Q&A Lynne Darcey Quigley, CEO of Know-it
Lynne thank you for your time. Could you introduce yourself to our readers?
Of course. Having worked across several credit management roles for over 25 years, I have gained a wealth of knowledge and completely understand the importance of a healthy cash flow for businesses and the implications late payers and bad debtors can have on businesses of all sizes and industries.
Over the years working across many different industries, I realised a gap in the market for a professional, result-driven debt recovery partner”¦.14 years ago, I set up my first company, Darcey Quigley & Co, focused on recovering overdue B2B invoices across the UK and internationally.
Darcey Quigley & Co was founded in 2007 on the belief debt recovery could be delivered differently. Specialising solely in the commercial market, we act as an extension of a company’s credit control department whenever internal processes have been exhausted. October 2018 saw me dive into my latest business venture, founding Know-it acting as the company’s CEO. The goal was to create a financial services company that makes credit management simple and easy.
Can you please give our readers an introduction to Know-it and what is the inspiration behind the platform?
Having worked within the debt recovery industry for over 25 years, I understand what the implications of late payers and bed debtors can mean for a business. Know-it has been designed to bring a fresh perspective on the credit management process. We have created an innovative, cloud-based credit management platform that seamlessly integrates with all leading accountancy packages including Xero, Sage, and more.
The inspiration behind the platform was to enable users to instantaneously credit check companies, get live data and real-time updates to monitor customer’s credit behaviour and mitigate potential credit risks. The platform also provides finance teams and business owners with a simple way to check your customers’ creditworthiness, ensure customers pay on time through scheduled reminders and customisable chaser emails, letters and SMS, helping reduce debtor days and increasing cash flow. Users can also get instant quotes to collect unpaid invoices quickly and efficiently, as well as monitoring and acquiring reports on commercial debts. The platform will make help businesses and finance teams, no matter the size, operate much more efficiently with it comes to debtors.
What challenges do you think it will address within credit management?
Know-it aims to make credit management as easy as possible. The market can be overly complicated for users and very time-consuming. Know-it addresses this problem through three core principles of Check-it, Chase-it, Collect-it.
Our pick and mix subscription option let users practice these concepts independently, giving businesses what they need when they need it most.
Check-it is a credit reporting tool that allows you to check the credit health of any business. It provides access to real-time data on prospective and current customers to help inform future business decisions. Chase-it streamlines your credit control process, and handles all the time-consuming chaser emails, freeing up time whilst keeping Know-it customers on top of invoicing. It also allows you to send customised emails, letters and SMS to customers reminding them of when they need to make a payment. Finally, Collect-it is there when customer payments don’t go to plan. Supported by Darcey Quigley & Co, Collect-it will help recover unpaid debt while maintaining your customer relationships.
I fully believe introducing these three principles into credit management will address the gaps in the market and change the way we view the industry as a whole. I pride myself on being a student of the game, I have always studied the credit management market to see what t users are being denied. I am fully confident that Know-it fills these gaps.
It’s an interesting time to be launching a start-up, why now?
When launching any new venture there are risks involved. It certainly wasn’t my intention to launch during a global pandemic and every business needs a slice of fortune! Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity and there was a timely opening for the platform to provide an additional level of support for vulnerable businesses at a point when they needed it most.
Help from automated credit management systems has conventionally been out of reach for many businesses until now. I have complete confidence Know-it will offer organisations a complete and all-inclusive solution enabling them to work smarter. As the pandemic continues to rip through the business community, now is a crucial time for technology to step in and offer a helping hand to those businesses most in need.
The launch of Know-it reinforces the strength of Scotland’s tech sector, what is your perception of the market?
Scotland’s tech sector continues to go from strength to strength, celebrating a proud tradition of producing creative and forwarding thinking minds.
As a nation, we have always prided ourselves on being open and vibrant, while still maintaining a strong sense of identity. A key attraction to Scotland is the unique and energetic culture, as each city boasts its own identity reflecting the pride of those who live there. Also, the living costs are substantially cheaper than other tech hubs such as London ”“ this is a huge factor for those relocating. Afterall, who doesn’t want a few more pounds in the bank every month!
Tech giants such as Google, Twitter and Microsoft have recently stated they are open to staff continuing to work from home for the future. As a result, the country has access to more fantastic talent who would otherwise have to relocate for the roles. The Scottish tech market in my opinion is in a very strong and healthy place currently and will only continue to get stronger as we move forward which is very exciting.
What do you think makes Scotland so different to other tech hubs around the world?
