Model ML hires ex-Trade Desk finance chief Alex Kayyal as CFO
Under three years after incorporating in London, the AI vendor for banks and advisers has hired a finance chief who last ran the numbers at a Nasdaq company. That is not a hire made for the bookkeeping
- At Salesforce Ventures, Kayyal oversaw more than $5bn (£3.7bn) deployed across more than 300 companies, Model ML said.
- He has served on more than 10 boards, including that of The Trade Desk (Nasdaq: TTD) before becoming its CFO.
- Model ML's $75m (£55.5m) Series A in November 2025 was led by FT Partners, with Y Combinator and QED among the participants.
- An undisclosed investment from HSBC Asset Management in August 2026 took total funding past $100m (£74m), the company said.
- ModelML Limited, the UK entity, was incorporated in London on 31 January 2024 with accounts made up to 31 December 2025.
Venture-backed AI vendors are buying public-company finance leadership well before they publish revenue, because the investors funding them now expect that discipline as the price of the next round. For UK mid-market firms, that sets the market for finance talent: a CFO with board experience and an investor-relations record is being recruited by companies less than three years old, with equity most established firms cannot match. The realistic response is to hire for the next stage rather than the current one, and to decide early whether a finance director or a CFO is the job actually being filled.
“Alex has seen what it takes to scale technology companies from every side of the table: as an operator, investor, investment banker and board member.”Chaz Englander, co-founder and chief executive, Model ML
Model ML has appointed Alex Kayyal as chief financial officer with immediate effect, the company said on 5 October. He takes charge of finance, strategic planning and investor relations, working with the executive team on capital allocation, at a business founded in 2024 that now employs close to 200 people across nine offices in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
Kayyal arrives from The Trade Desk, the Nasdaq-listed advertising technology group, where he was finance chief after first sitting on its board. Before that he spent close to a decade at Salesforce, latterly as senior vice-president and managing partner of its venture arm, Salesforce Ventures, and he was earlier a general partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. He began at Merrill Lynch, in the CFO office and then in M&A advisory.
The appointment caps a quick run of capital for a company incorporated in London that lists New York, San Francisco and Hong Kong among its offices. It emerged from stealth with $12m (£8.9m) in April 2025, closed a Series A led by FT Partners seven months later and in August 2026 added HSBC Asset Management as an investor. Since July it has announced deployments at PwC, Deloitte and HSBC. None of the three funding announcements disclosed a valuation.
Companies at this stage rarely recruit a public-company CFO to keep the books. A remit that pairs investor relations with finance reads as preparation for a larger private round or a listing, though the announcement mentions neither.
Sources
- Model ML, “Model ML Appoints Alex Kayyal as Chief Financial Officer”, company announcement, 5 October 2026. https://modelml.com/articles/model-ml-appoints-alex-kayyal-as-chief-financial-officer
- Model ML, “Model ML secures investment from HSBC Asset Management to scale its agentic operating system for financial services”, company announcement, 11 August 2026. https://modelml.com/articles/model-ml-secures-investment-from-hsbc-asset-management-to-scale-its-agentic-operating-system-for-financial-services
- Model ML, “Model ML Announces Historic $75M Series A”, company announcement, 24 November 2025. https://modelml.com/articles/series-a
- Model ML, “Exclusive: Model ML Updates Fortune on $12m Funding Round”, company article, 25 April 2025. https://modelml.com/articles/exclusive-model-ml-announces-12m-funding-round
- Model ML, “HSBC rolls out Model ML globally”, company announcement, 14 September 2026. https://modelml.com/articles/hsbc-rolls-out-model-ml-globally
- Model ML, “PwC Scales Model ML AI Agents Globally”, company announcement, 13 July 2026. https://modelml.com/articles/pwc-scales-model-ml-ai-agents-globally
- Model ML, “Deloitte brings Model ML to the heart of global M&A”, company announcement, 28 July 2026. https://modelml.com/articles/deloitte-brings-model-ml-to-the-heart-of-global-m-a
- Companies House, “MODELML LIMITED, company number 15457118”, register entry, accessed 5 October 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/15457118
