Sells a subscription platform that keeps a bank's model inventory, automates model documentation, testing and validation, and routes governance workflows, directly and through Experian's Ascend Platform and a Genpact managed-service offer.
What is ValidMind, and which banks use it?
ValidMind is a Palo Alto company founded in March 2022 that sells model-risk-management and AI-governance software: model inventory, documentation and validation automation, monitoring, and, since June 2026, early access to agent controls. It is private, backed by Point72 Ventures, which led an $8.1 million seed round in March 2024. None of our 100 banks is named as a customer; its one bank case study names only a Fortune 500 bank. Pricing is not published; ValidMind quotes per model count, complexity and deployment. It has published an SR 26-2 implementation guide.
Category
Founded
2022
Headquarters
Palo Alto, California
Ownership
Private; its $8.1 million seed round (March 2024) was led by Point72 Ventures with Third Prime, New York Life Ventures, AI Fund, Notion Capital, FJ Labs, Angel Invest and Gaingels, bringing total funding to $11.1 million at the time. No valuation is published.[11]
Deployment
SaaS (multi-tenant or single-tenant Virtual Private ValidMind)
Pricing
Subscription licence quoted per engagement; onboarding and customer-success services included. · not published
Banks among the 100
0
- Founded in March 2022 by Jonas Jacobi (CEO), Andres Rodriguez (CTO) and Mehdi Esmail; based in Palo Alto, California.
- Raised an $8.1 million seed round led by Point72 Ventures in March 2024, bringing total funding to $11.1 million; later rounds, if any, are not announced on its newsroom.
- Sells four modules -- AI Governance, AI and Model Risk Management, Validation Automation and Development Automation -- with prices quoted on request; its pricing page says price depends on the number of models and AI systems, governance complexity, automation needs and deployment.
- Reaches banks through partners as well as directly: Experian's Assistant for Model Risk Management (launched July 2025) is powered by ValidMind technology inside the Experian Ascend Platform, and Genpact co-sells a Model Risk Management as a Service offer (March 2025).
- Published an SR 26-2 implementation guide organised around the guidance's four priorities (model definition, materiality tiering, ongoing monitoring, inventory), and a blog noting SR 26-2 excludes generative and agentic AI from its scope.
- Its only published bank case study (November 2025) is anonymous: a 'Fortune 500 Bank' that ValidMind says went live in 12 weeks and has 545 active users across three lines of defence (vendor-reported).
- In June 2026 released Atryum, an open-source control layer for AI agents, and opened early access to ValidMind Agent Authority, a commercial product built on it.
What does ValidMind sell to banks?
| Product | What it does | Status |
|---|---|---|
| ValidMind AI and Model Risk Management[2][4][9] | Centralized model inventory and system of record with governance workflows, risk tiering and approvals, positioned as extending an existing MRM framework; sold as a subscription with onboarding and training included. | Generally available |
| ValidMind Validation Automation[2] | Automated testing and validation documentation for independent review, with human-in-the-loop AI assistance; works alongside an existing inventory. | Generally available |
| ValidMind Development Automation (ValidMind Library)[2][4] | Python library that runs tests and generates model documentation from the developer's own environment and sends it to the platform. | Generally available |
| ValidMind AI Governance[2][3] | Policies, controls, approvals and accountability across AI, generative-AI and traditional models, sold as a module of the platform. | Generally available |
| ValidMind Agent Authority[20] | Enterprise product built on the open-source Atryum control layer that intercepts AI agents' tool calls, evaluates them against policy and routes them to humans; opened for early access in June 2026. | Limited availability |
| Experian Assistant for Model Risk Management[18] | Experian product inside the Ascend Platform, powered by ValidMind technology, with documentation templates, a governance repository and workflow approvals; sold by Experian. | Generally available |
How much does ValidMind cost?
How it is charged: Subscription licence quoted per engagement; onboarding and customer-success services included..
ValidMind does not publish a price list.
