Created by Vincent Aurez and Nicolas Paulus, this AI agent is gradually building its nest...

Business Immo What if an additional intelligence, capable of quickly analyzing thousands of data points, were to sit at the table of a real estate investment committee to assist in decision-making? This is the tool that Figen AI, a young French startup with continental ambitions, is offering today.

Its story

After working at the National Institute of Circular Economy and at EY, particularly in sustainable finance, Vincent Aurez arrived in real estate by joining the management company Novaxia as the director of sustainable development and innovation. "The common thread of these different experiences is that I have always relied on a tool (regulation, finance, real estate, and now AI) to aim at transforming things," he emphasizes. So, when OpenAI opened ChatGPT to the public two years ago, he was immediately struck by the potential of this new tool but noticed that there was still no dedicated offering specifically for wealth management and investment. Convinced of the relevance for a manager to use an AI agent as a decision-support tool, he partnered with Nicolas Paulus, then head of his IT development company, to found Figen AI.

Its concept

Last January, the partners launched the first AI assistant capable of understanding wealth management, all tax niches, and real estate investments, up-to-date with French regulations and all calculation mechanisms. "But our vision was already more macro: we can create not only an AI agent with a high level of expertise, capable of answering general questions about investment or real estate, faster and without errors, but we can especially train personalized AI agents for companies in finance, investment, and real estate, tailored to their strategies, convictions, and real estate assets already in their portfolio," explains Vincent Aurez, adding: "Our conviction is that, in the not-so-distant future, investment committees of real estate companies will have a personalized AI agent providing its opinion based on the cross-referencing of thousands of pieces of information. Because this is already possible today: we are currently experimenting with this kind of agent that listens and directly asks questions, thus providing a different perspective based on a vast amount of verified and verifiable data, both internal and/or external." To ensure the integrity and security of its clients' internal data, Figen AI has implemented several safeguards, including data and server compartmentalization, the use of data centers based in Europe, and a prohibition on training its AI agents with models provided by users.

Its ambition

"We have already been adopted by several hundred wealth managers, groups, mutuals, and banks. These actors support the investments of several tens of thousands of French people in rental investments, tax exemptions with rehabilitation works, or in SCPI," Vincent Aurez proudly states. For Figen AI, the next step will be to offer its tool to real estate companies. The young startup has recently begun experimenting with the deployment of AI agents within management companies, developers, real estate investment trusts, and banks. Currently preparing to recruit seven new employees, the co-founders have self-financed the development of their company. "We will be open to raising funds when we need to accelerate even further and create a tech player of European level," says Vincent Aurez. Because this is resolutely the ambition that Figen AI has set for itself. "We are fortunate that France has a wealth of real estate data and very well-structured real estate players who already have a European vision as well as a data DNA. And this very mature environment allows us to establish ourselves very quickly."