A new B2B payments solution brings together instant payments, free transactions and flexible financing to address cash flow problems for both buyers and suppliers

In an Industry View piece published on Business Reporter, online fintech company iwoca explains how embedded finance products can solve a number of problems SMBs and their customers typically face. 80 per cent of B2B businesses still rely on slow and cumbersome bank transfers, while most of the remaining 20 per cent is settled with inflexible and costly card payments. Due to the lack of immediacy in these payment methods, as well as the unavailability of finance offerings embedded into them, SMBs are owed £10,000 on average at any given time. 

A new B2B payment solution that brings together the best of open banking and embedded finance, however, can spare suppliers from the cashflow burden that outstanding payments impose on them.

Suppliers have traditionally had to choose between either easy payments or flexible terms; they haven’t been able to get both. Using this new payment method – buyers get a frictionless and streamlined payment process and flexible payment terms, whilst suppliers can unlock money tied up in their invoices. Funds from the supplier’s sales appear immediately in their account, and buyers can spread the cost over 90 days, which they can schedule in a way that fits their cashflow the best. The key to this innovative solution is that digital finance provider iwoca provides the majority of its finance and payments products through its embedded partners, for example accounting software platforms, neo-banks or online marketplaces. This means they’re readily available for businesses to access in the services they use day-to-day. With this approach, applications can get approved within minutes, and the likelihood of declines diminishes considerably. 

This smooth payment experience and accessibility to finance will be key in supporting SMBs post-Covid.  

• Squirro Risk Insights solution delivers contextual insights and recommendations to support supervisors in assessing bank risks
• Squirro also continues global expansion with acquisition of US AI firm open.exchange, and growth equity round

Squirro, the Augmented Intelligence solutions provider, has announced a major project with the European Central Bank (ECB), in which Squirro will supply its Insight Engine and Risk Insights solution to the central bank of the 19 European Union countries that have adopted the euro. The ECB contract was awarded in Q4 2021.

Squirro already works with central banks such as the Bank of England and the German Bundesbank. The Squirro Insight Engine improves access to information by connecting all data sources and applying natural language processing and machine learning to deliver the right information to users at the right time.

This is augmented by the Squirro Risk Insights solution which monitors and contextualises all relevant risk factors. Teams are provided with insights and next-best-action recommendations to help actively assess and mitigate ongoing risk levels.

Thanks to its flexibility and scalability, Squirro is able to shorten the time to value. Depending on the project, the time between contract signing and go-live can be reduced to two weeks. 

“We work with some of the world’s biggest and best-known banks and regulatory institutions, confirming our position as a visionary and trusted Augmented Intelligence company,” said Dr. Dorian Selz, CEO and Co-Founder of Squirro. “Our Insight Engine overhauls enterprise access to information, providing relevant and context-based results to improve the efficiency of business processes. In addition, our Risk Insights solution provides more effective risk mitigation, supporting the digital transformation processes in financial services institutions.”

Squirro is also announcing the acquisition of US startup deal sourcing platform open.exchange, expanding Squirro’s reach in the US and enhancing its technology offering. Open.exchange will integrate with Squirro’s existing applications to form an even more rounded offering and will further enhance Squirro’s existing technology to increase the speed and flexibility of the platform.

“Our growth curve continues to rise sharply, and this acquisition puts us firmly on the map in the US," continued Dr. Dorian Selz, Squirro. "Open.exchange has a highly complementary proposition to Squirro's and allows us to expand our technology footprint in an important territory. We have already established a strong US presence, and the acquisition will greatly expand our market reach as demand for AI-derived insights increases

Squirro acquired open.exchange from BuildGroup, the capital investment firm founded by former Rackspace CEO Lanham Napier. As part of the acquisition, BuildGroup has made an investment in Squirro, marking the start of a long-term partnership, according to Lanham Napier:

“Squirro is a company that has been demonstrating fantastic potential for growth over the past few years, meeting the increasing demand for insights taken from unstructured data sources,” he said. “Open.exchange is in excellent hands with Dorian and his team, and I am delighted that BuildGroup will play a role in working with Squirro over the coming years.”

“This is a landmark day for Squirro," concluded Dr. Dorian Selz. "To see the organisation I co-founded in a position to make a major US acquisition like this, and win a landmark client such as the ECB, fills me with pride and optimism for our future. We are now better positioned than ever to capitalise on the trend of organisations becoming insights-driven businesses, and we are excited to welcome open.exchange to the Squirro family.”

