The private markets run on PDFs, spreadsheets, and email. Adhrita Nowrin, founder of London-based Askria, thinks that is a $1 million opportunity.
Her company, founded in 2021, has built what it calls an AI-powered "Founder and Investor OS." For founders, it analyzes pitch decks and financials, scores fundraising readiness, and builds investor-grade data rooms [askRIA, retrieved 2026]. For investors, it offers tools for company discovery, thesis scoring, and automated diligence [PERPLEXITY SONAR PRO BRIEF]. The bet is that both sides of a notoriously opaque and manual process will pay for software that promises to make capital more accessible.
As of February 2025, the platform reported traction on both sides of the marketplace: approximately 200 startups and over 100 funders signed up [Sheffield Haworth, February 2025]. With a team of about seven employees [RocketReach, retrieved 2026], Askria is now hiring across engineering, marketing, and sales roles to scale its two-sided wedge [askria.ai/careers, September 2026].
The Two-Sided Wedge
Askria's product strategy is to attack the same problem from two angles, creating a network effect within the private capital workflow. The founder product ingests a pitch deck and financial documents, then provides a readiness score, identifies diligence gaps, and predicts likely investor questions [PERPLEXITY SONAR PRO BRIEF]. It also includes a Cap Table Snapshot tool to model dilution from new raises [askria.ai/insights, retrieved 2026].
The investor product, meanwhile, is designed to scan the platform's startup universe, score deals against a specific investment thesis, and even draft sections of internal investment committee memos [askRIA, retrieved 2026]. The goal is to compress weeks of manual screening and analysis into a software-assisted workflow.
- Founder workflow. Automates the creation of investor-ready data rooms, Q&A prep, and targeted outreach.
- Investor workflow. Handles company discovery, risk identification, and automated diligence reporting.
- Data moat. The platform's utility grows as more startups upload standardized financials and more investors define their thesis filters, creating a proprietary dataset on early-stage company health and investor appetite.
The Founder's Track
Adhrita Nowrin started the company to build a data-driven "digital CFO for startups" [Sheffield Haworth, February 2025]. Her public profile shows an operator with feet in both the founder and investor worlds. She is an advisor for Chai Angels, sits on the non-executive board for SBM Ventures, and describes herself as an entrepreneur and investor with experience in DeepTech [TechRound, retrieved 2026][Crunchbase, retrieved 2026][LinkedIn, retrieved 2026].
This dual perspective is central to Askria's pitch. The founder understands the pain of preparing for a fundraise; the investor understands the criteria used to evaluate deals. The early team, according to sourcing data, includes a data scientist and a senior software engineer [RocketReach, retrieved 2026]. Current hiring focuses on scaling the core AI and go-to-market functions, with open roles for a Machine Learning Engineer, a GTM Engineer, and sales personnel targeting venture capital firms and family offices [askria.ai/careers, September 2026].
Funding and Backing
Askria's initial capital came from a $1 million seed round in July 2023 [Wellfound, July 2023]. The investor list includes global venture firms 500 Global and Deepbridge Capital [Crunchbase, retrieved 2026]. The round is modest for a fintech startup aiming to build a two-sided marketplace, suggesting a focus on capital efficiency or an upcoming larger financing push.
The backing from 500 Global, a firm with a vast portfolio and network, could provide more than just capital. It offers potential access to a pipeline of both startup founders and early-stage investors, which are Askria's target customers.
Seed Round (Jul 2023) | 1 | M USD
The Competitive Landscape
Automating parts of the investment process is a crowded field. Askria's named competitors include Hebbia and Rogo, which also apply AI to document analysis and diligence [PERPLEXITY SONAR PRO BRIEF]. The differentiation for Askria appears to be its deliberate focus on serving both founders and investors concurrently, rather than being a tool built solely for one side of the table.
The primary risk is the classic marketplace challenge: achieving liquidity. Attracting a critical mass of credible investors is useless without a steady stream of quality startups, and vice versa. The company's reported figures,200 startups, 100+ funders,are early indicators, but the depth of engagement and conversion to paid plans is the real metric to watch.
Another challenge is data sensitivity. Founders may be wary of uploading sensitive financials and cap tables to a platform also used by investors, even with promises of controlled data sharing. Trust and security will be non-negotiable features.
The Next Twelve Months
Askria's near-term roadmap appears focused on growth through partnerships. In a recent interview, Nowrin indicated plans to launch to "10,000 businesses" through channel partners over a 12-month period [PERPLEXITY SONAR PRO BRIEF]. This suggests a shift from direct sales to leveraging accelerators, incubators, and possibly financial institutions as distribution channels.
The company's hiring of a "Community" role to run workshops and demos at accelerators points to this partnership-driven strategy [askria.ai/careers, September 2026]. Success will depend on converting these broad outreach efforts into active, paying users on both sides of the platform.
The $1 million seed from 500 Global and Deepbridge Capital bought the initial build. The next round, likely a Series A, will need to finance the scaling of that two-sided network. The question for Nowrin and her team is whether they can prove that a digital CFO for founders and an automated diligence engine for investors are, in fact, the same product.
Sources
- [Sheffield Haworth, February 2025] Making Capital More Accessible Would Create a New Era of Startup Innovation | https://www.sheffieldhaworth.com/making-capital-more-accessible-would-create-a-new-era-of-startup-innovation/
- [askRIA, retrieved 2026] AI Due Diligence and Deal Management for Investors | https://askria.ai/
- [Wellfound, July 2023] Askria Company Profile | https://wellfound.com/jobs/3624478-financial-analyst-ai-integrated-askria
- [Crunchbase, retrieved 2026] askRIA - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/askria
- [RocketReach, retrieved 2026] Askria Company Profile | https://rocketreach.co/askria-profile_b5c4c2faf42c2b5d
- [askria.ai/careers, September 2026] Careers at Askria | https://askria.ai/careers
- [TechRound, retrieved 2026] 46. Adhrita Nowrin - Askria | https://techround.co.uk/bame-50/46-adhrita-nowrin-askria/
- [LinkedIn, retrieved 2026] Adhrita Nowrin Profile | https://www.linkedin.com/in/adhrita-nowrin