"When Vincent Aurez talks about artificial intelligence, his sentences accelerate. For him, technology isn't just a veneer: it's an obsession, born one November evening when ChatGPT entered his life... along with his first meeting at a private bank."
Before Figen AI, launched in early 2024, Aurez had already lived several lives. EY, European banking networks, then Novaxia where he became Director of Innovation. It was there that he discovered a sector where creativity meets regulation. And it was above all there that he absorbed the realities on the ground: the independent financial advisors he saw "traveling around France addressing wealth management issues," overwhelmed by mountains of texts, reports, and case law.
So he started learning. Like a conscientious geek: technical seminars during his vacations, nights spent testing models, and two years searching for a partner. He eventually found Nicolas Paulus, a precocious engineer-entrepreneur (his first company was founded at 17 and recently sold), former pro gamer, and compulsive developer. Together, they built a vision: to create not just another "software" program, but AI agents capable of absorbing millions of official documents, understanding tax regulations, reading SCPI (real estate investment trust) statements or monetary codes, and transforming all of this into concrete tools for professionals.
The first AI dedicated to wealth management
"We wrote a 15,000-page encyclopedia of wealth management," Aurez says with a smile. This was enough to train an assistant that "almost never makes mistakes" and, above all, doesn't hallucinate like general-purpose AIs. From there, everything fell into place: a recorder that transcribes client meetings, identifies participants, automatically populates the CRM, generates compliance reports, and prepares the suitability report. The result: an average of six hours saved per week for an advisor. The subscription? 99 euros per month, with no free version "because our users want a professional tool, not a toy." In its eleven months of existence, Figen AI boasts 1,200 paying clients: freelancers, groups, a mutual insurance company, a private bank, and a proof of concept underway with a major banking network. The company is self-financed, refuses acquisitions, and is moving quickly, but cautiously. "The more AI there is, the more human intervention will be needed," insists Aurez. For him, AI doesn't kill consulting: it eliminates administrative tasks. And it puts the advisor back where they are essential: understanding a personal story, a past real estate trauma, a delicate inheritance, a complex relationship with risk.
The next steps are already underway: a colossal, continuously updated SCPI (French real estate investment trust) database; soon, structured funds and private equity; and then European expansion, already underway in Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Spain. Still ad-free, with no compromise on data, and with servers duplicated in Europe to reassure the banks.
At 34, Vincent Aurez isn't talking about exiting or early retirement à la FIRE. What he wants is to "build a sovereign, European tech player," and move fast, very fast, in a sector that hasn't yet seen the true transformative power of AI. A blend of social intuition, technological appetite, and meticulous patience. A rare combination.
- Jean-Jacques Manceau