Scotland thrives on its strong sense of community and the tech scene up here is no different. Scotland has separated itself from the strong competition across the world by continually sharing ideas and challenging the status quo. We pride ourselves on being creative and not afraid to tackle new challenges. This is one of the key reasons for the monumental progression in the Scottish tech scene in recent years.
A second factor is an access to a highly skilled workforce. From world-class universities to magnificent third level institutions, Scotland continues to see a torrent of new talent being every year. Scotland also has CodeBase, the biggest tech incubator in the UK. This means our country is situated perfectly to continually cultivating the latest start-ups in the technology industry. The relentless development of flair and talent into the workforce in my opinion separates the Scottish tech scene from those across the world.
For someone looking to take up a career in tech, what advice would you give?
Technology is a playing field that is always transforming, and that transformation is happening quicker than ever. As an industry, a day’s work is never dull, and two days are nearly never the same. You will be given new and exciting ideas and projects to work on regularly, so you need to be ready and have an excellent mind for problem-solving. Keeping up to date with the latest trends and updates is very important and will benefit you ten-fold as you go on throughout your career. Familiarise yourself with all announcements within the market, so if you’re working on a new project that involves the latest industry innovations you can put your best foot forward. Technology is a very exciting and rewarding career, it is filled with so much opportunity and scope. The best advice I can give to anyone thinking of a career in tech is to go for it!
What is needed for Scotland to continue succeeding on the world tech scene?
The Scottish tech scene is in a wonderful place, however, with all industries, there are areas that need strengthening if we are to continue progressing.
The greatest asset the tech scene boasts is its people. These are individuals with creativity, flair and passion that have the ability to turn concepts written down on paper into reality.
Scotland has to continue producing the finest tech talent on our home soil through our universities, colleges and other initiatives, as well as attracting the best talent from overseas. The Tech Nation Global Talent Visa remains an important resource for drawing some of the sharpest minds in the tech world to Scotland and the rest of the UK. Nearly a third of individuals endorsed for the visa that is located in Scotland is a tech founder. It is clear the industry structure, combined with the strength of the community has excelled us to be a market leader. The challenge moving forward is enticing more talent from outside the United Kingdom into the market.
Crypto Wallet and Zumo Launches B2B Offering
Zumo, the crypto wallet and payments Fintech, has announced its Zumokit; crypto as a service platform.
This new B2B product targets Fintechs and other financial institutions that aim to compliantly offer cryptocurrencies to meet the demand of customers to access digital assets.
ZumoKit is a blockchain agnostic, thus enabling companies to connect to any blockchain by adopting any cryptocurrency or using their own stablecoin. This provides businesses to integrate a digital currency, allowing their customers to buy and sell digital currencies as an investment.
Commercial Director at Zumo, Eddie Robb, states that this gives businesses the tools necessary to build cryptocurrency solutions into their platforms, saving them thousands of hours of work.
“We’re working with a number of savings, remittance, and share trading apps to allow them to offer crypto to their customers. ZumoKit is a ready-to-roll solution for fintech companies and other financial institutions that want to bring the benefits of crypto to their customers. It’s a plug and play product that makes it easy to get going with crypto in a safe, secure and compliant way.”
Robb added that such a solution can be beneficial to companies, as it allows them to provide customers with the ability to trade crytocurrencies whilst also shielding the wider business from the ups and downs of the markets.
Founded in Edinburgh in 2018 by Nick Jones and Paul Roach, Zumo is available for download on both iOS and Android app stores.
Tindeco: One of the top 100 WealthTechs
For the second year in a row, Tindeco has been announced as one of the world’s 100 most innovative WealthTech companies. Tindeco VISION enables investment managers to efficiently provide customised investment solutions through the execution of highly scalable operating models.
Their featured article teaches you how they can help when it comes to implementing your investment process, as well as providing you with customised solutions just for your clients.
MBN Launches Data Science Podcast, AI Right?
MBN Solutions has today launched a new data science podcast. AI Right? is a monthly podcast exploring industry news and how this impacts data scientists.
Kris McFadyen, MBN’s Associate Director, Andy McMahon and Megan Stamper, data science experts, will be hosting the podcast with the ambition to make data science more accessible.
“With AI Right? we hope to create a show that’s easily accessible to anyone that wants to join the data science industry, while still informing industry veterans,” says McFadyen. “The industry expertise of Andy and Megan brings an extra layer to the show ”“ they’re on the frontlines and know the impacts and benefits of the topics we discuss.”
With its first episode premiering in April, the show’s roundtable format aims to be the first of its kind within the UK by bringing together both recruitment and industry expertise to aid data scientists (and anyone with interest in careers within the space) with engaging more easily within the field.
