl Trembovolski.

It has since moved the bulk of its operations to New York. It is thought the company saw more opportunity to expand in the US given that New York is home to many financial services companies and banks that do not having to grapple with Brexit uncertainty.

In an update released last week, Behavox said it had recently become profitable and doubled its revenues in the first half of the year.

The company signed five major global banks in one quarter. Revenue is expected to rise at least 75pc in the second half of 2019.