Today Smartkarma, the leader in designing online ecosystem for independent investment insight and analytics, announces research published from Mount Everest basecamp using the Smartkarma platform. Dr. Paul M. Kitney, previously the head of strategy for Blackrock, who now publishes his highly respected “Animal Spirits” report on Smartkarma, has just released, Animal Spirits: Dodd-Frank, Corporate Bond Market Liquidity & Macro-Financial Stabilization from Mount Everest, while preparing for his ascent to the summit. 

Between 2012 and 2016, the top 12 global investment banks saw a 10% reduction in research analyst headcount (Source: Coalition, Quinlan & Associates analysis). As this shrinkage of research teams continues, many top analysts are choosing to start their own independent research firms and look to platforms like Smartkarma to publish, distribute and monetise their services. For Insight Providers, the Smartkarma platform offers an easy, intuitive way to create and distribute research efficiently and flexibly. Smartkarma’s technology enables direct interaction across the network, ensuring that no matter where they are, analysts are engaged with their colleagues and clients.

Smartkarma unlocks the true value of independent insight, uniting a fragmented marketplace and providing investors with a selection of best-in-class research on Asia, all in one convenient portal.  Smartkarma supports Independent Insight Providers in all aspects of their business, allowing them to focus on what they do best, create great research and insight, from anywhere, anytime and on any device. Smartkarma’s rapidly growing platform currently provides global investors access to over 140 independent investment insight firms, including analysts, data scientists, academics and legal professionals. Its community has written on more than 1600 companies across 15 Asian markets, offering unconflicted, on the ground coverage including small and mid-caps stocks in frontier and emerging markets, and in-depth special situations and IPO analysis. On average, 25 insights are published daily with active minute by minute discussions, where themes and ideas are debated, discussed and questioned among a community of experts, in real time.

Dr. Kitney, Insight Provider at Smartkarma says, “Publishing to the Smartkarma platform strengthens the insight I create for the market. The tools and interaction with peers and investors ensure that my research is timely, appropriate and useful for the investor community. In addition, my company and my personal brand benefit extensively from access to the global investor community that uses my research. With the flexibility that the Smartkarma platform provides, I am finally able to combine work with fulfilling a lifelong dream.”

Jon Foster, co-founder of Smartkarma continues, “We are always thrilled to see how the Smartkarma platform enables flexible working for Insight Providers so that they can choose how and where to work. We can only commend such high-altitude publishing, taking Smartkarma to the top of the world, and we wish Paul every success in his ascent.”

Today Timico ,the Managed Cloud Service Provider (MCSP), has revealed the appointment of managed IT specialist, Neville Davis, to a new position as Non-executive Chairman.

An entrepreneurial business leader with over 20 years’ experience as a chief executive, including 12 years at a quoted company, Neville has a particularly strong track record in scaling and developing private-equity backed companies, having chaired and grown other tech businesses to in excess of £300 million turnover and 1500 employees.

His appointment follows a £50 million investment in Timico by growth investors Lyceum Capital in February 2017 as part of Timico’s ambitious plans for growth and to finance future selective acquisitions.

As well as his new appointment at Timico, Neville Davis also currently chairs private equity-backed IT companies, Peppermint Technology and Clifford Thames, as well as travel management company Key Travel, and is also Non-executive Director of Kalibrate. His previous chairmanships also include SecureData, Fourth, Trustmarque (now part of Capita), Ascribe and Amor. 

To cement its mark in the managed IT service space, Ben Marnham, CEO of Timico, recently led a programme of change to reorganise the business around a single Timico brand and service model, honing its strategy and new proposition as an end-to-end Managed Cloud Service Provider in the IT and cloud space in preparation for its next stage of growth.

Ben said: “Neville’s considerable experience in managed IT and more than 20 years as a successful CEO will be a real asset to Timico. I am looking forward to working closely with him to drive forward our Managed Cloud Service Provider (MCSP) strategy and to deliver real value to our clients as we support them on their digital transformation journey.”

Commenting on his appointment as Non-executive Chairman, Neville Davis said: “I am excited about the strategic journey Timico is taking and its approach to simplifying its clients’ IT infrastructure with a range of innovative, consumption-based IT solutions. I am confident that I can make a significant contribution, helping the team realise its ambition in the UK mid-market.”

