The Swiss wealth manager is backing an Israeli artificial intelligence-based start-up which is seeking to democratize private banking.
Zurich-based Julius Baer is among the investors in a $120 million funding round at First Digital Bank, a Tel Aviv-based bank, it said on Wednesday. Japan's SBI and Chinese Tencent also invested, as did West Coast Equity Partners, an U.S. private equity firm.
First Digital or FDB wants to offer a private banking experience with proprietary artificial intelligence tools and technologies. It was initially funded with $65 million by seed investment by Amnon Shashua (pictured above), a prominent Israeli computer scientist, academic, and founder-CEO of Mobileye.
The bank is currently in a pilot stage and is expected to soft launch in Israel early next year, with international markets to follow. Julius Baer, which also owns a stake in Swiss crypto bank Seba, didn't detail the specific amount of its investment in FDB.
