From Financial News, London, October 19:
The US-headquartered firm is in the midst of an ‘aggressive’ hiring spree in Europe, its leaders tell FN
Rogo, the AI startup founded by former dealmakers, is set to expand to more than 200 people in Europe as investment banks and asset managers in the region up their use of the technology.
The firm, which has gained traction among both boutique and bulge bracket investment banks as they invest in AI, is “aggressively hiring” for its key European hub in London, as well as cities like Copenhagen, Madrid and Paris, according to co-founder and chief operating officer John Willett.
Willett, who is a former JPMorgan investment banker, said that the firm could have 200-250 employees in the region by the end of 2027.
Rogo kicked off its European operations with around 15 staff earlier this year, its chief executive Gabe Stengel told Financial News previously.
“We just started to feel even more of a suction from the market in general and from the European banks. There was a real feeling that the timeline for adoption is just quicker than we’ve seen in any other software cycle,” said Willett.
“There’s a classic trope that Europe is two years behind the US in terms of tech adoption, but that’s not what I’m seeing. I’m seeing a much smaller gap. I’m seeing firms who are very ambitious, aggressive and wanting to adopt this stuff,” he added.
• Deutsche Bank puts 200 top bankers through mandatory AI training
• ‘My avatar is way more interesting than me’: How AI will transform wealth management
Investment banking is seen as ripe for disruption by AI, particularly junior roles that have been focused on so-called grunt work like correcting PowerPoint presentations or turning comments for senior dealmakers.
Both Stengel, who worked at Lazard, and Willett have experience of the junior banker lifestyle and the brutal hours required. They conceived the idea for Rogo while they were studying at Princeton University. They left their jobs in 2022 to launch the firm alongside computer scientist Tumas Rackaitis.
Willett said that the focus on improving junior banker productivity does not give full credit to the scope of the technology, with Rogo building a “self-improving agent workforce” within a bank and each lender’s deal intelligence forming their own “digital firm brain”....
....MUCH MORE
