Quartr Raises $18 Million to Build the Data Backbone for AI Finance

Jan de Vries · 2026-08-11

When you're a hedge fund manager trying to make a split-second decision, you need answers you can trust. That's the gap Quartr is trying to fill, and it just got a serious cash injection to do it. The Stockholm-based company has closed a $18 million funding round to expand its AI-ready public company data coverage. The round was led by existing backer Altos Ventures, with new investor SEB joining in. This move makes Altos Quartr's largest shareholder, a strong vote of confidence in the company's direction. ### What Exactly Does Quartr Do? Founded in 2020 by Oscar Küntzel, David Dag, Oliver Hamrin, and Sami Osman, Quartr positions itself as the AI infrastructure for company research. Instead of scraping messy data from the web, it builds a structured, real-time layer of investor relations (IR) material pulled directly from public companies. Think earnings calls, live transcripts, filings, and slide decks — all cleaned up and organized. The company delivers this through two main products: - **Quartr Pro**: An AI-powered research platform where analysts can search across all that data. Every AI-generated answer links back to the source document, so you can verify the information yourself. - **Quartr API**: A data backbone for developers, feeding structured information from over 15,000 companies across 65+ markets into other platforms and AI systems. ### The Numbers Behind the Hype Quartr isn't just a cool idea; it's showing real traction. The company says it's growing at triple-digit rates with net revenue retention hovering around 120%. That means existing customers are spending more over time, which is a great sign for long-term health. More than 800 financial institutions and tech companies use Quartr, including four of the five largest hedge funds globally. That's a pretty impressive customer list for a company that's only been around since 2020. ### Why This Funding Matters for AI The broader context here is the massive shift toward AI in finance. Everyone wants to feed their models better data, but the challenge is getting clean, structured information from primary sources. That's where Quartr is betting big. "What we want to enable is allow others to build on top of that knowledge graph to really know that you can get an exhaustive answer to a really complex query," said co-founder and CEO Oscar Küntzel. Instead of training on customer queries, Quartr draws exclusively from public company IR material. This approach means the data stays objective, and the company sees this as its key advantage over both traditional research tools and newer AI-native competitors. ### What's Next for Quartr? The fresh capital will go toward faster product development and expanding data coverage. The company isn't pivoting into new lines of business; it's doubling down on its core mission to become the definitive first-party data layer for company research. This is a space that's shifting rapidly, and Quartr wants to stay ahead of the curve. With backing from Altos Ventures and a growing roster of top-tier clients, it looks like they're on the right track. For professionals in the US, this is a story worth watching. The demand for AI-ready financial data is only going to grow, and the companies that own the primary sources will be the ones that win. Quartr is making a strong case that it's one of them.