One of the leading providers of macroeconomic and financial time series solutions, Macrobond, has appointed Klaus Holse as new Chairperson to support further growth and expansion. Klaus has a background as CEO of SimCorp, Corporate VP at Microsoft, and Senior VP at Oracle. 

Klaus Holse is currently Chairperson of open banking firm Tink AB, cloud platform SuperOffice AS, vertical software company EG A/S and payroll firm Zenegy A/S. In addition, he is also Vice Chairperson of the Supervisory Board of Industriens Arbejdsgivere in Denmark and Dansk Industri. He has previously held the positions of CEO of SimCorp for eight years, Corporate VP at Microsoft for eleven years and he has also been Senior VP at Oracle. At Microsoft, he was President of Western Europe, leading the largest area outside of the US. 

“Macrobond is on a very strong growth trajectory, and I’m looking forward to supporting the company with my experience in software, technology and entering new markets. I am delighted to be appointed Chairperson and I’m looking forward to working with CEO Tomas Liljeborg, the management team and with Nordic Capital as owners, to support further growth and expansion,” says Klaus Holse.

With his impressive experience and excellent track record from the IT and software industry, Klaus Holse will act as Chairperson for select Nordic Capital portfolio companies within the technology and financial services sectors, including Macrobond and Vizrt, a global leader in software for live video production.

"Nordic Capital is excited to be part of Macrobond’s development, supporting the business through its continued international expansion strategy whilst also strengthening its offering within financial software. Klaus has a remarkable experience of international technology companies, including a great knowledge of vertical software solutions, growth and value creation, which makes him an excellent Chairperson for the continued growth journey of Macrobond. Nordic Capital’s network of Senior Advisors plays an important role in supporting the successful and sustainable development of the portfolio companies and we are confident that Klaus will bring very valuable expertise to further support Macrobond on its growth journey, says Emil Anderson, Principal, Nordic Capital Advisors.

Klaus will succeed John McAdam as Chairperson. “Nordic Capital would like to take this opportunity to thank John for his contributions as Chairperson of Macrobond,” Emil Anderson, adds.

Today, Macrobond has approximately 220 employees in Europe, Asia, and the United States and has revenues of approx. EUR 25 mn. Nordic Capital acquired Macrobond in 2018 and has, in close partnership with the management team, supported its continued expansion and invested to further strengthen its service offering and position across several jurisdictions.

Technology & Payments is one of Nordic Capital’s focus sectors where it has a long and extensive history and experience of investing and supporting sustainable growth in technology software companies. Nordic Capital has significant experience in software as well as payments and has deployed more than EUR 5.6 billion of equity across 24 technology companies since 2001, including former and current investments such as Bambora, Cint, Trustly, Conscia, Siteimprove, Board International and Signicat.

Accounting app Binderr has tapped into Nordigen’s freemium open banking platform to gain account information for their client operations.  

Binderr is a Malta-based business finance and automated accounting platform, created with freelancers and SMEs in mind. Binderr opts for simplified processes and options that save time for their clients, such as quick invoice creation, expense reports updated with photographed receipts and clear real-time financial insights. The platform also boasts an innovative tax system, with automatic updates to VAT and income tax returns with every transaction. 

“The main objective of our platform is to create a solution for business owners and freelancers that removes accounting worries and automates the process instead. This way entrepreneurs can focus on their ideas, growth and development, rather than performing a repetitive process that can be performed through our algorithms, technology and Nordigen’s APIs,'' explains Jacob Appel, CEO of Binderr. 

Nordigen enables Binderr to perform automated accounting procedures by providing an interface whereby client's data is safely sourced from their bank account and communicated securely to the platform. This information includes transactions, as well as all surrounding information in relation to dates, names and context. 

“Binderr has created a way to adjust the usual accounting process into a simplified task for busy business owners and self-employed individuals. The priority here is saving time and removing the necessity for manual input. We’re delighted that Nordigen is able to support Binderr on their journey to easier budgeting with real-time financial data.” noted Rolands Mesters, co-founder and CEO of Nordigen.

• Hiring for risk and compliance specialists in banks up 98.9% year-on-year
• Overall banking jobs in UK hit all-time monthly record in January 2022
• Credit analyst (560%) and KYC compliance (193%) roles in fastest growth
• Nationwide and NatWest experience rapid growth in R&C jobs

Banks are publishing record numbers of risk and compliance jobs in the UK following an unprecedented year of regulatory initiatives and a flurry of upcoming changes expected in 2022, a new report says.