Adds Simon Hitchcock, Non-executive Director and partner at Lyceum Capital: “Neville has an excellent track record in leading private-equity backed technology businesses and really understands the dynamics and challenges of delivering on strategy in our highly competitive and driven environment. We are delighted to welcome him on board.”

Today Fidessa group plc revealed that its sell-side platform has been voted Best Order Management System at the 5th Annual Markets Media and Traders Magazine Markets Choice Awards.

With brokers facing ongoing pressures from the global regulatory agenda, the need to achieve efficiencies whilst containing costs and the increasing demands of their buy-side clients for exceptional levels of execution service, Fidessa's platform continues to prove compelling for firms of all sizes and across asset classes.

Providing access to 220 liquidity venues around the world, Fidessa's fully hosted OMS delivers powerful exceptions-based workflow capabilities and fully-integrated visualisation tools that enable brokers to deliver highly competitive high and low touch execution services.

James Blackburn, Global Head of Equities Product Marketing at Fidessa, commented: "It is extremely gratifying to receive this award for the second consecutive year. It is further validation that our ongoing investment in the platform is providing the capabilities that our sell-side clients need to remain relevant in today's highly competitive marketplace."

Fidessa supports over 900 clients and 23,000 users around the world with a network that connects 715 brokers and 5,500 buy-sides and carries order flow with a value of US$20 trillion annually.

This award, presented at a gala dinner hosted by Markets Media and Traders Magazine in New York last night, is the latest accolade for Fidessa's sell-side products and services which have now been recognised with four awards since the start of 2017.

Today Growth Street, an alternative business finance platform, announces that more than 600 investors have now chosen to back fast growing, profitable SMEs, since it launched in late 2016.

The strength of the borrower portfolio, along with the innovative risk management approach, has led independent P2P rating service 4thWay to rank Growth Street as one of the lowest risk platforms in the market for individual investors seeking to lend directly to borrowers.

The milestone comes after a strong year for Growth Street in 2016, after it was given Appointed Representative status by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Greg Carter, CEO of Growth Street, commented: “Our borrowers successfully navigated an uncertain economic landscape in 2016, averaging annual revenue growth of over 24% while maintaining strong profit margins of 10%. The capital from our investors can help them continue this impressive track record in the coming year.”

Growth Street provides flexible working capital finance to British businesses, funded by a diverse mix of individual and institutional investors. All investors participate equally in a single dynamic marketplace that matches borrowers and lenders for 30 days. Due to the short loan length, investors can withdraw funds at 30 days’ notice. To minimise cash drag, investors typically choose to re-invest their funds automatically.

Growth Street separately provisions for losses with the aim to reduce the impact of borrower defaults on lenders and to diversify an investor’s credit risk across the whole portfolio. These measures have helped ensure that no lender has incurred any losses as of the time of writing.

Today QuantHouse, the global provider of advanced trading solutions, announced that Metori Capital Management has selected QuantFACTORY to automate its trading portfolio.

QuantHouse provides end-to-end systematic trading solutions including QuantFEED, its ultra-low latency market data technologies, QuantFACTORY, its algo-trading development framework and QuantLINK, its proximity hosting and order routing services. QuantHouse helps trading venues, hedge funds, market makers, proprietary desks, brokers and sell-side firms achieve optimal trading performance.

Metori Capital was set up by former executives of LYXOR Asset Management as an independent firm to manage the EPSILON funds worth circa EUR 400 million. Metori Capital will be managing the EPSILON funds through their automated trading portfolio technology based on QuantFACTORY, the QuantHouse advanced quant trading, development and algo testing framework. By coding their portfolio management rules into QuantFACTORY, Metori Capital will be able to review, fine-tune and optimise each element of the automated trading cycle.

Nicolas Gaussel, CEO and Co-CIO, Metori Capital, said, “Lyxor’s Epsilon team has been working with QuantHouse over the years through its QuantFACTORY technology, allowing full portfolio trading automation making them the natural choice to automate Metori Capital’s trading portfolio solution. We have been impressed by the technology’s performance, resilience and stability, and look forward to working together as we go into operation this year.”

Stephane Leroy, Business Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer, QuantHouse, added, “We are delighted to welcome Metori Capital to the QuantHouse client community. In today’s trading environment, both trading ideas and speed to market are of the essence. Firms must be able to test, develop and launch new trading strategies as quickly as possible ensuring the highest level of risk control. We’re delighted to work with Metori Capital to help them achieve full trading automation and business performance.”

