Investment banking is having a complex cultural moment.
Consider the rollicking rise of HBO’s Industry, which manages to make i-banking look dark, sexy, and sometimes even swashbuckling. The world of Industry is filled with glass skyscrapers, cluttered desks, and hard-won but devastatingly hollow victories. It’s a whole generation’s introduction to investment banking, and it’s airing just as a real-world reckoning is gaining momentum. In recent months and years, shattering stories have emerged of investment banking associates who die at work amid 100-plus-hour work weeks and reportedly toxic work cultures.
Impossible jobs make for good TV, but impossible demands sooner or later become indefensible in real life. That means there’s an opportunity to make these jobs better. And banks, though they’ve lately (and very publicly) been limiting the hours associates can work, are unlikely to do it alone.
Gabe Stengel worked at Lazard in investment banking from 2020 to 2022. Now, he’s the CEO and cofounder of Rogo, a startup building an AI-driven platform especially for finance and its largest institutions. It’s ChatGPT-esque, helping junior analysts streamline workflows, draft memos, and generate models and PowerPoints. Wall Street’s in a moment of change, Stengel told Fortune.
“Wall Street has this rich legacy of people who work really hard, often are overworked, and where people don’t necessarily look out for each other,” he said. “I think that’s changing a lot, and that’s true in a lot of industries. People are paying more attention to how they work and to their peers. Stakeholder capitalism, rather than shareholder capitalism, right?… In the way I conceptualize this, [Rogo] is something that could actually prevent people from being overworked, I imagine, because they’re more efficient.”
Stengel cofounded Rogo with John Willett and Tumas Rackaitis in 2022 to build a Wall Street-ready AI analyst. And if this all sounds grandiose, consider: Rogo went from zero to a seven-digit ARR in less than five months with one sales rep, and is already fielding tens of thousands of queries daily. (The company declined to disclose more specific numbers.)
Now, Rogo has raised its $18.5 million Series A in a round led by Khosla Ventures, Fortune can exclusively report. Keith Rabois was Khosla’s lead partner on the deal. (Khosla was famously the first investor in OpenAI.) New investors include Jack Altman’s AltCapital, Original Capital, and The Chainsmokers’ Mantis VC. Additionally, existing Rogo investors AlleyCorp, BoxGroup, and ScOp Venture Capital also participated in the round.
There are sideways competitors to Rogo, from the internal tools that banks like JPMorgan Chase are developing to the AI tools being rolled out by Bloomberg and FactSet. But Stengel’s ambitions are substantial—he says Rogo’s end game is to be as ubiquitous as the Bloomberg Terminal. This also begins to situate Rogo at the center of another far-ranging cultural conversation: Will AI take jobs? In finance at least, Stengel ultimately says no, because it remains an “apprenticeship business.”
“If you want to be the best private equity investor or the best banker, you’ll need to learn from the best,” said Stengel. “So much is contained in the voiceover knowledge, the trade secrets, and the relationships. How can you actually be empowered to focus on that?”
Rogo aims to automate the most rote tasks for junior bankers, allowing them to “spend more time on the things that actually make investment banking and investing interesting” like “getting to form relationships with actual operators and entrepreneurs.” One of the things about how Stengel discusses Rogo is that he seems compelled by a seemingly counterintuitive idea—that technology can make finance, well, a little more human. I told him about a friend of mine who started her career in investment banking—and that she quickly ran away screaming, as the promise of a difficult but interesting job receded into an untenable reality.
“What this technology is going to do is make the promise closer to reality,” said Stengel. “A lot of smart, ambitious people join these banks because they’re interested in the work that the senior managing directors are doing…But then what happens is that there’s so much low-hanging fruit to address. But your friend joined for a reason. It’s because a lot of the work is fascinating.”
And you know how we know that? There’s a whole TV show about it. Yes, in customary HBO fashion, many of Industry’s most thrilling scenes are moments of twisted interpersonal dynamics. But the scenes in Industry that have most stuck with me are ones where an associate wrests back control in a high-stakes situation—doing what they signed up for in the first place.
Elsewhere…To equity or not to equity, that is the question. Forgive the reference, but there is, in fact, quasi-Shakespearean drama around Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the question of equity. My colleagues Sharon Goldman, Kali Hays, and Verne Kopytoff are here to explain it to you.
Scoop-let…Fintech is so back. I mean, maybe. But either way, fintech-focused Restive Ventures has filed to raise its third fund with a cap of $70 million, according to an SEC filing. The firm’s investments include Atlas, Brico, Flex, and Power, which in 2023 was acquired by Marqeta.
