Institutional buy-side equity research has long been one of the most information-intensive jobs in finance: analysts tracking 20 to 40 companies in their core coverage while monitoring hundreds more must constantly synthesize earnings calls, SEC filings, conference transcripts, news flow, and internal thesis documents–largely by hand. The volume of data demanding analyst attention has grown sharply, while research cycles have compressed and pressure on returns has intensified, creating a widening gap between what analysts are expected to know and the hours they have to know it. General-purpose AI tools have filled some of that gap, but institutional funds operate with proprietary data, house investment styles, and output formats that off-the-shelf chatbots cannot accommodate. Pinegap addresses this by building custom AI agents tuned directly to each fund’s workflow–learning how a specific fund thinks, then delivering earnings previews, company primers, thesis updates, and news summaries proactively, before the analyst asks. Since launching commercially in early 2025, the platform has deployed more than 1,000 agents across 100+ institutional clients, generating upward of 50,000 research reports per month for hedge funds, long-only mutual funds, and RIAs.
AlleyWatch sat down with Pinegap Cofounder & CBO Ankit Varmani to learn more about the business, its future plans, recent $8M Series A round that brings total funding to $10.5M, and much, much more…
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
Pinegap raised an $8M Series A round led by Stellaris Venture Partners, with participation from existing investors Inventus, Silicon Valley Quad, and DeVC.
Tell us about the product or service that Pinegap offers.
Pinegap is an AI-powered equity research platform that automates the daily workflows of institutional buy-side analysts. The platform was created for buy-side analysts that have to pull insights from market and internal data on many companies in a timely fashion. We work directly with these companies to build end-to-end automation and AI agents tuned to each fund’s investment style, private data, and output formats.
What inspired the start of Pinegap?
The idea for Pinegap originated from when my cofounder Deepak Sharma an IIT alum (Indian Institute of Technology a highly regarded university in India) reached out to me in late 2023 to learn more about equity research, To help him, I taught Deepak the way any good analyst would with real assignments – the kind that keep junior analysts at their desks until midnight. Working through the tasks I gave him, Deepak turned to the LLMs of the time, which were just beginning to show real capability. We both quickly realized that this wasn’t a shortcut. It was an insight: the most mundane, repetitive parts of equity research, the very tasks that consume an analyst’s day, could be automated with AI.
I brought my analyst experience (which includes years at JP Morgan) to the table while Deepak brought the engineering instinct to automate it. Together we developed Pinegap and by early 2025, we launched it commercially. As of now, we have deployed more than 1,000 agents across 100+ institutional clients, generating upwards of 50,000 research reports per month.
How is Pinegap different?
Pinegap is different because it is neither a data vendor nor a chatbot. Instead it is a platform that learns how a specific fund thinks, everything from its investment style, private data, and output formats This is important because for institutional research analysts, general-purpose AI tools fall short because they pull too much info – which leads to inaccurate answers.
Pinegap stands out in the market because it is purpose-built for a single niche, we have growing base of proprietary data, and we offer flexibility to both “buy” and “build” customers.
What market does Pinegap target and how big is it?
As mentioned, we target buy-side analysts (hedge funds, long-only funds, and RIAs), a market that represents more than a billion dollars in opportunity before expanding into adjacent markets.
What’s your business model?
We generate recurring revenue through seat-based subscriptions. As customers expand usage across teams and workflows, those relationships naturally grow into larger, multi-year enterprise contracts.
How are you preparing for a potential economic slowdown?
We do believe that we have some counter-cyclical characteristics. During periods of economic uncertainty, investment firms tend to scrutinize spending more closely and prioritize products that deliver measurable ROI. We believe that dynamic positions us well and could serve as a tailwind for our business.
What was the funding process like?
We were delighted to meet Alok Goyal from Stellaris Venture Partners and immediately saw him as a great fit for our cap table. Our existing investor, Inventus Capital, also doubled down in the round. We were equally excited to welcome several of our customers as investors, reflecting their confidence not only in our product but also in our long-term vision as a company.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
Finding the right partner was of paramount importance to us. After receiving seed funding from funds backed by Silicon Valley legends such as Kanwal Rekhi and BV Jagadeesh, we were looking for a partner who could help us expand our horizons even further.
We were excited to meet Alok early in our fundraising process. Having spent nearly a decade leading one of the world’s largest software companies, he brings tremendous value to our team as an investor, advisor, and board member.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
I think what our investors liked about our company was how we identified analyst’s pain points and how effective we’ve been so far in solving them. Though it’s still early days for Pinegap, we have already received strong positive customer feedback – even from funds with their own in-house AI capabilities – because of how our AI is so closely tuned to how they actually work. I think what also appealed to them was our experience and execution capability. I lived in this world for fifteen years across the sell side and buy side and Deepak brings the technical velocity to build that institutional knowledge into an intelligent platform.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
We are looking to rapidly expand our GTM efforts and expand customer success teams.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Be as frugal as possible until you achieve product-market fit. Scaling something that isn’t working rarely leads to good outcomes.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
I envision Pinegap using this funding to build out our go-to-market and sales capabilities, expand our engineering team, and set up an in-house team of former equity research analysts. I also see the product continuing to evolve to meet the ever-changing needs of equity analysts, who are constantly looking to incorporate new sources of information into their research process.
What’s your favorite summer destination in and around the city?
We’re a tennis family, so the US Open is always a highlight of our summer. Otherwise, I’m happiest staying local, taking long walks along the Hudson and enjoying dinner outside with family or friends.
