Ascentra Labs

Ascentra Labs is a London- and New York-based AI software company founded in early 2025 by Paritosh Devbhandari and Oliver Thurston. It was built to bring AI automation to the consulting industry — one of the largest professional services markets in the world at over $250 billion, yet one that has remained stubbornly manual compared to adjacent sectors like law and accounting. Devbhandari brought direct domain knowledge as a former McKinsey consultant and the person who led AI product sales at QuantumBlack, McKinsey's advanced analytics division. Thurston, the company's CTO, previously served as Head of ML at Mathison AI.

Ascentra's platform targets the private equity consulting space, where analytical workflows — particularly the processing of raw survey data into formatted, formula-rich Excel workbooks — repeat consistently from deal to deal. The system ingests raw data and outputs client-ready deliverables in Excel and PowerPoint formats, with auditable logic, multi-user collaboration, and data visualisation, reducing work that previously consumed hours of junior associate time to a fraction of that. Despite launching at the start of 2025, three of the world's top five consulting firms are among its users, with more than 80% of its customer base in the United States. Early adopters report two to four times faster execution of key project workflows. The company raised $2 million in pre-seed funding in December 2025, led by NAP (formerly Cavalry Ventures), with angel investors including Fuse Energy CEO Alan Chang and Voi CEO Fredrik Hjelm.