Employees of 9fin have cashed in via a secondary share sale, according to its co-founders.
The London FinTech was founded by former J.P. Morgan banker Steven Hunter (pictured, right) and Deutsche Bank engineer Hussam EL-Sheikh (left).
An AI-powered debt market intelligence platform, it recently raised a $170 million Series C at a $1.3 billion (£1bn) valuation – making it the UK’s latest unicorn.
Total funding raised by the firm – described as an AI-native platform for global debt markets – now exceeds $250m.
HarbourVest led the round with participation from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) and earlier investors Redalpine, Highland Europe, Spark Capital and Seedcamp.
As part of the round, the firm gave ‘9finners’ the opportunity to sell a portion of their vested shares, Hunter and El-Sheikh wrote in a blog post.
“This is something we’ve wanted to do for a long time,” they said. “With our latest funding round significantly oversubscribed, we were determined to make it happen.”
Participation was entirely optional while the company covered the administrative costs and made independent financial advice available, they added.
Debt capital markets are the largest asset class in the world, yet the technology supporting them still lags decades behind. As loan, bond, and private credit markets converge, getting better information faster is more important than ever. AI can help — but only when trained on reliable data, much of which remains trapped in data rooms, emails, and PDFs.
9fin centralises this information and uses it to fuel next-generation AI technology, enabling credit professionals to identify, analyse, and act on opportunities within a single platform. These tools help clients win mandates, stay ahead of competitors, and save hours of manual research.
More than 350 leading banks, asset managers, law firms, and advisory firms rely on 9fin as their core platform for sourcing deals, analysing risk, and monitoring global debt markets.
The company has delivered multiple consecutive years of 100% ARR growth, industry-leading retention, and even faster expansion in the US.