Pricing is not published. ValidMind's pricing page lists four modules with 'Request quote' buttons and says pricing 'depends on your number of models and AI systems, governance complexity, automation needs, deployment requirements'; its customer-success page says onboarding, enablement and enrichment are included in the subscription licence.
Which banks use ValidMind?
None of the 100 largest US banks covered on this site is publicly named as a ValidMind customer as of Sep 24, 2026. Customers the company names are listed in the key points above.
Among the 100 largest US banks on this site, from sources that name the bank: the bank, ValidMind or the press. Status is the furthest stage a source confirms.
What is ValidMind AI Governance Platform?
A model inventory, documentation and validation engine, template management and a governance dashboard, fed by the open ValidMind Library (a Python API) that model developers call from their own tools; offered as AI Governance, AI and Model Risk Management, Validation Automation and Development Automation modules.[4][5][2]
What has ValidMind done, and when?
- Jun 15, 2026
Atryum and Agent Authority[20]
ValidMind releases Atryum, an open-source control layer for AI agents, and opens early access to ValidMind Agent Authority.
- Apr 21, 2026
- Feb 5, 2026
Experian Assistant wins award[19]
Experian says its ValidMind-powered Assistant for Model Risk Management won a 2026 BIG Innovation Award.
- Nov 24, 2025
Fortune 500 bank case study[10]
ValidMind publishes an anonymised case study of a Fortune 500 bank that selected it after a proof of value and rolled it out to production users in 12 weeks.
- Jul 31, 2025
Experian Assistant for Model Risk Management launches[18]
Experian launches an MRM assistant in its Ascend Platform powered by ValidMind technology.
- Jun 2, 2025
Chief Revenue Officer appointed[17]
Jan Larsen, former President of CRISIL Integral IQ and a ValidMind adviser, becomes Chief Revenue Officer.
- May 12, 2025
Former SAS model-risk head joins[16]
David Asermely, previously a leader of SAS's model risk and AI governance solutions, joins as VP of global business development.
- Mar 25, 2025
Genpact partnership[15]
ValidMind and Genpact announce a joint Model Risk Management as a Service offer for financial institutions, with pilots planned through 2025.
- Feb 12, 2025
Experian partnership[14]
Experian and ValidMind announce a partnership combining the Experian Ascend Platform with ValidMind's documentation and governance automation.
- Dec 6, 2024
Chartis model-risk report placement[13]
ValidMind says Chartis Research placed it as a category leader in three quadrants of its Model Risk and Validation 2024 report.
- Sep 26, 2024
ValidMind Advantage partner program[12]
A program for fintechs and model vendors to test, document and validate their AI models to bank requirements (SR 11-7, SS1/23, E-23, EU AI Act) before selling to banks.
- Mar 27, 2024
$8.1 million seed round[11]
Point72 Ventures leads an $8.1 million seed round, bringing total funding to $11.1 million; Murat Doganaksoy, former Model Risk Officer at First Republic Bank, joins the advisory board.
- Mar 1, 2022
Company founded[1]
ValidMind is launched in March 2022 by Jonas Jacobi, Andres Rodriguez and Mehdi Esmail to focus on AI and model risk governance for financial institutions (exact day not disclosed).
What do banks use ValidMind for?
| Use | What it does | Status | Use case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Model inventory, validation and documentation[10][6] | Keeps the model inventory, tiers models, automates validation testing and documentation, and routes approvals across the three lines of defence. | In production | Model risk management |
| Enterprise AI governance[3][2][8] | Policies, controls, approvals and accountability for AI and generative-AI systems alongside traditional models. | In production | AI governance (general) |
| Vendor model documentation[12] | The Advantage program lets fintechs and model vendors document and validate models to bank requirements before a bank's own review. | Announced | Third-party & vendor AI |
| Controls for AI agents[20] | Agent Authority, built on the open-source Atryum, intercepts agent tool calls, applies policy and records decisions; in early access as of June 2026. | Pilot | Generative & agentic AI |
What has ValidMind disclosed in numbers?