Demand from end users for better ‘User Experience’ and the changing ‘Technology’ landscape have challenged enterprises across domains to constantly reinvent themselves. With changing markets and industry trends, it is imperative for an evolution in solutions that enable process optimization for newer business models, efficient productivity and lower TCO (Total Cost of Ownership). 3i Infotech, a global IT company, unfurls its strategic design in delivering the most comprehensive end-to-end services portfolio for its customers to empower them in their continuous business transformation journey.

Backed by over 24+ years of experience, the well-recognized industry leader Mohua Sengupta, who has recently joined 3i Infotech as EVP & Global Head of Services, aims to establish 3i Infotech as a partner of choice for innovation in the IT services sector. While planning towards accelerating the services business, Mohua says, “We are ever expanding our talent-pool of visionary leaders, domain experts, and far-sighted technical architects augmented by meticulous delivery, structured operations and flexible engagement models to form our global services offerings of tomorrow. Success stories engineered by our Services Business, pivoted on industry verticals, viz; Banking & Financial Services (BFS), Insurance & Healthcare (IHC), Government and Enterprises across North America, Asia-Pacific, South-East Asia, Middle-East and India, provide us an excellent foothold to outshine in the digital race”. 

For any connected enterprise of tomorrow, the digital transformation journey is a holistic review & revamp of process, people and technology. Aiming to strive excellence in this journey for customers, 3i Infotech aims to leverage on its core global domain expertise in BFS and IHC, backed by a robust infrastructure to devise the most innovative go-to-market strategy. 

Adds Mohua, “Innovative solutions aligned to digitalization and focused on quick turnaround of proof of concepts & prototyping, along with flexible engagement models and flawless delivery are some of the key strengths of 3i Infotech Services Team. Equipped with all these, I am very confident that the 3i Infotech Services arm will not only be a true partner to our clients in their digital transformation journey, but also an employer of choice to a global talent pool, giving them a challenging and invigorating environment.

Being a truly global company, with our teams spread across locations, 3i Infotech is able to offer agile and smarter Go-to-Market solutions to customers. Nurturing talent, backed by efficient business and technology acumen is what makes 3i Infotech a preferred vendor, and an employer of choice.

Today Nasdaq, one of the world's leading providers of technology and services to the capital markets, reported the launch of a venture investment program, Nasdaq Ventures,  dedicated to discovering, investing in and partnering with unique fintech companies worldwide. The program's main objective is to identify and collaborate on new technologies and groundbreaking services and solutions which align with Nasdaq's clients' needs and the company's long-term objectives in the global capital markets. 

"With the launch of our new venture investment program, we are reinforcing our focus on driving growth and innovation by evaluating, distributing, licensing and integrating disruptive technologies for the long-term benefit of our global clients," said Adena Friedman, President and CEO, Nasdaq. "Investing in pioneering fintech firms, who are developing unique technologies, continues our history of being a platform and partner of choice for the most innovative companies in the world. In addition, through this program we plan to accelerate the pace of innovation to ensure our clients continue to benefit from the technologies that are reshaping the capital markets."

As part of Nasdaq's Corporate Strategy function, Nasdaq Ventures will be led by Gary Offner who will report to Jean-Jacques Louis, Head of Corporate Strategy. Offner has more than 20 years of continuous private equity, venture capital and strategic direct investment experience with an emphasis on minority growth capital investments in technology companies, and is a long-time veteran of Morgan Stanley.

The minority stake investments made by Nasdaq Ventures are expected to range from less than $1M to approximately $10M and will include seed to late-stage venture rounds. Every potential investment will receive a rigorous review with an established internal committee to ensure that each partnership is aligned with Nasdaq's overall financial and strategic goals, as well as an existing business line or business strategy in order to guarantee that every investment furthers the company's competitive and strategic position in the chosen businesses. Areas of initial focus will include: digital transfer/blockchain; machine learning and artificial intelligence; emerging and frontier marketplaces; and next generation data, analytics and content aggregation. The venture investing program will not have any material implications on Nasdaq's capital allocation strategy.   

Huddlestock, a fintech company based at Level39 in London and Pier X in Oslo, has signed an agreement with its first institutional client, the Icelandic Pension Fund, Sparnaður, based in Reykjavik.

Applications will soon open for Asia-Pacific’s fourth annual FinTech Innovation Lab, Accenture’s (ACN) 12-week program that helps early- and growth-stage fintech companies accelerate product and business development by gaining exposure to top financial institution executives.