Investment secured from asset management giant as part of pre-Series A funding round for Singapore AI firm
Singapore, February 20, 2024 — Transparently.AI, a Singapore-based maker of artificial intelligence software that detects accounting fraud, has won an investment from Franklin Templeton as part of its admission to the asset manager’s FinTech Incubator program.
Transparently.AI’s software is trained via machine learning to detect accounting red flags in corporate balance sheets. It produces a 0-100 risk score which measures the likelihood and extent to which a company is manipulating its accounts. Asset managers, banks, auditors, exchanges and others can use the product as a due diligence tool to help filter for suspicious accounting, fraud in the accounts and weak corporate governance.
In addition to the investment from Franklin Templeton, Transparently.AI will receive mentorship and guidance from Franklin Templeton’s network of startup professionals, founders and experts through the FinTech Incubator program. The program also offers access to workspace in Franklin Templeton’s Incubator offices in Singapore and San Mateo, California.
“We are deeply privileged to be working with Franklin Templeton,” said Hamish Macalister, chief executive officer and co-founder of Transparently.AI. “Through our collaboration with a brand like Franklin Templeton, which has a strong presence and history in the U.S, we hope to significantly accelerate our go-to-market strategy, particularly in North America.”
Franklin Templeton’s investment in Transparently.AI is part of a US$3 million pre-series A funding round that values the two-year-old startup at US$20 million.
Margaret King, Vice President of FinTech Partnership & Corporate Strategic Investments at Franklin Templeton, said: “The changing face of fraud risk in an evolving digital landscape means that businesses have to be more vigilant now than ever. With advancements in AI, RegTech solutions have the potential to address gaps in financial crime risk management, and we look forward to seeing Transparently.AI bring advanced technologies to the market meaningfully.”
Transparently.AI’s partnership with the U.S. asset manager further enmeshes the company within its customer community. The AI firm already counts one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, a global commercial bank and one of the Big 4 auditors among its customers.
The Franklin Templeton Incubator is the latest fintech program that Transparently.AI has been admitted to. In March 2023, the Singaporean firm was among 10 companies chosen from over 1,000 startups to join Plug and Play’s Fintech 2023 Accelerator Program.
About Transparently.AI
Founded in 2021, Transparently.AI has developed an AI-based system for the automated detection of accounting manipulation and fraud in companies. The firm was named in the RegTech100 list for 2023, which is an annual list of the world’s most innovative regtech companies. Find out more at transparently.ai.
Press contact:Transparently.AI Darren Boey darren@transparently.ai Follow Transparently on LinkedIn
7th February 2024 – London/Dublin – Fenergo, the leading provider of digital solutions for Know Your Customer (KYC), Transaction Monitoring and Client Lifecycle Management (CLM), today announces that its software-as-a-service (SaaS) CLM solution is now available on AWS Marketplace.
Available directly through AWS Marketplace, Fenergo’s CLM can be quickly implemented, enabling financial institutions (FIs) to accelerate their digitalization journeys and quickly realize the benefits of Fenergo’s solution for KYC compliance, transaction monitoring, and client onboarding. Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers can now streamline the procurement and purchase of Fenergo’s CLM directly within their AWS Marketplace account while also unlocking any AWS incentives, discounts, or programs that they may be entitled to.
Stella Clarke, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer at Fenergo, said;
“Taking a cloud-based approach is becoming the norm for financial institutions, and at Fenergo we pride ourselves on delivering a solution that empowers customers to respond rapidly to regulatory demands and unlock revenue growth potential.” “Going live on AWS Marketplace marks an exciting milestone for Fenergo. Our partnership and listing on AWS Marketplace have been instrumental in moving towards the future of technology procurement and meeting clients where they are in marketplaces, with a solution that many banks are already operating on and trust.”
“Taking a cloud-based approach is becoming the norm for financial institutions, and at Fenergo we pride ourselves on delivering a solution that empowers customers to respond rapidly to regulatory demands and unlock revenue growth potential.”