See you tomorrow,
Allie Garfinkle
Twitter: @agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
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Nina Ajemian curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.
VENTURE DEALS
- Aktis Oncology, a Boston-based radiopharmaceuticals biotech company, raised $175 million in Series B funding. RA Capital Management led the round and RTW Investments and Janus Henderson Investors co-led the round. They were joined by T. Rowe Price Associates, Avidity Partners, existing investors Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, MRL Ventures Fund, and others.
- Eon, a New York City-based cloud backup solution, raised $127 million in funding. Sequoia Capital led the $20 million seed and was joined by Vine Ventures, Meron Capital, and Eight Roads. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the $30 million Series A and was joined by Sheva. Greenoaks led the $77 million Series B and was joined by Quiet Ventures.
- Distribusion, a Berlin-based B2B ground transportation marketplace, raised $80 million in Series C funding. TQ Ventures led the round and was joined by existing investor Lightrock.
- Nym, a New York City-based autonomous medical coding company, raised $47 million in funding. PSG led the round and was joined by Google Ventures, Addition, Samsung Next, and Dynamic Loop Capital.
- VieCure, a Greenwood Village, Colo.-based intelligence platforms provider for community oncology care, raised $45 million in funding from Northpond Ventures.
- Qodo, a Tel Aviv-based AI coding platform, raised $40 million in Series A funding. Susa Ventures and Square Peg led the round and were joined by Firestreak Ventures, ICON Continuity Fund, and existing investors TLV Partners and Vine Ventures.
- SecondLive, a London-based AI-powered Web3 open Metaverse, raised $12 million in funding. Crypto.com led the round and was joined by Cypher Capital, Spark Digital, MetaEstate, and others.
- Lucky Energy, an Austin-based energy drink company, raised $11.8 million in Series A funding. Brand Foundry Ventures led the round and was joined by Imaginary Ventures, Sapphire Sport, Sugar Capital, and others.
- Artisan, a San Francisco-based AI employee developer, raised $11.5 million in seed funding. Oliver Jung led the round and was joined by Y Combinator, HubSpot Ventures, Day One Ventures, and others.
- Airship, a Washington D.C.-based point of sale software provider for HVAC businesses, raised $4 million in pre-seed funding. QED Investors led the round and was joined by Silence, Lorimer Ventures, Four Acres Capital, and Twine Ventures.
- Enlaye, Boston-based AI-native risk lifecycle management platform developer for the built world, raised $1.7 million in pre-seed funding. Glasswing VC and Hannah Grey VC led the round and were joined by Link Ventures.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- Alsendo, backed by Abris Capital Partners, acquired Visas transportas UAB, a Vilnius, Lithuania-based developer of parcel platform Siusk24 and cross-border shipments logistics platform Cargobooking. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Juniper Landscaping, a portfolio company of Bregal Partners, acquired Landscape Maintenance Professionals, a Dover, Fla.-based landscaping maintenance provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Spectra Medical Devices, a portfolio company of QHP Capital, acquired XL Precision Technologies, a Stockton-on-Tees, England-based precision micro-components, complex tubular components, and sub-assemblies manufacturer for the medical device industry. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Teamfront, backed by Mainsail Partners, acquired Xcelerate, a Mesa, Ariz.-based job management software provider for the restoration industry. Financial terms were not disclosed.
EXITS
- TPG Capital agreed to acquire the remaining 70% stake in DirecTV, an El Segundo, Calif.-based satellite TV company, from AT&T for $7.6 billion in cash.
- Levine Leichtman Capital Partners acquired Expert Institute, a New York City-based legal technology provider, from Spectrum Equity. Financial terms were not disclosed.
OTHER
- Bubble acquired Flusk, an Caen, France-based security and app monitoring tool. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Dragos acquired Network Perception, a Chicago, Ill.-based network visualization platform developer for OT networks. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Gogo agreed to acquire Satcom Direct, a Melbourne, Fla.-based global satellite communications solutions provider, for $375 million in cash and 5 million Gogo shares at closing.
IPOS
- Ingram Micro Holdings, an Irvine, Calif.-based IT solutions distributor, filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange. The company posted $48 billion in revenue for the year ending June 29, 2024. Platinum Equity backs the company.
- KinderCare Learning Companies, an Oswego, Ore.-based early childhood education and care services provider, plans to raise $648 million in an offering of 24 million shares priced between $23 to $27 on the New York Stock Exchange. The company posted $2.6 billion in revenue for the year ending June 30, 2024. Partners Group backs the company.
PEOPLE
- Advent International, a Boston, Mass.-based private equity firm, added Carmine Di Sibio as an operating partner. Previously, he was at EY.