News from the Wire

Summa Equity acquired NetGuardians

Thursday, September 26, 2024 — 12:06:21 (EDT)

Stockholm, Sept. 25, 2024—Summa Equity (“Summa”), a Stockholm-based private equity firm that invests in companies solving global challenges, has acquired NetGuardians, a Swiss-based pioneer in AI-driven fraud prevention and anti-money laundering (AML) solutions. This opens an opportunity for a collaboration between NetGuardians and Intix, another Summa portfolio company specializing in Know Your Transaction (KYT) data management. The new group is poised to advance the financial security landscape by driving the development of next generation financial crime solutions.

NetGuardians, a Swiss-based leader at the forefront of AI-driven fraud prevention and anti-money laundering (AML) solutions, has earned widespread recognition for its pioneering approach, underpinned by its proprietary 3D AI technology. This cutting-edge technology combines unsupervised, supervised and active learning with community scoring intelligence to create a flawless financial crime prevention system, thereby enabling the protection of individuals and businesses, maintaining trust and economic stability, and the promotion of fairness in society. By analysing user behaviour and identifying unusual payment transactions in real-time, NetGuardians’ solutions significantly reduce false positives and ensure legitimate transactions are processed smoothly. Serving over 100 customers across 30 countries, NetGuardians’ innovative solutions continue to set new standards in the industry.

As a result of its innovation, NetGuardians has emerged as Switzerland's leading banking fraud prevention provider and over the past three years, the company has consistently delivered extraordinary year-on-year growth solidifying its leadership in the industry. Alongside this, Intix, which was acquired by Summa in 2022 continues to lead the field of transaction data management. The company’s platform offers real-time access to payment and transaction data and has become a cornerstone for the KYT concept helping clients navigate the growing complexities of financial data management and analysis.

Building on this foundation, the synergy between NetGuardians’ state-of-the-art fraud detection technology and Intix’s advanced financial data management platform is set to change the financial crime prevention industry. Intix's expertise in financial data management will amplify NetGuardians' cutting-edge technology, introducing plug-and-play AI analytics built on a standardized data foundation. In doing so, the new group will accelerate progress toward a shared goal of combating illicit financial flows, protecting individuals and businesses and fostering an economy of trust, in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals #8, #10, and #16.

Speaking on the new group, Gisle Glück Evensen, Partner at Summa commented: “Money laundering and fraud pose significant challenges to the financial system and society through the harmful activities they support. The combination of Intix and NetGuardians represents the next generation of tools in the effort to combat these. We are very enthusiastic about the continuation of this journey.”

Speaking on the new group, Joël Winteregg, NetGuardians CEO and future group CEO commented: "Today marks a transformative moment for Intix and NetGuardians. This strategic union provides a unique approach to addressing financial crime challenges, tackling issues from data pipeline and traceability to advanced AI analytics.

We are not just expanding our reach but also deepening our commitment to secure, sustainable financial practices”.

Commenting on the future direction NetGuardians’ Co-founder and CSO Raffael Maio stated: “The opportunity to combine NetGuardians' expertise and technology with Intix’ data management platform intelligence in creating the next generation of financial crime solutions promises to revolutionize how financial institutions combat illicit activities and connect to society: safeguard businesses' and people's savings, investments, and livelihoods."

Following the acquisition, Sergi Herrero, former Chair of Intix will assume the role of Chairman of the group. NetGuardians’ initial co-founders will play pivotal roles in this new venture and Raffael Maio will spearhead the group's strategy. Both will be instrumental in shaping the development and strategic direction of the organization.

For more information about NetGuardians, please visit: www.netguardians.ch

For more information about Intix, please visit: www.intix.eu/

For more information about Summa Equity, please visit: www.summaequity.com

About NetGuardians

NetGuardians is an award-winning Swiss FinTech helping financial institutions in over 30 countries to fight financial crime. More than 100 banks and wealth managers, including 60 per cent of all Swiss state-owned commercial banks and three of the top 10 private banks as ranked by Euromoney, rely on NetGuardians’ 3D artificial intelligence (3D AI) solution to prevent fraudulent payments and detect money laundering in real-time. Banks using NetGuardians’ software have achieved an 85 per cent reduction in customer friction, enjoy more than 75 per cent lower operating costs and have detected new fraud cases. Headquartered in Switzerland, NetGuardians has offices in Singapore, Poland, and Kenya.

www.netguardians.ch

For NetGuardians interviews or more information, please contact: Dr. Mine Fornerod, Director of Marketing Communications, NetGuardians +41 24 425 97 60 fornerod@netguardians.ch

About Summa Equity

Founded in 2016, Summa Equity is an impact investor focusing on three thematic areas: Resource Efficiency, Changing Demographics, and Tech-Enabled Transformation. The purpose of Summa is to invest in solving our global challenges.

Summa has c. EUR 5 billion in assets under management and has made over 30 platform investments across the three funds raised to date. The investments have the potential for long-term sustainable outperformance because they address some of the social, environmental, and governmental challenges we need to solve as a society.

The team is located in Northern Europe, with offices in Stockholm, Oslo, and Munich. Partnerships are part of Summa’s DNA, exemplified by being a certified B Corporation and collaborating with Harvard Business School and the International Foundation for Valuing Impacts (IFVI). www.summaequity.com

For Summa interviews or more information, please contact: Hannah Gunvor Jacobsen, Partner, COO and Head of IR at Summa Equity +47 936 41 960 | hannah.jacobsen@summaequity.com

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Source: Company press release.