“Going live on AWS Marketplace marks an exciting milestone for Fenergo. Our partnership and listing on AWS Marketplace have been instrumental in moving towards the future of technology procurement and meeting clients where they are in marketplaces, with a solution that many banks are already operating on and trust.”
Fenergo’s CLM SaaS solution is now generally available in AWS Marketplace. For more information on Fenergo and its suite of CLM solutions, please visit www.fenergo.com.
Tuesday, 13 February 2024 – Data Zoo, a leading global identity provider, has appointed former London Stock Exchange Group executive Charlie Minutella as its new Chief Executive Officer.
Minutella brings nearly two decades of experience leading risk, identity, and compliance teams, notably spearheading the Refinitiv risk division at the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG).
The appointment follows three years of impressive growth for the award-winning “know your customer” solution, which has successfully expanded its customer base across various geographies, complexities, and use cases.
Minutella will lead Data Zoo’s global operations from its New York office, guiding the company to further capitalise on its strengths and broaden its identity and fraud prevention solutions to address increasingly complex customer needs.
Data Zoo founder Tony Fitzgibbon has served as Chief Executive Officer since the company's inception over a decade ago. Fitzgibbon will transition to the role of Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer, where he will continue to play a significant role in shaping the company’s innovations, products, and partnerships.
During his tenure, the bootstrapped company grew to over 80 employees worldwide, launched operations in the US, and successfully entered the heavily regulated European market – going head-to-head with established global identity providers to become the trusted provider for major customers, including an Australian “Big Four” bank, a global social media brand, and three of the top global payment providers.
Reflecting on the leadership transition, Tony Fitzgibbon, founder and CEO of Data Zoo, said, “As a founder, selecting someone to take the helm is no small task. However, Charlie’s expertise and alignment with our core values and vision made him an obvious choice.”
“I am immensely proud of the heights Data Zoo has reached and am thrilled to continue working alongside our exceptional team, customers, and partners under Charlie’s leadership as we embark on the next phase of our global expansion journey,” Fitzgibbon added.
Charlie Minutella expressed his enthusiasm for his new role, “I am truly excited to join Data Zoo as CEO. My career has taught me that the key to success lies in a company’s passion and purpose, qualities that Data Zoo embodies in its unique blend of agility, innovation, and unwavering commitment to compliance.”
“I am eager to capitalise on these strengths, tackling complex challenges and filling the gaps the industry has struggled to address. We have an exciting opportunity to leverage our distinct capabilities to solve more issues for our customers, further solidifying our position as a leader in the industry,” Minutella said.
For more information, please contact:
Emma Murphy Marketing & Communications Manager at Data Zoo emma.murphy@datazoo.com +61488 665 447
About Data Zoo Data Zoo is a global identity solution powering modern verification experiences for digital businesses around the world. With one global integration, Data Zoo replaces the complexities of legacy solutions with the flexibility, innovation and privacy needed to seamlessly and securely onboard customers.
Leading global financial institutions, payment providers, and fintechs trust Data Zoo to verify millions of customers while minimising fraud and risk. Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, Data Zoo has offices in New York, Amsterdam, Melbourne, Brisbane, Auckland and Singapore.
For more information, visit: www.datazoo.com
LONDON, 7 February 2024 - Napier, the London-based global financial crime compliance RegTech, is pleased to announce that its award-winning Anti Money Laundering (AML) platform, Napier Continuum is now available through two new service offerings: Napier Continuum Live and Napier Continuum Flow. These new solutions deliver Napier’s experience in helping financial institutions transform their AML solutions with a compliance-first focus.
Napier Continuum Live is the new plug-and-play hosted offering that brings the benefits of the Napier Continuum platform to organisations looking to go live and achieve regulatory compliance as quickly as possible. For both Client Screening and Transaction Monitoring, the service offering includes:
“I am excited to make enterprise-grade financial crime compliance accessible to all financial institutions with the launch of Napier Continuum Live,” - Greg Watson, Chief Executive Officer at Napier.
“Historically, teams or organisations looking for a quick and proven path to modern, AI-driven financial crime compliance had to sacrifice functionality for speed. But with Napier Continuum Live, they are getting the full, feature-rich platform pre-configured to their needs. It’s a complete combination of our product and market expertise.”
