LONDON, July 13 (Reuters) - UK-based Quantexa has raised $153 million in a funding round led by Warburg Pincus, the financial technology start-up said on Tuesday, as it seeks to accelerate its regional expansion and develop new products in areas including banking and insurance. The company, whose Contextual Decision Intelligence (CDI) software helps financial companies manage data, including their efforts to fight fraud and financial crime, said it would also look at mergers and acquisition opportunities. The latest, Series D fund-raising follows growth of 108% during 2020-2021 and was also backed by existing investors including HSBC (HSBA.L) and ABN Amro Ventures, part of Dutch bank ABN Amro (ABNd.AS). The round values the company between $895 million and $905 million, approaching the $1 billion valuation that would mark it out as a tech sector "unicorn", a source familiar with the matter said. Existing clients include some of the world"s biggest banks, insurers and government institutions, among them HSBC, Standard Chartered (STAN.L) and Danske Bank (DANSKE.CO). It also partners with tech giants including Google and Microsoft. Quantexa Chief Executive Vishal Marria said demand from financial services companies to use the company"s technology had grown "exponentially" and the potential market, including in other sectors, was worth more than $114 billion. CDI helps companies connect large internal and external datasets and analyse them on a single platform to support a range of actions including getting a better understanding of their clients. "Quantexa’s proprietary technology enables clients to create single views of individuals and entities, visualised through graph network analytics and scaled with the most advanced AI [artificial intelligence] technology," said Adarsh Sarma, Managing Director and co-head of Europe at Warburg Pincus. "The company"s impressive growth to date is a reflection of its invaluable value proposition in a massive total available market, as well as its continued expansion across new sectors and geographies."