According to research by global recruiters Morgan McKinley and data analysts Vacancysoft, banks sought 8,750 risk and compliance (R&C) specialists in 2021, representing a 98.9% year-on-year increase and up 67.3% on pre-pandemic levels.

Jobs rose further in 2022 with banks publishing 850 R&C vacancies published in January, 87.6% more than the same month in 2019. Overall banking vacancies, meanwhile, hit an all-time monthly high of 2,990 new jobs — breaking the previous record, set in October 2021, by 3.1%.

Ben Harris, Associate Director, Head of Governance, Compliance, IA and Risk Management, Morgan McKinley, said: "The start of 2022 saw a dramatic improvement in risk, compliance and financial crime recruitment. Hiring for permanent risk and compliance professionals was busy at the end of 2021 and showed no signs of slowing down — to the backdrop of what people called “The Great Resignation” and the post-pandemic bounce-back predicted for financial services.

“With the easing of coronavirus measures banks, having made significant cuts to their staff, needed talent to join their teams again. The recruitment market is candidate-led, with job-seekers in 2022 being offered multiple options. In addition, the onset of bonus season will flood the market with talent that wasn’t previously looking, requiring institutions to move quickly on offering roles."

Credit analyst and KYC compliance roles experience the fastest growth

Out of specialist roles within R&C, functions focusing solely on compliance have made up the bulk of all hiring since at least 2019, totalling nearly 1,800 jobs in 2021. This accounts for 29.1% of all R&C roles — and an uptick of 57.4% year-on-year.

The most notable surges in recruitment, however, were for KYC compliance and credit analysts, with hiring levels up 192.7% and 560% year-on-year, respectively. Vacancies for KYC specialists were the most resilient in 2020 — the first year of the pandemic — with numbers up 21.7% year-on-year while hiring for other R&C functions floundered.

Citi publishes most R&C jobs; Nationwide & NatWest with fastest growth in hiring

 Citi finished 2021 as the dominant hirer of R&C specialists in the UK, publishing nearly 920 vacancies, a rise of 84.7% year-on-year and 470.2% higher than pre-pandemic levels. Jobs at Santander were up 185.8% year-on-year (82.3% up on 2019). JPMorgan, second in 2021, recorded nearly 500 new R&C jobs.

 Top 20 companies, professional R&C vacancies in banking, UK, 2019-2022* 

Vacancies at Nationwide saw the biggest year-on-year surge out of the top 20 banks, with R&C hiring levels up 608.7% year-on-year and 81.1% in relation to 2019. The smallest rise was at Deutsche Bank, where recruitment grew by only 12.8% year-on-year.

Ben continued: "There has been a general increase in salaries across risk disciplines as demand for specific skill sets increases, leading to average pay increases of 20-25%, and even higher in some cases. We have also noted some very aggressive counteroffers, as firms do all they can to hang onto key talent. We expect this trend to certainly continue well into the second half of 2022."

~Will be using the funds to accelerate mission to make banking easier for 30 million users~ 

Niyo, the consumer neo-banking platform, has raised $100 million in its Series C round of funding. The company will be using the funds to accelerate its mission to transform banking in India, and to provide convenient and hassle-free financial services to digital native customers. 

This Series C round of funding was led by Accel & Lightrock India with participation from Beams Fintech Fund. Existing investors Prime Venture Partners, JS Capital are also participating in this round along with others. 

Niyo offers digital savings accounts and other banking services in partnership with banks. The company currently serves about 4 million customers across its banking and wealth management products with over 10,000 new users added daily to its platform. Niyo is processing over US$3 billion of transactions making it the largest consumer neo-banking platform in India. 

The company will utilize the funds for product innovation, marketing and branding, increasing its distribution footprint, and hiring top talent across functions. Niyo is also looking to provide comprehensive financial services to over 30 million users through both organic and inorganic expansion over time making banking a delightful and secure experience.  

Niyo has launched India’s first fully digital salary account this month and is in the process of launching personal loans, credit cards, integrated forex. and other banking products in the next three months. The company was founded in 2015 by Vinay Bagri and Virender Bisht who are veterans in the banking and technology domains.  

Avendus Capital was the exclusive financial advisor to Niyo on the transaction. 

Niyo Co-founder and CEO Vinay Bagri said, “We have always strived to offer tangible value and a delightful experience to our customers. In the process, we are transforming the way India banks. We are excited to partner with Accel, Lightrock & Beams on our journey as we look to accelerate the mission of taking pathbreaking digital banking products to millions of users in India and positively impact their financial well-being.” 

