Vishal Marria had an early taste for business. He started work at six years old, helping in his parents' cash and carry after school in south London. He went on to read Computer Science at Royal Holloway in London, before taking up senior positions in software and sales teams at BAE Systems, SAS and EY. His job at the latter involved manually piecing together fragmented records to work out a client’s risk factor. In 2016, he left to co-found the business that would do it automatically.

Quantexa's core technique is called entity resolution: resolving millions of inconsistent records into a single connected view of who is linked to whom. It has proved invaluable to banks fighting money laundering and fraud, and the company has since widened the pitch into "decision intelligence" across insurance, telecoms, healthcare and government. The company passed £126m in sales for the financial year ending March 2025, with roughly 900 staff across 16 offices worldwide.

A $175m Series F in March 2025, led by Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, took Quantexa’s total funding to just under $550m. Announced in May 2026, HMRC awarded a £175m contract to detect fraud and error in tax returns – one of the largest AI deals signed by a UK department.

The question now is where it lists. Marria told Reuters in August 2026 that Quantexa has been IPO-ready since January and could float in London, New York or both, while noting plainly that America offers deeper capital and a higher price. For a UK tech sector that has watched several stars head west, Quantexa is one it will be keen to keep.