# Parth Desai

> Parth Desai is the founder and former CEO of Pelican.ai and the founder and chairman of ioNova AI. Trained in artificial intelligence at Georgia Tech, he worked under Roger Schank before building banking software for payment processing and financial crime compliance. His current work focuses on structured payment-address data and knowledge-first AI for regulated enterprises.

- **Role:** Founder & Chairman at ioNova AI
- **Organizations:** ioNova AI, Pelican.ai, PelicanPay, ACE Software Solutions, Cognitive Systems
- **Education:** B.Tech., Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence, Georgia Institute of Technology, Senior management programmes (executive education), Harvard Business School, Senior management programmes (executive education), INSEAD
- **Known for:** Founded and led the business that became Pelican.ai, applying NLP and AI to banking payments., Included in The Financial Technology Report’s Top 25 RegTech Executives of 2021., Led Pelican during its expansion to customers in more than 55 countries; published biographies describe more than one billion transactions worth over $5 trillion.

## Career timeline

- **Before founding Pelican** — Research scientist at Cognitive Systems in New Haven, working under Roger Schank.
- **1993** — Founding year for ACE/Pelican given on his current personal website and ioNova heritage section; older accounts give other years.
- **2016** — ACE Software Solutions rebranded as Pelican in September.
- **2018** — Pelican Group announced PelicanPay, an interoperable European open banking API hub.
- **2020** — Discussed live PelicanPay apps in the Netherlands and appeared with Abhinav Desai on the IBS Intelligence open banking interview.
- **2021** — Named in The Financial Technology Report’s Top 25 RegTech Executives; Pelican technology selected by BNY Mellon.
- **2024** — KOAT Capital announced its Pelican acquisition on July 10; ioNova describes its founding as 2024.
- **2026** — Publicly identified as ioNova AI founder and chairman; published commentary about ISO 20022 address data.

## Achievements

- Founded and led the business that became Pelican.ai, applying NLP and AI to banking payments.
- Included in The Financial Technology Report’s Top 25 RegTech Executives of 2021.
- Led Pelican during its expansion to customers in more than 55 countries; published biographies describe more than one billion transactions worth over $5 trillion.
- Founded PelicanPay to address interoperability across European open banking APIs.

## Latest updates

- **2026-09** — Pelican’s September 4 corporate release said litigation involving Desai and related parties remained ongoing; a subsidiary had filed a New Jersey counterclaim on July 27. It said no court had determined the merits of the claims or defences.
- **2026-08** — His LinkedIn profile lists an August 6 article warning about the then-planned November 2026 ISO 20022 address deadline. Swift subsequently extended that migration on August 27; its September update left address timing under consultation.
- **2026-03** — ioNova republished his commentary on improving ISO 20022 payment data, originally published in February 2026.

## Links

- Website: https://www.parthdesai.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/parthdesai01/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/ParthD_Pelican

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/parth-desai
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-21