Eloquent AI closes $7.4m seed in 3 days to automate up to 96% of financial services customer operations

Eloquent AI raises $7.4m to transform financial services customer operations

Eloquent AI has closed a $7.4m seed round to scale its AI Operator platform for financial services. The round was led by Foundation Capital with participation from EJF Ventures, Duke Capital Partners, Zeno Ventures, and Y Combinator, and closed in three days, as reported by Finextra.

Why customer support leaders should care

This isn't another FAQ bot. The AI Operator is built to complete full workflows with compliance and auditability baked in. For teams buried in backlogs and repetitive checks, it promises real relief without months of integrations.

What the platform can handle

• Fraud investigations and evidence gathering
• Dispute resolution across multiple internal tools
• KYC/AML reviews and documentation checks

The company says institutions can automate up to 96% of customer operations, which could shorten response times and reduce queues while improving consistency in regulated processes.

How it works (in plain terms)

At the core is Oratio, a multimodal large language model trained on regulated financial workflows. Instead of relying on APIs, the AI Operator uses browser-control and computer vision to watch how agents work across systems, then replicates those steps.

Teams can teach it by explaining a process in natural language or by demonstrating the task on screen. Once shown, it executes the workflow independently and at scale.

Expected impact on support operations

• Faster response and resolution for high-volume cases
• Consistent execution of regulated procedures
• Audit-ready logs for every action
• Lower handling costs on repeatable tasks
• Agents shifted to exceptions, escalations, and high-empathy moments

Practical steps to pilot

• Pick 2-3 high-volume, rule-based workflows with clear SOPs (e.g., chargebacks, KYC refresh)
• Document edge cases and compliance checks the AI must follow
• Record clean walkthroughs of the "golden path" and common variants
• Set guardrails: approval steps, data access limits, and audit requirements
• Define success metrics before kickoff (see below)
• Run a 2-4 week pilot with staged rollout and daily QA sampling
• Review error patterns, refine prompts/steps, then expand scope

Metrics to track

• Average handle time (AHT) and time to first response
• First contact resolution (FCR) and rework rate
• QA accuracy on regulated steps; exception rate
• Backlog reduction and throughput per agent
• Compliance flags and audit findings
• CSAT for automated vs. human-handled cases

Governance and safety checklist

• Role-based access and data minimization
• Immutable activity logs tied to cases and users
• Human approval on sensitive actions (fund movements, account closures)
• Drift monitoring: compare AI actions to SOPs weekly
• Fallback plans for system changes or UI updates

The team and thesis

Eloquent AI was founded by entrepreneur Tugce Bulut and machine learning professor Dr Aldo Lipani. Their bet: end-to-end workflow execution with clear audit trails will be the standard for financial services operations.

As CEO Tugce Bulut put it: "We're finding the cliché of financial institutions being laggards in tech adoption to be substantially overstated. These organisations are often overwhelmed with compliance requirements and backlogged customer ops. The desire to address these issues is certainly there, it's just that, until now, the solution hasn't been."

Context and resources

For regulatory background on AML/CFT standards, see the FATF recommendations: FATF Recommendations.

Want to upskill your team for AI-assisted operations? Explore role-based learning paths at Complete AI Training: Courses by Job or review finance-focused tools at AI Tools for Finance.