“We have an opportunity here to bring data science insight and expertise not just to industry veterans but to Scotland as a whole,” says Stamper, who has a PhD in oceanographic fluid mechanics and works as Principal Data Scientist on recommendation engines and conversational AI in media.
“Data science is thriving in Scotland,” Stamper continues, “and it has an opportunity to become a leading industry that helps put Scotland on the map as a technology and science driven nation.”
Co-host Andy McMahon, a machine learning engineer with a PhD in condensed matter physics, states that the trio wants to make the podcast as accessible as possible, to as many people as possible despite the nature and complexity of data science.
“The three of us know how complicated data science can be and with AI Right? we really focus on giving people information and commentary that’s relevant and easy to understand. We’re confident that the podcast will be as useful for chief data scientists as it will be for students and hobbyists, because the information is relevant to the whole industry, but given in a way that makes it accessible.”
Agreeing with Andy, McFadyen adds that he hopes that AI Right? will act as an encouragement for more people to join the field.
“At MBN we’re closer to the market than perhaps anyone else and what we see is a huge data science skills shortage. The industry is full of incredible people doing some extraordinary work but unless we can help and encourage more talent into the industry, Scotland is going to struggle. MBN’s MSc Placement Programme, in partnership with the Data Lab, and AI Right? are just two parts of making the industry more accessible.”
The first episode of AI Right? is available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and all other major podcast platforms. You can also watch episodes of AI Right? on the MBN Solutions website.
New Advisory Appointments at Ionburst
Retired Royal Navy Rear Admiral Steve Brunton CBE and Steve Wilkinson, a global data privacy leader, have joined Edinburgh-based advanced cybersecurity startup, Ionburst, as UK advisors.
Rear Admiral Steven Brunton and Steve Wilkinson have just been announced by Ionburst as two high-profile advisor appointments. Rear Admiral, now operating as an Independent Advisor to a number of government and industry organisations, joins Wilkinson, the Data Protection Subject Matter Expert at the UK Cabinet Office Government Digital Service (GDS).
Both join Ionburst whilst it experiences a significant growth period, as it builds theUK and overseas business.
Commenting on the appointments, Ionburst Founder, Dr David Lanc said: “The Cloud needs a new philosophy for protecting the privacy of mission critical information and workloads. We have developed a best-in-class data protection solution to empower this, and its relevance is supported by these powerful industry leaders strengthening our advisory team.”
Rear Admiral Steve Brunton CBE said: “I’m excited to join the Ionburst journey. I believe Ionburst has the ability to help protect us and our way of life in the digital world. I look forward to working with the Ionburst team to help engage with Government and the Defence sector, and to help navigate the next phase of the company’s growth.”
Steve Wilkinson commented: “Ionburst is at the forefront of data security, privacy and sovereignty. In my experience, it’s unique in solving the well-known issues of data privacy compliance and protection from unwanted surveillance in one solution. This is vital to preserve the privacy of sensitive information, which has been made more critical with the EU Court of Justice recently invalidating the EU-US data privacy shield and Brexit.”
Lanc added: “We have big ambitions to help industry and government protect citizen and sensitive data in a world that also demands carbon efficiency. Welcoming Steve and Steve as distinguished advisors demonstrates our aspirations.”
Ionburst has developed a paradigm shift in data protection, through its innovations in privacy by default and data defence in depth.
Omnio selects AutoRek’s reconciliation solution
AutoRek, the Scottish fintech and leading software provider to global financial services firms, has announced Omnio as the latest addition to its ever-expanding list of digital banking/payment clients.
Omnio, a high-growth financial services infrastructure provider, provides a singular platform that combines the best of banking capabilities and customer engagement/loyalty. With operations in the UK and Europe, and headquartered in London, it supports many of the leading corporates and financial institutions in providing innovative and effective banking, payment and loyalty solutions.
AutoRek will provide the core reconciliation solution, including internal and external reconciliations between Omnio’s payment processors, bank accounts and ledger system. AutoRek’s solution seeks to replace its existing manual Excel process by providing end-to-end automation and will facilitate increased efficiency and control, as well as provide automated reporting and real-time Management Information to ensure the team’s business users and management are provided with quality MI through a variety of dashboards to fulfil their daily activities at the optimal level.
Laurence Sproston, Head of Reconciliations and Settlements at Omnio, commented, “We approached AutoRek to provide us with a solution to help automate our reconciliation processes. Our main goal in pursuing this partnership is to save time, costs and ensure operational resilience as we move forward to a new way of working. The AutoRek team adopts a collaborative approach for implementation and have provided us with an automated solution ensuring our regulatory, data integrity, workflow and management information needs are met.”
