Blue Fire AI raises $9M, teams with Mizuho and AM One

Blue Fire AI has raised $9 million and entered partnerships with Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group and Asset Management One to test its artificial intelligence technology in financial services.

The funding will support product development and pilot projects with the two Japanese institutions, Blue Fire AI reported. The company plans to use the capital to hire researchers and engineers and to scale its cloud infrastructure for enterprise deployments.

Pilots will be run jointly with the partners’ teams and will focus on model validation, risk controls and explainability. Blue Fire AI said it will align its systems with the compliance and governance standards required by large financial institutions and design workflows that allow human analysts to review model outputs.

Mizuho Financial Group, one of Japan’s largest banking groups, and Asset Management One, a major Japanese asset manager, each confirmed collaborative pilot programs are under way. The agreements involve testing AI models in areas such as investment research, portfolio management and operational workflows, subject to regulatory and internal approvals.

Blue Fire AI did not disclose the full list of investors in the round or the company’s valuation.

Large banks and asset managers have been evaluating AI tools to speed analysis of market data, support portfolio construction and reduce manual tasks. Blue Fire AI was founded to develop machine learning models for financial applications with an emphasis on transparency and auditability.

The company said the new funding and partnerships will be used to test its systems in live workflows and to refine the controls and documentation required by institutional clients.