Yields

Yields develops software that centralises oversight of both traditional and AI models. Its offering is split into two products that can be used together or standalone: Model Risk Management software, aimed at financial institutions and other organisations that depend on predictive models, and AI Governance software, aimed at teams that need oversight of their AI use-case landscape, risk tracking and regulatory compliance. Functional capabilities described by the company span model validation (consistent reviews with automated evidence and validation reports), model inventory (a structured catalogue of models), model lifecycle management from development to retirement, policy alignment and risk assessment workflows, and AI compliance documentation for frameworks such as the EU AI Act.

The platform is positioned around configurability by business users without IT involvement, a single view of models, risks and documentation, and automatic capture of documentation and reporting for audit readiness. The company states its platform is designed to meet the security, risk and compliance expectations of regulated organisations, covering governance, access control, auditability and data protection, and that it is ISO/IEC 27001 certified. Alongside the product, Yields publishes e-books, articles, webinars, glossary entries and roundtable events on model risk management and AI regulation.

Founding story

Yields was founded in 2017 by Jos Gheerardyn and Sébastien Viguié. Both came from banking backgrounds — Gheerardyn worked as a manager and analyst in quantitative finance with international investment banks and holds a PhD in superstring theory from the University of Leuven, while Viguié was previously a front-office quantitative analyst at BNP Paribas and later served as Yields' CISO. The founders observed that organisations had become heavily dependent on models for critical decisions, that machine learning and AI were making model management more complex as regulatory expectations rose, and that model governance remained largely manual, fragmented and difficult to scale.

Business model

Yields licenses enterprise software to organisations that need to govern models and AI systems, engaging prospects through demo requests and offering its model risk management and AI governance modules either bundled or separately.

Software provided to financial institutions and corporates, offered as two products (Model Risk Management and AI Governance) that can be purchased together or standalone.

Traction

The company cites global clients including BNP Paribas and HSBC and reports customer outcomes of model monitoring time reduced by 23% and overall performance improved by 70%. A customer at BNP Paribas Personal Finance's Scoring Center reports more efficient model tracking campaigns and time savings after introducing Yields. Investors note growth in customer and staff numbers and product capabilities since the December 2017 first investment.

Latest developments

Recent company activity centres on AI governance: an e-book on operationalising AI governance, an article on the AI governance readiness gap, and events including a roundtable on whether traditional model risk management is dead and a session on bringing agentic AI into model risk management. The board was expanded with Volta Ventures' Stan Jeanty in January 2023 and G+D Ventures' Michael Hochholzer following the €4.8M round.