Napier is also announcing Napier Continuum Flow, a new headless API service designed for organisations looking to leverage AI-powered financial crime compliance intelligence into their existing infrastructure. With Napier Continuum Flow, organisations can route alerts from Napier’s next generation, AI-driven screening and monitoring engines into their existing workflow for case management. Customers gain the improved detection rates and reduced false positives from Napier Continuum, as well as the explainable and auditable AI insights, all in their existing workflow for a fast Return on Investment (ROI) and lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
“We have seen an increasing number of digital-first customers in banking and payments looking to flow the intelligence Napier can provide around screening and monitoring into their own technology stacks,” continues Watson. “It is a real stamp of approval that many fintechs who pride themselves on their self-built platforms for their main value proposition, choose to partner with Napier for their compliance strategies.”
“Financial crime compliance is an increasingly complex task especially as regulatory mandates continue to expand. It becomes vital that organisations without large teams or resources integrate innovative solutions,” explains Chuck Subrt, Director of the Fraud & AML Practice at Datos Insights.
“We work with financial institutions around the world and there is increasing demand for dynamic tools that have advanced analytics and intelligent automation embedded into their configuration and rules but with explainability and transparency. For financial institutions looking to transform their AML compliance technology, the new Continuum Live and Flow offerings from Napier represent a compelling option.” - Chuck Subrt, Director of the Fraud & AML Practice at Datos Insights.
With the launch of Napier Continuum Live and Continuum Flow, all financial institutions can now access next generation, enterprise grade screening and monitoring capabilities in line with compliance and technology strategies.
Learn more about the service offerings for Napier Continuum Live.
Napier is a RegTech delivering anti-money laundering and financial crime compliance software to banking, payments and wealth & asset management firms. Napier designs and engineers technological innovation to make a measurable difference in driving down financial crime. Trusted by over 150 institutions worldwide, the company’s platform, Napier Continuum, is transforming compliance from a legal obligation to a competitive edge.
Datos Insights delivers the most comprehensive and industry-specific data and advice to the companies trusted to protect and grow the world’s assets, and to the technology and service providers who support them. Staffed by experienced industry executives, researchers, and consultants, we support the world’s most progressive banks, insurers, investment firms, and technology companies through a mix of insights and advisory subscriptions, data services, custom projects and consulting, conferences, and executive councils.
For media enquiries:
Elise Thrale
Head of Content, Napier
+4477890 952 278
Elise.thrale@napier.ai
Get in touch to see how our intelligent platform can help your organisation transform its compliance; or request a demo to see it in action.
https://www.napier.ai/contact
https://www.napier.ai/request-a-demo
RegTech and SupTech providers, have you submitted your generative AI-enabled solution to be a part of the NextGenAITech Showcase yet?
AIR has kicked off a series of exciting initiatives to explore the potential impact of GenAI on financial regulation and the end users of financial services — NextGenAI: The Future of Financial Oversight and Protection. Through our efforts, AIR aspires to cultivate a cohesive GenAI community within the financial sector, bringing together regulators, innovators, academia and other stakeholders. AIR believes that for the benefit of consumers, businesses, and the industry as a whole, technological progress and regulatory initiatives should develop in a coordinated manner.
Time is running out: https://regulationinnovation.org/nextgenai/#ts
Hosted by AIR and Cambridge SupTech Lab, this event offers a chance to better understand the needs of financial regulators and demonstrate your capabilities and vision.
ANNOUNCEMENT: Today we are thrilled to announce that Arctic Intelligence has just launched a 14-day obligation free trial of our multi-award-winning money laundering and terrorism financing risk assessment and AML/CTF program/policy platform, AML Accelerate
For the first time ever, we're enabling regulated businesses to experience for themselves how to easily identify money laundering and terrorism financing risks, assess the design and operational effectiveness of controls and develop an effective AML/CTF Program/Policy - without any upfront financial commitment.
AML Accelerate has been tailored to four main industry sectors — financial services, gaming, gatekeeper professions including, lawyers, accountants and real-estate agents, as well as dealers in high-value goods and includes an AML/CTF Program/Policy aligned to laws in over 30 countries (with many more coming soon!).