Anand Daniel, partner at Accel, said, “We are excited to back the fastest growing neo-bank in India, Niyo. Vinay, Viren and team have built a fantastic product with a clear value prop for customers which is reflected in their phenomenal growth. We look forward to partnering with Niyo in changing the way India banks.” 

Ashish Garg, Principal at Lighrock India said, “We are extremely excited about the potential of Niyo in re-imagining the banking experience for millions of users in India across the income pyramid. Neobanks are an emerging asset class in India and believe that the quality of Niyo’s team, customer understanding and technology stack will enable them emerge as the leader of the space.” 

Niyo Co-founder and CTO Virender Bisht said, “We are seeing massive tailwinds for digital financial products since COVID. Launched less than a year ago, our first-of-a-kind product offering “NiyoX” is democratizing the superior digital banking experience for users, and has witnessed tremendous user adoption. With this raise, we aim to expand the product suite for our customers and meet their growing expectations.” 

While AI and Machine to Machine (M2M) technology are nothing new, they are being deployed with greater speed and efficiency, and in more contexts within the South African payments and e-commerce environment. According to Andrew Springate, CEO of tech and financial gateway service provider PAYM8, the real potential of these technologies is just starting to be realised.

Says Springate, “We’ve known for some time how AI helps businesses enhance the experience of their customers by offering a method of data analysis assisting with model and trend analysis. This has been vital for payment brands in generating repeat business and building a loyal customer base. Use of AI and M2M is undoubtedly on the increase which is good news for end-customers and for businesses too.”

Now that AI and M2M are fast becoming more entrenched, merchants are reaping the benefits of ever more integrated and secure payment solutions. “On a practical level this technology can provide merchants such as debit order collectors with real insight into, by way of example, a debtors’ employment sector and the best debit order collection dates.” 

Springate says having factual insight into specific trends is the entryway to increased operational efficiencies and accurate decisions. “Armed with critical data trends and other valuable information using M2M and AI learnings, organisations are empowered to make systematic payment processing decisions. For example, switching between primary and secondary payment channels in order to minimise the risk of bounced debit orders.”

PAYM8’s own intelligent payments platform, AXIS, gives businesses greater control over their payments journey. The platform allows choice in the transaction method that is the most suitable and the one that makes the most economic sense.

“The e-commerce and payments industry demands choice and flexibility. Solutions that deliver on the need for interoperability between transaction types will win out over those that do not. Merchants require a complete remit of transaction processes from collections to digital commerce to daily transaction management in a way that is simple, seamless and frictionless,” notes Springate.

From an industry that barely existed just two short decades ago, Springate says e-commerce, and with it, online payments, have skyrocketed to occupy a commanding position in today’s connected global economy. “The entire payments and retail ecosystem continues to transform before our very eyes. The opportunities in South Africa and the rest of the continent are immense as smart technologies, like AI and M2M, are put to good use in best of breed payment solutions.”

Identity verification leader surpasses $100M revenue and 150 million cumulative verifications, adding Volkswagen Financial Services, DBS Bank, and Orange as customers

Onfido, the global identity verification and authentication provider simplifying identity for everyone, today announced a breakthrough year for 2021. The company grew revenue 90% year-over-year to over $100 million, and achieved 134% year-over-year growth in the US.

In September 2021, Onfido’s digital identity checks surpassed 100 million, and just five months later, increased 50%, hitting 150 million, marking another major milestone for the company. To meet the increasing demand for Onfido’s verification and authentication services, the company expanded its workforce by 50%, to 600 employees, investing in research and development, advanced AI-powered fraud detection capabilities and customer success for enterprises worldwide.

With Goode Intelligence predicting that the number of identity verification checks will grow from 1.1 billion last year to 3.8 billion in 2026, it is clear that the demand for digital identity verification services is set to continue its explosive growth.

"Our strong year reflects the continued shift towards the critical adoption of digital environments where businesses are adapting to meet their users online," said Mike Tuchen, CEO at Onfido. "With $56bn lost to identity theft in 2020 alone1, a fast, simple and secure online journey is imperative when it comes to building customer trust, which is why we are continuing to invest in our workforce, technology, research and development."

