Verdalyze is backed by McGill Engine and 21st by CentraleSupélec. A backer's name on a website tells you very little, so here is what both of them believe about what we have built, and what they give us that money would not.
It makes sense to people who are not technical
Partners at independent firms are not engineers, and they should not have to be. The first thing both backers value is that a partner can understand what we do in one sentence: send us the work, and it comes back finished and checked.
The client experience is as seamless as it can be
A brief takes a line or two by email, the way you would ask a colleague. The finished work comes back to your inbox, in the tools your firm already uses, with every figure tied to its source. There is nothing new to log into and nothing new to learn.
The return is a business return
Both look at Verdalyze as a business before they look at it as technology. The return has to be plain to a partner: less time reviewing work, more time winning mandates.
It fits where deal work is going
Good independent firms should not lose ground to houses with bigger budgets. Both backers see deal work moving towards small senior teams with finished, checked work behind them, and that is the future we are building for.
What they bring beyond belief
They help us with institutional knowledge: how serious firms decide, buy and run a process. They also get us into rooms with some of the biggest investment bankers, and those conversations shape what we build for independent firms.
Written by Ilyas Berel and Shihab Berel, Verdalyze. Published 1 November 2026.
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