Register for your 14-day obligation free trial today using the following link: https://hubs.la/Q02hGH420
Insights from Elevandi's "Bolstering the Financial Sector's Resilience to Environmental Risks" roundtable.
Late last year, our CEO, Deborah Young, had the opportunity to join an Elevandi roundtable as a speaker with Karmela Holtgreve, Dr. Patrick Hoffmann, Kenneth Gay, Anton Ruddenklau, Colin Chen, Harry Lee, Jason Tu, Parula Jalota, and Stefan Flueckiger. Alongside RTA members, Kimmo Soramakilov, Joy Wann, and Chris Southgate (Also acknowledging Evelyn Moore of Green2View who helped Deborah prepare).
You might find this report a useful read. Cross industry, and active collaboration between private and public sectors is a must as Deborah underlined on the day.
For RegTechs, this may mean thinking about what your solution brings to the table and how does this enable the surfacing of environmental risks for your clients.
Watch for this topic at our #ACCELERATE RegTech Global APAC conference coming soon.
Download the full report HERE.
In the past year, 54% of RegTechs experienced increased demand from their customers, and 11% have seen new opportunities emerge. Despite a challenging economic environment, the RegTech industry continues to show positive revenue growth, with some RegTechs achieving over 30% growth. Banks and other buyers attribute the growing demand of RegTech to customer expectations, which is good news for vendors. This also aligns with regulator priorities, where customer protection and systemic stability are top-of-mind. Furthermore, we have seen a surge in regulators onboarding technology, emphasising the need for institutions and RegTechs to step up to the plate. Read more in our 2023 RegTech Industry Perspectives Report — the only comprehensive, contemporary global report of its kind. For industry by industry. If you'd like a briefing on this report, please reach out. members@regtechglobal.org If you'd like to be part of the RTA story, reach out to Nathan Walker, our Community Manager.
The Future of Global Fintech: Towards Resilient and Inclusive Growth, a joint report between the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, Cambridge Judge Business School and the World Economic Forum was officially launched at a press conference in Davos, during the 2024 Annual Meeting.
This report was based on an empirical survey of 227 fintechs from across the world and was supported by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
To download a copy of the report visit: https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/faculty-research/centres/alternative-finance/publications/the-future-of-global-fintech-towards-resilient-and-inclusive-growth/
1. The global fintech industry is demonstrating strength and resilience
As fintechs emerge from COVID-19, their performance remains strong, with customer growth rates averaging above 50% across industry verticals and global regions. From the survey data, it is evident that consumer demand is the main driver of growth, with over half (51%) of all surveyed fintechs citing it as a major factor supporting their growth. This trend is consistent across all regions.
2. Primary fintech growth challenges: macroeconomic factors and funding environment
as the primary challenges for fintech growth. These views come at a time when global inflation and interest rates are high. This sentiment is reflected across regions, where surveyed fintechs cite macroeconomic factors (56%) and the funding environment (40%) as two of the top three hindering factors for growth.
3. Fintechs reflect favourably about their regulatory environment
The majority of fintechs reflect favourably about their regulatory environment, with 63% rating it as adequate. A total of 38% of surveyed fintechs also cite the regulatory environment as a major supporting factor for their operations and growth. However, a substantial portion find regulatory compliance challenging and the licensing and registration processes to be problematic.
4. Differing opinions on fundraising environment’s impact on fintech growth
Despite the significant drop in funding over the past years, the surveyed fintechs have differentiated views about the impact of the fundraising environment on their ability to grow. While the report finds more fintechs cite the current fundraising environment as a hindrance to growth, 34% regard their fundraising environment as supporting growth.
5. Fintechs are expanding services and products to underserved segments
Fintechs are expanding the provision of financial services and products to underserved segments, and these segments also make up a sizeable proportion of their consumer base and total transaction values. While most surveyed fintechs that are targeting underserved customer groups and offering tailored products are in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs), fintechs in both advanced economies (AEs) and EMDEs are found to have a sizeable portion of their customer base from these groups.
