THE BANK OF IRELAND KERNEL CAPITAL GROWTH FUND (NI) INVESTMENT IN DATACTICS
From left: Allen Martin, Partner Kernel Capital; Stuart Harvey, CEO Datactics; Mick Foster, COO Datactics; William McCulla, Director Corporate Finance Invest NI & Gavin Kennedy, Head of Business Banking NI Bank of Ireland UK.
Belfast, Northern Ireland, 21st June 2018
Kernel Capital are pleased to confirm that it has led an investment into Datactics Limited, a Belfast-based provider of RegTech solutions for the banking and financial services sector. Full details of the investment round, which includes investment from the Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Growth Fund (NI), have not been disclosed.
Datactics has developed a suite of software products which profile, cleanse, score and match information for data quality and regulatory compliance. Over the last 12 months, Datactics has doubled their revenue and added a number of global financial institutions to its customer base including the Bank of Ireland and Danske Bank.
RegTech is a rapidly growing market. With new regulations and compliance requirements driving change it is expected to grow to $118Bn by 2020. Moreover in recent years, governments and regulators worldwide have introduced a series of tight regulations with stringent penalties for non-compliance, resulting in banks paying over $300Bn in regulatory fines since the 2008 financial crisis.
“Banks understand that compliance is only as good as the data that it’s built on, placing an urgent need on fast, reliable and accurate data. Datactics sits directly in this space, providing our clients with continuous and measurable improvements to their data. We are delighted to have received this round of funding from the Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Growth Fund (NI), which will allow us to accelerate our growth into the global financial sector, expand our team and invest further in R&D.”
Stuart Harvey, CEO Datactics.
“Datactics, led by Stuart Harvey (CEO), has a strong and experienced team with a diverse skill set, sectorial knowledge and strong networks within the global financial sector. The Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Growth Fund (NI) is pleased to support another innovative, export focused NI company, with the potential to become a global leader in the RegTech space.”
Allen Martin, Partner Kernel Capital.
“Datactics is an ambitious local company with an excellent reputation and a highly innovative product. I am delighted that the company has availed of the Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Growth Fund (NI) to access the finance it needs to scale more quickly. Over the last number of years, Invest NI has also offered Datactics a range of support including R&D and marketing support to help it take its predictive analytics platform to the next stage of development. All of this support is helping Datactics to further its growth aspirations and achieve business success.”
William McCulla, Invest NI’s Director of Corporate Finance.
“We are delighted to see this investment in Datactics, a fantastic RegTech company with a strong team, skills, experience and a software solution supporting organisations in mining, refining and applying the right quality datasets required to adapt to new regulation and standards. This is another great step forward in enabling them to achieve their growth potential in the global financial services sector.”
Gavin Kennedy, Head of Business Banking NI Bank of Ireland UK.
The Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Growth Fund (NI) was designed to help SMEs in Northern Ireland to accelerate their growth. Invest Northern Ireland has committed £15 million of funding to this fund which is part financed by the European Regional Development Fund under the EU Investment for Growth and Jobs Programme 2014-2020.
Invest NI’s R&D support is part funded by ERDF under the EU Investment for Growth and Jobs Programme 2014-2020.
Additional Notes:
About Datactics https://www.datactics.com/
Datactics has a strong background in market-leading data quality software, tackling common issues in banks largely arising from their reliance on multiple IT systems of varying ages, and the need to make their data compliant with emerging financial regulations. Its suite of high-performance fuzzy-matching tools help firms in a wide array of critical business activities, from regulatory reporting and Anti-Money Laundering to business intelligence.
About Kernel Capital www.kernel-capital.com
Kernel Capital is an independent manager of the Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Venture Funds, comprising of £165m / €210m of funds raised through six separate venture capital funds in the years 2002, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2013 and 2015. These Funds are supported by Bank of Ireland, Invest NI, Enterprise Ireland, University of Limerick Foundation, NUI Galway Foundation and New York State Common Retirement Fund. Kernel Capital is actively investing through the Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Growth Funds targeting deal size for Kernel Capital’s element in the region £0.5m to £2m in NI and of €1m to €5m in the ROI, either as sole investor or larger deal size in syndication. These 10 year Growth Funds were raised in 2013 and 2015 and invest in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland respectively. Invest NI’s investment in the Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Growth Fund is part financed by the European Regional Development Fund under the EU Investment for Growth and Jobs Programme 2014-2020. Kernel Capital is a MiFID regulated firm.
For further information please contact Helen Norris, Kernel Capital +44 28 9042 8367
