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BFD Expert Voices - Private Credit

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OpenAI's buy of personal finance startup Hiro went from outreach to signed deal in a matter of weeks, Axios Pro has learned.

Why it matters: OpenAI's recent activity in the sector shows finance is a key strategic focus.

Zoom in: Hiro closed a previously unannounced $15 million Series A in December and had plenty of cash in the bank at the time of the transaction, a source familiar with the transaction says.

How it works: Hiro paired a ChatGPT-style interface with direct connections to users' financial accounts so it could answer questions based on actual data.

Its infrastructure enables its financial data and workflows to connect with other AI tools. The product used visualizations alongside chat, helping users inspect financial questions more directly.

It also leaned into verifiable math, addressing the core weakness of using a general chatbot for money decisions.

State of play: OpenAI had already signaled broader ambitions in finance through its $100 million-plus partnership with Intuit, which will bring Intuit app experiences directly into ChatGPT.

OpenAI also launched ChatGPT for Excel and new financial data integrations in March, pitching the product as a tool for scenario analysis and finance workflows.

The big picture: Other frontier model providers are also moving beyond general-purpose chat into finance-specific tools.

Perplexity recently rolled out financial features that let users connect brokerage accounts via Plaid and audit answers against the source data.

Anthropic has also been building finance-specific workflows in Claude, including financial analysis tools tied to providers like FactSet, Daloopa and S&P Global.

The bottom line: OpenAI is buying a company that had already built a working model for how AI-powered personal finance could work.

Why OpenAI bought Hiro

AI-based finance tools are becoming more competitive.

Illustration of a robotic hand holding a glowing dollar sign.

OpenAI&#x27;s buy of personal finance startup Hiro went from outreach to signed deal in a matter of weeks, Axios Pro has learned.Why it matters: OpenAI&#x27;s recent activity in the sector shows finance is a key strategic focus.

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Why OpenAI bought Hiro

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