| Metric | Value | As of |
|---|---|---|
| Seed round (Point72 Ventures lead) | $8.1 million[11] | Mar 27, 2024 |
| Total funding at the seed round | $11.1 million[11] | Mar 27, 2024 |
| Fortune 500 bank rollout (vendor-reported case study) | 12 weeks to production users; 545 active users across three lines of defence[10] | Nov 24, 2025 |
| Proof-of-value testing at that bank (vendor-reported) | 318 individual tests across 38 scenarios by more than 60 testers[10] | Nov 24, 2025 |
| Internal approval time reduction, Experian Assistant for MRM (Experian-reported) | up to 70%[18] | Jul 31, 2025 |
“Financial institutions are about to inherit a workforce they have never learned to manage.”[20]
Jonas Jacobi · Co-founder and CEO, ValidMind · Jun 15, 2026
“When the platform running an agent also governs it, it is grading its own work, and that is the documented failure mode.”[20]
Andres Rodriguez · Co-founder and CTO, ValidMind · Jun 15, 2026
“Model validation is a huge cost driver for financial institutions.”[17]
Jan Larsen · Chief Revenue Officer, ValidMind · Jun 2, 2025
Who runs ValidMind?
Which rules apply to a bank using ValidMind?
| Authority | Why it matters here | Documents |
|---|---|---|
| Federal Reserve | SR 26-2 is the framework ValidMind maps to: its docs guide walks through model versus non-model definition, materiality tiering, ongoing monitoring and inventory, and its blog notes SR 26-2 leaves generative and agentic AI (where Agent Authority is aimed) outside scope. | SR 26-2 |
| OCC | An OCC-supervised bank storing its model inventory and validation evidence in ValidMind's hosted platform must manage ValidMind as a third party, and OCC 2026-13 sets the model-risk expectations the evidence is meant to show. | OCC Bulletin 2026-13 OCC Bulletin 2023-17 |
| FDIC | The FDIC adopted the same interagency model-risk guidance; ValidMind's SR 26-2 guide cites the FDIC as a co-issuer, so state non-member banks using it map to FIL-15-2026. | FDIC FIL-15-2026 |
| EU AI Act | ValidMind markets EU AI Act support -- risk classification of models into the Act's tiers, inventory of third-party general-purpose AI and documentation -- relevant to a bank with EU operations using AI for creditworthiness assessment. | Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 |
Linked authorities have a page in the AI Regulation Tracker; the others are named for completeness.
What should a bank note before buying ValidMind?
Analysis by BankingNewsAI from the sources cited on this page. Observations, not advice or a recommendation.
01
No named bank customer in the public record
ValidMind's only bank case study is anonymised ('a Fortune 500 Bank'), and none of our 100 bank pages names it; the named relationships are distribution partners (Experian, Genpact) rather than banks.
02
Pricing is not published
The pricing page lists four modules with 'Request quote' only; ValidMind says price depends on model count, governance complexity, automation needs and deployment.
03
Some bank access runs through Experian
Banks already on Experian's Ascend Platform can buy ValidMind technology as the Experian Assistant for Model Risk Management, in which case the contract and support sit with Experian.
04
SR 26-2 mapping is published and specific
ValidMind's docs include a step-by-step SR 26-2 guide covering model definition, materiality tiering, monitoring and inventory, which a buyer can compare with its own policy before a demo.
05
Agent controls are early-stage
Agent Authority was in early access in June 2026 and is built on an open-source project released the same month; there is no public production reference yet.
06
Case-study results are vendor-reported
The 12-week rollout and 545-user figures come from ValidMind's own case study of an unnamed bank; the 70% approval-time reduction is Experian's figure.
What are the alternatives to ValidMind?
Credo AI
AI governance SaaS: registry of AI use cases, agents and vendors, policy packs (EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF, ISO 42001), agent controls.
SAS Model Risk Management
SAS module for model inventory, validation workflow, findings, monitoring and model-risk reporting, on the SAS Viya platform.
Monitaur
AI governance SaaS: inventory, common controls, vendor governance, drift and bias monitoring, and FlightSim black-box AI testing.
