Vishal Marria is founder and chief executive of Quantexa, the London, England, company whose software links scattered data so banks and governments can find financial crime and fraud. He learned to spot trouble behind the counter of his parents' shop.
The Cash and Carry in Brixton
His parents moved to London from India in the 1960s and built businesses in deliveries, off-licences and then cash-and-carry stores. From about the age of six he would hurry home from school in Clapham to help at the shop in Brixton, seven days a week, with his three siblings. He attended what he calls the roughest school in South London, and at eight he was held at knife-point when the shop was robbed. His family expected him to take over the business. He wanted one of his own.
Royal Holloway, Detica, SAS and EY
He took a first-class degree in computer science at Royal Holloway, University of London and a master's with distinction in information security. He spent seven years at the consultancy Detica, now part of BAE Systems, working on the fraud detection product NetReveal, then led fraud and financial crime work across Europe and Asia at SAS. At EY he was an executive director in the compliance practice.
A Phone Call From Las Vegas
On secondments to HSBC and Deutsche Bank he watched staff decide whether clients were good or bad by stitching data together by hand. At a conference in Las Vegas he met a saleswoman selling mediocre technology with infectious passion, and wondered why he was not doing the same. That night he rang his wife to say he was starting a company. "My hypothesis, back in 2015, was if I could turn the problem upside down, if I can stitch data at scale, and contextualise that data both internally and externally to the organisation, surely people will be more efficient and more effective in managing their risk?" he has said.
Quantexa Today
He founded Quantexa in 2016. It now serves banks, insurers, telecoms groups and government fraud teams, including HSBC, Vodafone and the UK Cabinet Office. In March 2025 it raised a $175 million Series F led by Teachers' Venture Growth, and in the year to March 2025 revenue rose 49% to about $168.5 million. "You cannot be stubborn as a CEO," he has said. "If you're going down a path and it isn't working, you need to course-correct."
As a boy he was held at knife-point in his parents' shop. He now builds the software banks use to find criminals hidden in their data.
