FeedStock is Regtech Company operating out of offices in London, servicing clients across the UK, USA and EU. It provides products using the latest Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning technologies. It was co-founded by Lucas Wurfbain and Charlie Henderson. Following are excerpts from the Interview with Lucas and Charlie talking about the Regtech Space and their success in it.
You are the leaders in Regulatory Technologies – How do you define the term RegTech?
In today’s increasingly regulated environment, RegTech is the term used to describe the
application of technology to solve regulatory requirements in an optimised, efficient way. At
FeedStock, we think of RegTech as the means by which you can deploy artificial intelligence
technologies to not only provide automated, cost-saving compliance solutions; but also go
beyond that to deliver optimised business intelligence and actionable insights to drive
revenue-generation across the business. The potential efficiency gains through RegTech are
undisputed; however, RegTech also paves the way for any intelligent businesses’ digital
transformation and positions an enterprise to succeed in this era of rapid technological
advancement.
How big is your team and who are the critical players in your journey to build the successful RegTech company?
We are a team of 17, led by two ex-capital market professionals. The highly skilled
development team includes experts in cloud system infrastructure and security, data
science, data pipeline engineering, as well as frontend application experts who enable us to
deliver truly solutions-based, user-friendly web applications which are tailored to our clients’ specific needs. Each and every member of our team is integral to the successful delivery of our products and we are extremely proud of the hard work which we have put in to get to where we are today.
Could you give us a brief overview of the products/services you are providing?
The foundation of both of our products is our data capture core: our ability to capture,
analyse and derive business intelligence from all the unstructured data generated by internal and external communication flows. Both of our products are driven by the need to provide actionable, revenue-generating insights without the need for manual, inefficient processes which disrupt daily workflows.
- FeedStock Cortex is a financial research tracking product for investment managers to address regulatory compliance and transparency requirements, research payment validation and investment process optimization. Cortex seamlessly integrates into our clients’ existing communication channels (email, chat systems, browser, research portals, calendar and calls) to track and analyse all incoming and outgoing research related interactions. This rich data set is displayed on a dashboard where potential inducements can be monitored, independent justification of research payments can be viewed, and investment insights can be found.
- FeedStock Synapse is our advanced AI-driven client insights and sales enablement
product. Here, the data points generated between clients and salespeople are
captured, analysed and distilled to derive unrivalled business intelligence about
customer behaviour. Synapse enables sales professionals to personalise their client
outreach, optimise the customer journey and identify upselling opportunities as well
as clients at risk. In addition, the system creates the framework for employee
evaluation allowing an enterprise to focus on revenue generation as well as cost
management.
What inspired you to build the above product?
Charlie Henderson and I founded FeedStock following careers in the City where we were
frustrated by traditional manual systems. The process of logging everything manually and
then basing business decisions on incomplete, incorrect and subjective data seemed archaic and outdated to us.
Right from its inception, FeedStock has been a solutions-based company. We saw a need
for data management solutions and the potential for dramatic improvements to business
operations through the unlocking of artificial intelligence technologies.
Your product is mainly based on Artificial Intelligence. Is there any chance that FeedStock will bring products based on other technologies like Block Chain?
By integrating directly into our clients’ existing business applications, FeedStock captures an unparalleled, highly accurate data set – we capture 10 times more client engagement data than a traditional CRM system and five times the unique client contacts. Given these statistics, there is so much we can achieve through the deployment of deep learning algorithms and AI that we are remaining focused on the core value that we can deliver to our clients through these avenues for the time being. The speed of technological evolution within the field of AI is blinding and it’s important to focus on new developments in this space so we can continue to deliver the best, cutting edge solutions to our clients.
How did you overcome initial mindset challenges of regulators/supervisors? Also what are those common difficulties related to compliance faced by regulators around the world?
We provide the technology by which a complete, highly accurate, impartial data set can be gathered about our clients’ research-related interactions. Where the asset management industry once relied on subjective sell-side data and inconsistent front-office manual research consumption logging, we have automated the entire process and removed the risk of human error. This is entirely in line with the thinking of the FCA, as is clearly outlined in its 2019/20 Business Plan: “Technology change can bring opportunities for innovation and lower costs […] We will look at ways to reduce the regulatory burden on firms through the use of technology in regulation – RegTech.”
What was the most challenging/critical aspect of your journey as the CEO and Founder of FeedStock?
Looking back from the position we are in now, I think FeedStock was slightly ahead of its time with the idea that effective data mastery and AI are the key to improved enterprise performance. Bringing clients on board over the past three years has been an educational process – both from our side, to refine the product offerings to their specific use cases; but also to demonstrate to them the potential for improved business performance through the deployment of AI. Over the past 6 – 12 months there has been a huge shift in focus onto AI and a broader acceptance of cloud based solutions and we are now ideally positioned to assist our clients in their digital transformation.
Where do you see FeedStock in next three years?
The last year has seen us make big strides across the business and bring some of the world’s largest financial institutions into our client base. Over the next three years we will seek to expand our offering within our existing clients and continue to support their digital transformations. In this era of rapid technological evolution in the AI space, we aim to assist our clients with a constant flow of the latest technologies and enable them to capitalize on all the efficiencies and optimizations which AI offers.
Finally, as previously mentioned, we have recently attracted a lot of interest from new clients, both within financial services but also, increasingly, from other client-facing industries. It’s a reflection of the quality of our product and team that we have gained traction from outside of our traditional market and it clearly demonstrates that we have touched on a number of serious pain points which are applicable to multiple sectors. The next three years will also see us pursue dedicated sales and marketing initiatives outside of financial services and we look forward to the opportunities which arise from these efforts.
Which countries do you feel you can expand to with your offerings?
The proliferation of AI technologies within enterprises is a global phenomenon so in the mid
to long-term we expect there to be demand for our products on a global scale. More immediately, discussions between the SEC and the US asset management industry about the need for a shift towards research un bundling regulation has generated a lot of
interest in our Cortex product from the US market.
Have you built any consulting model for the consultants from different countries?
We have begun initial discussions with consultants outside of the UK and are excited about
the opportunities that might arise from these discussions; however, it is still too early to talk in concrete terms at this stage.
