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Motley
Zürich, CH · Founded 2025 · 5 employees on LinkedIn · 5 known investors
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Motley builds data infrastructure for AI agents that automate business reporting and analysis. The platform targets executives and knowledge workers who need to compile and review reports faster, enabling data-driven decision-making.
Also known as Motley Cloud · SLayer
Founders & leadership
Motley was founded in 2025 by Egor Kraev and Yann Ranchere.
Investors · 5
How we know: Kima Ventures's portfolio page · tech.eu · Not right? Tell us
How we know: Seedcamp's portfolio page · a partner's Signal profile · tech.eu · the VCSheet dataset · open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us
How we know: tech.eu · Not right? Tell us
How we know: tech.eu · Not right? Tell us
Also in the syndicate · 1
Funding
SEC filings, press & company announcements$1.5M disclosed across 1 of 3 rounds · 2025–2026
- Undisclosed amountPre‑SeedMay 2026Source ↗
- Undisclosed amountpre-seed roundNov 2025 · 2 sources
Seedcamp (lead), Founders AS, Kima Ventures, RTP Global, Tiny VC
Source ↗ - $1.5MraisedNov 2025 · 3 sourcesSource ↗
Source: company announcements and press reports — follow each round's link for the claim.
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Motley develops a governed semantic layer that sits between a company's data warehouse and AI agents, so that agents query defined metrics by name instead of generating SQL against a raw schema. The stated aim is consistency and permissioning: one definition of each metric enforced across every agent and surface, with row-level security and access rights applied when a query compiles, and a clear error rather than a guessed answer when a request cannot be served.
The product has two layers. SLayer is an open-source, MIT-licensed core that connects agents to a database, drafts semantic models from an existing schema including relationships, supports runtime-editable models and query-time aggregations, and runs locally, embedded in a Python application, or as a service. Motley Cloud is the managed platform running SLayer, adding hosting, upgrades and monitoring, access control by user, team and customer tenant, a managed MCP server that can be placed in front of customers, and a reporting engine in which agents turn queries into versioned reports, QBRs and decks that can be regenerated on demand; reports are produced as markdown files combining narrative, charts and tables.
Motley describes two primary uses: builders embedding a governed analytics agent or MCP server over their own product's data for customers, and internal data teams turning existing warehouses and models into a governed layer the wider organisation can query, reusing dbt and Cube definitions via a Cube config ingester.
Business model
Open-core: a free, MIT-licensed self-hosted semantic layer (SLayer) alongside Motley Cloud, a managed platform adding hosting, access control, a managed MCP server and reporting for teams that do not want to run the infrastructure themselves.
Traction
The open-source SLayer repository shows 148 GitHub stars, and the site references trusted-by logos and a customer testimonial from Erik Beentjes on the difficulty of combining data crunching, visualisation and repeatable report building in existing AI tools.
Latest developments
SLayer v0.9, the open-source semantic layer, is live on GitHub, with Motley Cloud offered as the managed platform on top.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market
Market position
Positions itself against pointing MCP servers or agents directly at a raw warehouse schema and against Cube Core, and contrasts its combined data crunching, visualisation and repeatable report generation with general-purpose tools cited in customer commentary such as ChatGPT, Gamma and Julius.
Agent-first design: MCP discovery tools, query-time aggregations and runtime-editable models out of the box; governed answers with metric definitions enforced once and propagated immediately to all clients without a deploy step; access control enforced at query compile time including tenant isolation; and reports delivered as versioned, diffable markdown artefacts rather than one-off dashboards.
Technology
A semantic layer over Postgres, Snowflake, BigQuery, ClickHouse and DuckDB, exposed to agents through an MCP server with discovery tools, plus a REST API, Python library, CLI and a Postgres-compatible facade. Semantic models are drafted automatically from database schemas and are editable at runtime, with query-time aggregations, row-level security and compile-time access control; outputs include governed queries and generated markdown reports that can feed dashboards such as Metabase and notebooks.
Go-to-market
Self-serve entry through the open-source core, which installs in one command, and a hosted demo workspace with pre-loaded demo data and email or Google sign-in; a sales-assisted path via "book a demo" and setup calls for connecting customer databases. Positioned explicitly as an agent-first alternative to Cube Core, with a config ingester to migrate existing Cube models.
Data and engineering teams, teams building data-first products that want to embed analytics agents for their own customers, and revenue operations and customer success functions producing pipeline reviews, forecast decks, QBRs and value reports.
Compiled by commissioned research from 1 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Related companies · 1
Companies working in the same space as Motley.
Timeline · 1
launches, deals, and filingsMotley made SLayer v0.9, its MIT-licensed open-source semantic layer for AI agents, available on GitHub, alongside the managed Motley Cloud platform that runs SLayer under the hood.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
▸Research sources · 1
primary sources listed
- Motleymotley.ai · web
1 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Motley do?
- Motley builds a governed semantic layer that lets AI agents query data warehouses correctly and generate reports.
- Who founded Motley?
- Motley was founded by Egor Kraev, Yann Ranchere in 2025.
- Who are Motley's investors?
- Motley's investors include Kima Ventures, Seedcamp, Founders, RTP Global.
- How much funding has Motley raised?
- Motley has disclosed $1.5M raised across 1 of its 3 known rounds.
- Where is Motley headquartered?
- Motley is headquartered in Zürich, CH.