6. AI and open banking among issues most relevant for future industry development
Looking ahead, artificial intelligence (AI), the digital economy, embedded finance as well as open banking are the issues regarded by fintechs as the most relevant for industry development in the near future. AI was the leader, with 70% of fintechs citing it as the most relevant topic for the development of the fintech industry in the next 5 years.
London, New York, Amsterdam and Singapore - January 16th 2024: Encompass Corporation, the global provider of real-time digital Know Your Customer (KYC) profiles, has acquired CoorpID and Blacksmith KYC from ING to develop a market-leading platform that solves the critical challenge of identification and verification of corporate and institutional clients.
Transform KYC outreach with CoorpID
In 2018, CoorpID was founded by ING Labs in response to complex KYC challenges ING and the wider market faced. CoorpID allows global banks to automate outreach and gather private KYC data directly from corporate banking customers, providing a repository that allows the corporate to manage all their banking relationships. For large multinationals, the platform makes it easy to store and structure KYC company documents and enables sharing with banks and business partners. CoorpID today services over 500 multinationals across Europe, helping them to collate, manage and share relevant corporate data.
CoorpID enables Encompass to build a complete KYC profile, combining authoritative public information with private information directly from customers. This, for the first time, presents financial institutions with a full Corporate Digital Identity (CDI) - providing a unified source of truth and unrivalled visibility into risk.
It, crucially, enhances Encompass’ efforts to solve the key issue of customer outreach for financial institutions. Through this complete customer profile, the need for unnecessary outreach is eliminated. The result is a faster, slicker experience without compromising on robust compliance.
This is complemented by another acquisition from ING, which sees Blacksmith KYC also join Encompass.
Customise KYC processes with Blacksmith KYC
Blacksmith was established in 2017, as part of ING Labs Singapore, with the aim to enhance KYC processes for the financial industry. Blacksmith allows banks like ING to configure their Customer Due Diligence (CDD) requirements within a Digital Policy Manager. This ensures that the relevant data and evidence is gathered and streamlines the collection process. Blacksmith has demonstrated up to 50% efficiency savings and is broadly used across the entire ING Financial Institutions client base, in addition to supporting wider external customers.
Connecting this unique capability will significantly enhance Encompass’ offering, making it much easier for banks to turn their manual KYC policies into efficient automated processes to provide analysts with valuable risk insights from the customer profiles and to better monitor Financial Economic Crime (FEC) risk exposure.
One Corporate Digital Identity platform globally
The deal will see Encompass acquire 100% of CoorpID and Blacksmith, creating a platform that will transform the KYC process across the industry. ING will be a stakeholder and development partner to Encompass.
The acquisitions mark a major milestone for Encompass, accelerating the company’s vision to be the number one CDI platform globally, and achieving a core part of its mission since inception in 2011. CDI, which is emerging as a critical sector in the KYC ecosystem, will complement Client Lifecycle Management (CLM) technology to enhance the overall customer journey.
ING sees Encompass as a strategic partner and has committed to using the platform in the years ahead.
Wayne Johnson, co-founder and CEO, Encompass Corporation, said:
“Today is a momentous occasion for our business, and one I could not be prouder to see.
“ING’s commitment to supporting and fuelling KYC excellence has led to the successful journeys of CoorpID and Blacksmith KYC. The combination of the
technology and market expertise brought by these two businesses is the perfect match for Encompass.
“CDI is the future of our industry, solving critical problems for the banks we serve, and these acquisitions represent a huge step forward in bringing our vision, which will transform KYC, to life. I could not be more excited as we embark on this next phase and fully believe in what we collectively bring, with much more on the horizon.”
Ivar Lammers, Global Head of Financial Crime Wholesale Banking at ING, said: "I am very proud of the sale of our KYC innovations that have reached the time for the next chapter of their journeys.
“Encompass, CoorpID and Blacksmith have been established with the customer at heart, which connects them and has been their recipe for success. Together they will continue to provide a first-class customer experience, with smart, tailored offerings that address the needs and challenges of our clients and industry, now and in the future.
© 2023 The RegTech Association
