SEP has made a successful exit from
its investment in Searchspace, a company
with pioneering software used by more than
half of the world’s top banks to
prevent money laundering and fraud.
SEP sold its stake in the business in
a deal which involved a private institutional
investor acquiring all of the equity held
by existing venture capital backers. Terms
of the transaction have not been disclosed.
SEP invested $5.5 million in Searchspace
in 2004 as part of a $20.5 million funding
round which provided capital to enable
the company to take advantage of strongly
growing demand for software to combat financial
crime.
Russ Cummings, a Director in SEP’s
Information Technology Group, said: “We
invested in Searchspace because it was
at the forefront of a fast-growing market
for software to monitor electronic financial
transactions. It has proved to be a successful
investment for SEP and we wish them
every success in the next stage of their
journey.”
Searchspace, formed in 1993 as a spinout
from University College London, grew to
become a world leader in systems to detect
financial crime. Its software monitors
almost 400 million accounts per day for
regional, national and global banks, analysing
vast amounts of data and identifying suspicious
transactions. Searchspace ensures customers
meet increasingly demanding regulatory
standards, manage risk, and establish a
deep understanding of customer behavior
as it evolves.
Leading regional, national and global financial
institutions, including over half
of the world's top 25 banks, rely on Searchspace
to provide anti money laundering and fraud
detection solutions. Customers include
Barclays, Chevy Chase Bank, Lloyds TSB,
Société Générale,
The Bank of New York, The Co-operative
Bank, The Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS,
and Washington Mutual. The company also
has a global strategic alliance with IBM
via which it monitors transactions amounting
to some $600 billion every day.
