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In a deal claimed to be one of the largest fundraisers conducted for the RegTech and Compliance sector, London-based communications surveillance provider VoxSmart has raised $25 million to strengthen its markets surveillance technology suite and to fund further expansion, particularly in North America and emerging markets.
Following $13.7 million raised in earlier rounds of Series A & B funding from investors including Deepbridge Capital and NatWest Bank, the lead investor in the new funding round is Toscafund Asset Management LLP.
VoxSmart provides voice and electronic communications analytics and remote compliance solutions, enabling businesses to supervise communication conducted on a range of different voice and digital platforms for risk and compliance purposes. The company acquired the trading business of Spanish supplier Fonetic in November 2019 for an undisclosed sum.
According to Oliver Blower, CEO, VoxSmart was the first vendor to introduce compliant WhatsApp surveillance to the market in 2016, and now plans to accelerate product development in instant message capture on emerging channels such as Telegram and Signal, which is a key area of focus for the company.
“WhatsApp has gone from being a peripheral used in niche markets to a mainstream communication platform used daily in traditional wholesale markets. It’s no longer the ‘black sheep’ communication method,” Blower says. “Now, platforms like Telegram and Signal are becoming increasingly prevalent, particularly in the digital asset space.
We want to be able to say to our customers, it doesn’t matter where you trade or how you communicate, we’ll make sure it’s compliant, it’s secure, and it interfaces with regulation.”
Blower also sees an increased demand for cloud-based surveillance technology such as that offered by VoxSmart as working from home becomes standard market practice in the post-pandemic economy. “A typical trading floor environment has gone from maybe half a dozen to thousands of locations globally, because everybody’s at home.
Those locations have to have the same compliance standards as a traditional trading floor. Firms need to ensure that they have exactly the same compliance standards across both. Our technology allows them to have that interoperability between locations, so it doesn’t matter where you trade or sell financial products, you’re compliant. That’s always been our philosophy at VoxSmart, always on, work anywhere, always compliant.”
He says “Toscafund is an excellent name in financial services, their network and their experience in helping growth businesses achieve their ambitions is unparalleled. And with their European, and indeed global, focus, they are 100% the right partner for us, so we’re absolutely delighted that they’ve come aboard.”
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