London RegTech ALT/AVE Advisory Board Appointments + Investment

RegTech
29.04.2022 04:40 pm

London-based RegTech startup ALT/AVE (www.altave.co.uk) has today announced three major appointments to its Advisory Board and a funding boost of more than half a million pounds.

Joining ALT/AVE CEO and founder Chris Ansara and Chair Phil Shelley on the newly created advisory board, to help guide the company through the next stage of its rapid development, are former EY Wealth Management head, Keith MacDonald; serial entrepreneur and government digital adviser, Sarah Ronald; and hugely experienced venture capitalist and private equity investor, Dag Lee.

In addition to the huge amount of entrepreneurial and investment experience the trio bring to the table, not to mention their vast networks of business contacts, each has also become an investor in ALT/AVE, contributing personally to the company’s latest cash injection of £530,000. The new funding will support further development of ALT/AVE’s product suite and tech offering, and support the commercialisation of the technology. Existing investors also participated in the round.

ALT/AVE Chair, Phil Shelley said: “docStribute was launched in response to a major problem in the financial services industry; existing communication channels are heavy users of carbon, represent significant cyber risk, and are expensive whilst often offering the customer a poor experience. In launching a product that uses the Hedera Hashgraph network, ALT/AVE is providing a safe and secure channel that reduces emissions and that offers customers a positive experience.

“I am delighted to complete our second fund raising of £530,000 with strong support from existing and new shareholders. I am also delighted to welcome new Advisory Board members who I am confident will enable the company to continue growing. Each of the three new appointments bring unique and very relevant experience as well as broad connectivity that will help ALT/AVE continue its rapid progress.”

Sarah Ronald

Sarah Ronald is an award-winning entrepreneur, founder of strategic design firm Nile, founding partner of two tech companies (Pawprint and Exizent) and an investor in numerous early stage companies. She has been involved in redesigning the currency banknotes for two countries, launched the first emergency cash service in Europe, and the digitisation of the world’s largest insurance marketplace.

Her background is in human-computer interaction and behavioural psychology, and her interests lie in working within regulated environments as these are often the most challenging spaces to create new products, services and changes in human behaviour. She has served as a digital adviser to the UK Government and is an advisory board member for the Scottish Government's Technology Ecosystem review, which is chaired by Cabinet Minister Kate Forbes.

Sarah is married with two big kids, two little kids and a stubborn French bulldog. She’s a keen skier and many moons ago played touch rugby for Scotland.

Keith MacDonald

Having led EY’s Wealth Management and Private Banking business for over 10 years, Keith is now advising a range of fintechs and scaleups on strategy, distribution, partnerships and funding. He is also a trustee and adviser to several philanthropic and charity bodies.

With EY he advised many UK and international clients and boards on strategy, mergers and acquisitions, ecosystems, infrastructure and technology, and led major award winning programmes of thought leadership and business development, including how firms support philanthropy, social investing and ESG. At EY, Keith is currently a Senior Adviser within the Wealth Management team, helping to develop their brand and business. He has also been a partner at Capco and CapGemini.

Keith is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, and the Chartered Institute of Marketing, and holds an MBA from Strathclyde University, and BA from Sheffield University. Keith is married with two daughters, is a keen theatre and concert goer, a squash player and occasional mountain climber, and a Manchester City and Saracens fan.

Dag Lee

Dag Lee has held global leadership positions across banking and finance, industry, distributed retail and service chains, healthcare and fitness. In many of these, he worked on service challenges, aligning propositions, culture, and operational delivery, often within a private equity setting. Dag is also an active venture investor and board member/adviser.

Dag speaks five languages, has business degrees from three universities in the UK, the US and the Middle east, and is currently chair and director at strategic design firm Nile; co-founder and chair of global management consultant DBI; an adviser to FSN Capital, and chair of InTouch Tech Inc.

ALT/AVE’s flagship product docStribute®️ allows companies to deliver private, confidential and mandatory documents to customers digitally, via immutable hyperlinks, using distributed ledger technology. docStribute can exist and function alongside, or replace entirely, existing portal systems. The main benefits are:

Secure - Documents are safely and efficiently stored, cannot be changed and are made available to view with just one click. Customer sensitive documents can be further protected with two-factor authentication.
Sustainable - Significantly reduce operational costs and carbon emissions whilst delivering a customer-centric solution.
Compliant - docStribute’s encryption protects the authenticity of documents, providing one true source and meeting FCA regulation.

When an organisation sends a document to a customer using docStribute, the asset is run through an advanced algorithm which then generates an immutable hyperlink that can be embedded in an email to the customer with a call to action. Once checks are completed within Hedera and the client application itself, the document “unlocks” and customers are then able to view the document.