Other 2021 highlights:

Product innovation

Onfido launched Face Authenticate, adding a fast and seamless biometric face authenticator as well as new security tools, including Onfido Private Key Encryption to its product offering. Leveraging its award-winning AI technology, users simply take a photo of their government-issued identity document (ID). Onfido then verifies the ID and matches it to the document data provided when their real identity was established at registration. This way, companies can now go beyond safely onboarding new users for Know Your Customer (KYC) or compliance purposes by providing a safe and frictionless way for trusted users to re-access existing accounts within seconds. Face Authenticate quickly re-grants access for times such as updating personal account information, initiating high-value transactions, or accessing new products and services.

Earlier in 2021, Onfido announced the acquisition of EYN, whose industry-first acoustic liveness technology uses audible sound and ultrasound wavelengths from a mobile device to actively probe for the presence of a live person, much like a sonar system. It adds an additional layer of security to image-based biometric anti-spoofing capabilities to give customers greater assurances that their remotely onboarded users are who they say they are. The technology is currently being integrated into Onfido’s existing image-based liveness detection solution.

Continued customer momentum

As demand for fast and secure digital access increases, Onfido had a number of new customers and expanded partnerships in 2021. Some highlights of global customers added included financial services: Volkswagen Financial Services, DBS Bank, Lemonway, and BUX; gaming providers: Soft2Bet and Games247; telecommunications company Orange; and healthcare unicorn Doctolib.

"Scrive and Onfido bring the experience and expertise we were looking for to provide a thoroughly modern, secure financing experience for our dealerships and their customers," said Titus Ackah-Sanzah, Product Owner at Volkswagen Financial Services UK. "The response from our dealers is very positive: a clear, easy-to-follow process that streamlines the purchase experience and expedites the payout time."

"Our vision is to become a digital-first telco offer and provide new experiences for our customers," said Artur Stankiewicz, Chief Marketing and Digital Officer, Orange Poland. "Nowadays, customers are looking for solutions and services that are easily available – just the way they need them and whenever they need them, fully online. Onfido helps us bridge that gap, enabling us to know our customers in a fully online manner."

Following the successful launch of Onfido’s Salesforce integration, Cala Homes integrated Onfido’s AppExchange solution to accelerate the purchase of a new home. The Nottingham, a UK building society (credit union), also implemented the solution explaining that it reduced customer friction in its customer onboarding process:

"We’re 164 years old and still very paper-based," said Scott Devereaux, Head of Innovation, The Nottingham. "Onfido lets us take away paper and form filling by bringing in facial recognition and doc verification which really speeds up the onboarding process and helps build trust with our customers."

Expanded leadership team

In 2021, Onfido bolstered its leadership team with a number of strategic hires including Alex Valle as Chief Product Officer (former GM at Criteo; Head of Mobile Ad Products at Google); Faisal Chughtai as Chief Financial Officer (former CFO of Inxeption and Executive Director at JPMorgan Chase); Nello Franco as Chief Customer Officer (former Managing Director of Customer Operations at Vista Consulting Group and SVP Customer Success at Talend); Nate Skinner as Chief Marketing Officer (former SVP of Global Marketing for Oracle’s Advertising and Customer Experience business). Onfido also appointed two new board members in Sue Barsamian (also a board member at Auth0, Symantec, Norton Lifelock) and Bill Losch, former Chief Financial Officer at Okta.

The company also added to its policy team with the appointments of Matt Peake as Global Director of Public Policy (former Head of Regulatory and Public Policy UK and IE at Verizon) and Amy Shuart, Head of US Government Affairs (former committee member on Ways and Means at the U.S. House of Representatives).

Achievements and Awards

Onfido’s leadership team expansion comes amidst a number of product achievements and industry recognition. In a study conducted by leading analyst firm, Forrester, The Total Economic Impact™ of Onfido revealed that organizations experience benefits of up to 261% ROI and a net present value (NPV) of $9.86M, with the solution paying itself off in 6 months.

Onfido was named a 2021 CB Insights Fintech 250 for the fourth consecutive year, earned the 2021 Cybersecurity Breakthrough Award for "Fraud Prevention Innovation of the Year," and won "Security Innovation of the Year" in the National Technology Awards.

Register to join the upcoming webinar on Wednesday 9th March 2022, with experts from Tesco Bank, HSBC, 11:FS and Onfido to hear about the evolution of onboarding and how customer demand is changing.

FCA and PRA authorised GB Bank procures TruNarrative technology to deliver its onboarding and transactional risk strategies

GB Bank, a new bank focussed on getting Britain building again, has today announced it has chosen Leeds-based regtech innovator TruNarrative, a LexisNexis® Risk Solutions company, to provide its full suite of customer onboarding and transactional risk compliance capabilities.