Gordon McHarg, CEO at AutoRek, added, “We are pleased to welcome Omnio to our increasingly growing client portfolio. The payments industry is evolving rapidly and we are proud that AutoRek’s capabilities meet the challenges facing the industry including volume of data. We are looking forward to establishing a good relationship with Omnio and building upon it over the years.”
Nick Botha, Banking and Payments Lead at AutoRek, who led the deal commented, “We are delighted to be working with the Omnio team. Following the turbulent year defined by COVID-19 and with the constant changes taking place in the digital banking and payments world, we are extremely proud that Omnio has selected the AutoRek solution to be the glue between their internal and external systems.”
Ionburst Cloud Continues Expansion into UK
The advanced data protection startup, Ionburst Cloud, has launched its ultra-secure object storage platform this week in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) London region. Based in Edinburgh, the startup has created the solution of addressing the data protection gap that exists in the Cloud shared responsibility model.
Stating that data privacy is ‘a human right’, the founders of Ionburst Cloud bakes security into the Cloud so that the high bar for protecting data on entry is removed for British businesses of all sizes.
With a very promising initial traction in both the Technology and Fintech sectors, Ionburst Cloud met stringent data privacy regulations like GDPR and the invalidation of the EU-US Data Privacy Shield.
“We are proud to announce that we are expanding the Ionburst Cloud platform into the UK. Going live in the UK is another exciting step forward in our journey of providing data privacy compliance and protection as part of the Cloud. We believe making this part of the Cloud means that customers will never unexpectedly share data again.
We are delighted to be able to offer this service to UK businesses from this week.” – says Anne Lanc, former International Treasury Director of BlackRock.
As a celebration to mark its UK launch, Ionburst Cloud is helping startups and developers by launching a 5GB free tier.
“The sheer scale of the data leaks we’re continuing to see in the Cloud shows there’s a fundamental security gap. This issue isn’t just a concern for smaller businesses, or those without cloud security expertise. Larger, more technical organisations have also been on the receiving end of Cloud data exposure and storage misconfiguration.
We’ve built Ionburst Cloud to fill the missing data security need for organisations storing information in the Cloud, and to always keep it safe and protected.” Josh Fraser ”“ Chief Cybersecurity Engineer.
Ionburst Cloud’s approach has been used by customers in the EU and proven at Cloud scale.
“It is now available to try on the AWS Marketplace from the UK today, and is the first step toward establishing the Cloud we deserve.” says Ms Lanc, CEO (US) and CFO at Ionburst.
Level E Research closes seed funding round.
Level E Research, a leader in artificial intelligence (AI) investment solutions, has raised £1.2m from a group of private investors all through a seed funding round.
Founded in 2018 by Dr Sonia Schulenburg, the business combines data science, machine learning and behavioural economics to facilitate institutional investors in developing, testing and implementing smart investment strategies at the highest levels of automation. Their selling point? They offer it at a significantly lower cost than traditional investment management business models.
CEO Schulenburg stated,
“This very successful fundraising backed by well-known industry leaders is a huge vote of confidence in our technology and business model, enabling us to scale up our business development efforts as well as continue to invest in cutting edge research and attract the most talented people. Our hedge fund clients have been quick to realise the benefits that our unique machine learning platform can provide, and we are in discussions with asset managers who are keen to integrate our AI into their investment process or seeking to launch the next generation of AI-driven funds. Our modular SaaS platform readily integrates into existing infrastructure making it easy to adopt.”
Nicola Anderson (CEO of FinTech Scotland)
“I am delighted to hear that Level E Research has secured a significant amount of seed funding. This is a testament to the strength of its innovation and capability and will lead to the creation of more highly skilled jobs in Scotland. The fact that it is mainly Scottish backers who are investing in Sonia’s vision and leadership, supporting a woman fintech founder, also demonstrates the strength of Scotland’s commitment to fintech, diversity and inclusion.”
For further information, please contact Philip Rothfield: phil@levele.ai
Climate Change Risk in Finance – Edinburgh University
With the ever-increasing demand in the FS Sector, the University of Edinburgh has launched a new, short online executive education course regarding Climate Change Risk in Finance for financial services and fintech professionals. Supported by the Scottish Funding Council, the course is available to a limited number of 50 employees, with places available on the first-come-first-served basis.