Yields
Model risk management and AI governance platform: model inventory, tiering, workflow engine, documentation, validation and monitoring.
How much does ValidMind cost?
ValidMind does not publish prices. Its pricing page lists four modules -- AI Governance, AI and Model Risk Management, Validation Automation and Development Automation -- each with a 'Request quote' button, and says price depends on the number of models and AI systems, governance complexity, automation needs and deployment requirements. Onboarding, training and customer-success sessions are included in the subscription licence.
Which banks use ValidMind?
None of the 100 largest US banks tracked on this site is publicly named as a ValidMind customer. ValidMind's November 2025 case study describes an unnamed 'Fortune 500 Bank' that chose it after a proof of value with more than 60 testers and moved production users onto it in 12 weeks; it reports 545 active users there (vendor-reported).
Who owns ValidMind?
ValidMind is a private company founded in 2022 by Jonas Jacobi, Andres Rodriguez and Mehdi Esmail. Its announced funding is an $8.1 million seed round in March 2024 led by Point72 Ventures, with Third Prime, New York Life Ventures, AI Fund, Notion Capital, FJ Labs, Angel Invest and Gaingels, taking total funding to $11.1 million. No valuation has been published.
Does ValidMind support SR 26-2?
ValidMind publishes an SR 26-2 guide in its documentation, organised around the guidance's four priorities: separating models from non-models, tiering by materiality (exposure and purpose), ongoing monitoring and outcomes analysis, and an enterprise inventory. Its April 2026 blog also notes SR 26-2 excludes generative and agentic AI from scope, which it positions its broader AI-governance and Agent Authority products to cover.
Can ValidMind be deployed in a bank's own cloud?
ValidMind's documentation describes a hosted platform with private-link access over AWS PrivateLink, Google Cloud Private Service Connect or Azure Private Link, and a single-tenant option called Virtual Private ValidMind. Model code and data stay in the bank's environment; the ValidMind Library sends test results and documentation to the platform.
ValidMind vs SAS Model Risk Management?
ValidMind is a venture-backed company founded in 2022 that sells a hosted governance and validation-automation platform and a Python library for developers. SAS Model Risk Management is a module of SAS's long-established risk software. One former SAS model-risk leader, David Asermely, joined ValidMind in May 2025. Neither publishes prices.
- About (undated page, retrieved 2026-09-24)
- ValidMind Pricing (undated page, retrieved 2026-09-24)
- AI Governance & Model Risk Management for Banks (undated page, retrieved 2026-09-24)
- Deployment options (undated page, retrieved 2026-09-24)
- Virtual Private ValidMind (VPV) (undated page, retrieved 2026-09-24)
- SR 26-2 (undated page, retrieved 2026-09-24)
- SR 26-2: What Every Bank Needs to Know, and Why Acting Now Is a Competitive Advantage
- EU AI Act Enforcement Moves Forward: 5 Ways ValidMind Can Help You Comply
- Customer Success Program
- Case Study: Accelerating AI Governance for a Fortune 500 Bank
- ValidMind Secures $8.1 Million to Bring More Trust and Transparency to AI in Financial Services
- ValidMind Launches ValidMind Advantage Program to Bring Trust and Transparency to Third-Party AI Model Vendors
- ValidMind Recognized as a Three-Time Category Leader in Chartis Research's Model Risk & Validation 2024 Report
- Experian and ValidMind Partner to Transform Model Risk Management
- ValidMind Announces Strategic Partnership with Genpact to Elevate Model Risk Management and AI Governance
- SAS Executive and Global Head of MRM Solutions David Asermely Joins ValidMind as Vice President of Global Business Development and Growth Strategy
- Jan Larsen Joins ValidMind as Chief Revenue Officer to Drive Next Phase of Growth
- New AI-Powered Experian Assistant for Model Risk Management Streamlines and Accelerates Governance Processes
- AI-Powered Experian Assistant for Model Risk Management Wins 2026 BIG Innovation Award
- ValidMind Launches Atryum, a New Open Source Control Layer for AI Agents, and Opens Early Access to ValidMind Agent Authority
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