GB Bank aims to support under-served SME property developers and is the first UK tech-driven lender to exclusively provide SMEs, construction companies and property developers access to finance up to £5 million.
 

GB Bank, a new bank focussed on getting Britain building again, has today announced it has chosen Leeds-based regtech innovator TruNarrative, a LexisNexis® Risk Solutions
company, to provide its full suite of customer onboarding and transactional risk compliance capabilities. GB Bank aims to support under-served SME property developers and is the first UK tech-driven lender to exclusively provide SMEs, construction companies and property developers access tofinance up to £5 million.

With a focus on supporting regional projects and businesses, GB Bank is set to lend £3 billion across the next five years, building a £1 billion-plus balance sheet by funding construction of 20,000 homes and several million square feet of commercial space.
TruNarrative is a trusted supplier to numerous financial institutions, being a vital part of their financial crime prevention and compliance strategies. The TruNarrative platform enables banking, lending, ecommerce and payments firms to safely onboard customers, detect fraud and identify risk via a single API.

With a requirement to make rapid, high-value lending decisions central to its overall proposition, GB Bank went to market for a solution to facilitate low-friction customer journeys, robust compliance, and risk mitigation across its customer base.

With a requirement to make rapid, high-value lending decisions central to its overall proposition, GB Bank went to market for a solution to facilitate low-friction customer journeys, robust compliance, and risk mitigation across its customer base.

Using TruNarrative, GB Bank will be able to build a complete risk profile for each customer using transactional monitoring with risk visibility over applications, deposits, withdrawals, and repayments.

With access to over 50 third-party data providers within the TruNarrative App Store, GB Bank will be able to build bespoke and compliant customer journeys for its multiple products, allowing the team to make lending decisions with the full customer picture in view.

TruNarrative will integrate with GB Bank’s state-of-the-art technology stack, including core banking systems, front-end user interface and reporting framework, delivering a seamless experience for both the bank’s operational teams and its customers.

GB Bank will be able to access a full case management system for manual reviews and referrals, a natural language rule builder allowing for rapid strategy changes, and a comprehensive audit trail with instant recall of data for regulatory purposes.

“GB Bank has a strong focus on technology and automation, and we are always on the lookout for new innovative businesses to partner with,” said Edward Vaughan, Head of Banking for TruNarrative. “I am delighted that GB Bank has selected TruNarrative for compliance and financial crime technology, and we look forward to continuing to support the growth of the Bank.”

“GB Bank has a strong focus on technology and automation, and we are always on the lookout for new innovative businesses to partner with,” said Edward Vaughan, Head of Banking for TruNarrative. “I am delighted that GB Bank has selected TruNarrative for compliance and financial crime technology, and we look forward to continuing to support the growth of the Bank.”

Dan Argent, GB Bank’s Head of Financial Crime, added: “TruNarrative enables GB Bank to access a wide range of data providers and deliver real time end-to-end decision making via a single, simple to use platform."
 

Recognises Colt’s Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute

Colt Technology Services, has today announced that it has been named in the 2022 Gartner®  2022 “Magic Quadrant™ for Network Services, Global, as a Visionary based on its Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute.

This is the third year in a row that Colt has been named as a Visionary in the Gartner®  2022 “Magic Quadrant™ for Network Services, Global.

Colt believes this positioning recognises its Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute, and highlights its focus on understanding where the industry is heading and market changes, as well as ensuring its products and services are aligned to what its customers need to meet their business objectives – both now and in the future.

Keri Gilder, Colt’s CEO, commented: “Our focus is clear – we strive to deliver the products and services our customers need to navigate the challenges that they face in today’s ever-evolving business landscape. At the heart of that is innovation, which allows us to deliver the extraordinary connections customers need to digitally transform and succeed.”

“We feel being recognised for the third time as a Visionary in the 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant really highlights how our strategy sets us apart and is delivering what customers need now and will need in the future, and shows we’re pushing the boundaries of our industry as we work towards becoming the modern telco.”

The Colt IQ Network, which comprises more than 900 data centres and over 29,000 on net buildings, paired with its growing partner ecosystem of Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) and Systems Integrators (SIs), puts Colt in the perfect position to enable organisations’ digital transformations.

Access the complimentary report here.

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Network Services, Global, Neil Rickard, Bjarne Munch, Danellie Young, Karen Brown, 21^st February 2022.

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