Context
With climate-related financial risks ever-increasingly prominent, the effective management of such risks is a primary concern and consideration of investors and regulatory authorities. Topics such as sustainability within financial institutions and markets and climate change impacts in finance are becoming essential for effective decision-making finance professionals. With the University of Edinburgh being a world-leading academic hub for the exploration of how the climate is changing, the impact of this upon the environment, society and economies and thus, how climate adaptation and mitigation strategies are evolving.
About the Climate Change Risk in Finance Executive Education Course 📣:
- Topic: the consequences of climate change on finance – how to navigate data, measure risk, gain accurate insights for financial decision making, and capture opportunities related to transitioning to net zero, and the emerging climate-focused fintech products. This course aims to give financial services and fintech professionals the knowledge and confidence to engage with the topics of sustainable finance and climate-related financial risks, to understand their implications, and to take advantage of the opportunities ahead.
- This course for You if you are a financial professional working in either asset management, investment or commercial bank, pension funds, insurance, fintech, or similar.
- Outcomes: Over the course of 10 weeks, you will:
- Explore theories and practice of sustainable finance and climate-related financial risks.
- Be introduced to climate change fundamentals and terminology.
- Understand how to translate the complex climate information compiled from observations and near- and long-term model predictions for financial decision-makers.
- Understand how to assess and quantify the direct risks arising from climate change on physical assets, businesses, portfolios and supply chains; and also near-term disruptive impacts associated with mitigation policies, changing preferences, and ongoing technological change.
- Understand the impact of climate change on different financial asset classes (equity markets, fixed-income markets, real estate).
- Build confidence in applying learnings for financial decision-making.
- Format: 10 ”“weeks long, online course, mix of self-paced materials – pre-recorded and live sessions. Delivered by academic experts & practitioners; facilitated discussions & additional resources
- Start date: 3rd of May 2021.
- Registration: https://climatechangeriskinfinance.eventbrite.co.uk/
- Group bookings: Group discounts are available for colleagues from the same organisation. If you would like to register several participants from one company, please get in touch: Ksenia.Siedlecka@ei.ed.ac.uk
- The course fee of £1,500 includes all tuition, guest speaker engagements, and course materials.
- Further information:
https://www.business-school.ed.ac.uk/executive-education/climate-change-risk-in-finance
AG Elevate Programme’s New Uptake
AG Elevate programme, a unique fast-track legal mentoring scheme for early-stage businesses, has a new uptake of eleven high-growth UK technology companies.
The programme, designed and delivered by the leading lawyers at Addleshaw Goddard, assigns successful candidates with a legal mentor and dedicated support over a ten-month period. In addition, the 2021 cohort will receive access to professional industry networks, bespoke collateral designed by Addleshaw Goddard and a collaborative online hub, as well as the opportunity to work alongside like-minded business professionals in the tech ecosystem to help elevate and grow their firms.
The ever-growing popularity of the programme was proven this year, with more than three times the number of applications previously received. The eleven organisations selected span across the UK, from Aberdeen to London. Lawyers from across all six of Addleshaw Goddard’s UK offices will now mentor and work with the dynamic firms which include:
- London-based firms Rosecut Technologies, Lumio Technologies, Flomark and Yayzy
- Scotland-based BlackArrow Financial Solutions
- Trojan Energy, headquartered in Aberdeen
- Manchester-based Voly and Assif
- Yorkshire-based Crysp
- WhereIsMyTransport and JUST: Access, both based in Leeds and London
David Anderson, a Corporate and Commercial Partner at Addleshaw Goddard, who specialises in technology said:
“The pandemic has accelerated digital innovation and the integration of technology in all aspects of our lives. We must recognise the vast array of opportunities and expertise tech companies across the UK bring towards the growth and rebuilding of our economy.
“Addleshaw Goddard is the only law firm to offer a dedicated programme of this calibre, and we’re incredibly excited to welcome our 2021 AG Elevate cohort on board. Every company selected champions innovation and pragmatic solutions in the technology sector in which they operate.
“Alongside colleagues across the UK and beyond, we’ll use our expertise in the sector to work closely with the chosen firms to help them navigate their way through the legal challenges frequently faced by fast-growing earlier-stage firms in a bid to propel them into the next chapter.”
Over its five year lifespan, the programme has supported more than 30 fintech and technology, entrepreneurs in accelerating innovation as well as helping establish an international presence. Although originally designed for fintech firms, this year marked the first year that the programme welcomed all high-growth tech businesses, placing a greater focus on businesses interested in sustainability.
For more information about the AG Elevate programme, visit: https://www.addleshawgoddard.com/en/ag-elevate/programmes/apply/2021-ag-elevate-cohort/