docStribute® uses distributed ledger technology (DLT) to help financial institutions and adjacent sectors send regulated or mandatory documents to customers.
The digital delivery of certain documents, such as terms of service and contracts, is heavily regulated, complex, and expensive. This often results in financial institutions reverting to the distribution of printed documents instead.
That’s where we come in. Our solution, docStribute®, uses DLT to streamline these processes and provides a safer way to communicate digitally. Aside from solving this, there are many other benefits that the technology delivers. These include improving customer experience, trust, cost savings, improved cybersecurity and compliance, and a reduction in carbon emissions when compared to both paper and digital based alternatives.
Secure:
docStribute® uses Hedera Hashgraph’s consensus mechanism to protect the integrity of documents and digital signatures, by doing so removes the need to attach PDFs to emails and the cyber risks associated with this. Our solution uses two-factor authentication (SMS) to protect access to sensitive information or contracts, adding an additional layer of security when needed, allowing you to securely send customer sensitive documents such as account statements.
Cost Saving:
It significantly reduces customer communication costs through a streamlined solution, avoiding expensive print & post remediation and log-in alternatives.
Sustainable:
Energy efficient network which reduces CO2e when compared to attachments and other digital alternatives. Hedera Hashgraph is more efficient than other DLTs, reducing 80% CO2e versus PDF/HTML and even further compared to paper
Simple:
docStribute® reduces the reliance on portals, especially where adoption and engagement rates are low, by providing regulated and private documents through its “immutable hyperlinks” which can be shared via email, instant messaging, or text, so it supports omni-channel communication…recipients do not need to sign up to get access to documents.
The financial services sector is currently estimated to distribute 5.2bn pieces of paper at a cost of £1.7bn a year, equivalent to 2.4mn trees. docStribute® was founded in response.
The solution uses distributed ledger technology to help financial institutions send regulated or mandatory documents to customers. Benefits include cost savings, improved cybersecurity and compliance, and carbon emissions reduction. Crucially, it complies with durable medium FCA regulation (that documents cannot be altered once sent).
The founding team of Chris Ansara, Christian Hvamstad, Nino Vojvodic and Vegard Bringsjord have backgrounds in financial services and technology. Additional expertise comes from ex-Barclays vice-chair Phil Shelley (chair) plus an advisory board, which includes the former EY Wealth Management head. The group combines deep industry expertise and legacy in the financial sector with a future-focussed approach.
docStribute® was founded in 2019 and has received support from the UK government via an Innovate UKgrant, awarded in recognition of docStribute®’s innovative nature and sector-changing potential. Already docStribute® is working with a range of financial service providers including forex providers, building societies, and large retail banks. The technology can even be rolled out to adjacent sectors and has remarkable scaling capabilities.
Christopher Ansara
Founder & CEO
Christopher Ansara is both founder and CEO of docStribute®, prior to founding docStribute®, Chris spent 3 years in one of the UK’s largest retail banks, where he discovered first-hand some of the challenges the sector faces when communicating with their customers. Over his 15-year career Chris has worked with many senior product and regulatory stakeholders to develop content and software solutions that facilitate digital transformation. Alongside many financial institutions, Chris has also previously worked with some of the world’s leading brands including Castrol, Coca-Cola, Adidas, and McDonald’s.
Nino Vang Vojvodic
CTO & Co-Founder
Nino Vang Vodjvodic has 20 years of experience from IT security, business development, and finance. Nino has extensive knowledge on how to combine cutting edge technologies with governance models to support growth. Nino built Hamilton People, a HR/Technology company employing over 1000 people in Norway, which he later sold to TopTemp. Nino understands the crucial role technology will need to play in helping the UK reach its decarbonisation targets of Net Zero by 2050.
Christian A. Hvamstad
CSO & Co-Founder
Christian A. Hvamstad is our Chief Strategy Officer & Co-Founder. He is the founder of Jagca Capital as well as co-founder of Wastefront . Christian has over 15 years’ experience from running a Private Office, Wealth Management, Capital market and Credit Management, having previously worked at Midas Investment Group, SEB & Nordea. Christian also serves as a Director on the docStribute® board and places immense value on efficiency plus building long-standing relationships with clients and colleagues alike.
Vegard Bringsjord
CFO & Co-Founder
Vegard is the Chief Financial Officer & Co Founder of docStribute®, Vegard is also a Partner at Jagca Capital and co-founder of Wastefront. His experience ranges from asset finance, restructuring, and risk management in technology, to banking and commodity trade – having worked at Nordea’s as well as Angola LNG Marketing prior to co-founding docStribute®.
Andrew Taylor
Head of Sales
Andrew has 15 years’ experience in the Finance and Fintech Industry primarily with RBS and MarketFinance, carrying out several client facing and sales leadership roles.
Andrew spent an initial 10 years within the corporate banking world at RBS, he then decided to take the leap in to the start-up / scale-up world in 2016 joining MarketFinance, a Fintech funding solution business. Having seen the issues with document management first hand in the finance industry, Andrew is enthusiastic to apply his experience and bring commercial success to docStribute®.
Phil Shelley
Chairman
After graduation from Edinburgh University, Phil served in the Armed Forces as an Officer in the Royal Green Jackets. He joined UBS in 1995 where he worked in Corporate Broking and Equity Capital markets for 15 years, culminating as Head of Corporate Broking. He joined Goldman Sachs in 2010 where he ran the Corporate Broking and Equity Capital Markets team before joining Barclays as Vice Chairman of the Investment Bank.
During his career of nearly 25 years Phil has advised on IPOs for many UK and European companies, including most recently Alfa Financial Software, Virgin Money, Direct Line Insurance Group and Saga. He has advised many companies including Rolls Royce, Prudential, Imperial Brands, ARM, BP, Vodafone, Legal and General, Anglo American, Rio Tinto, Zurich Insurance and British Land amongst others.
Brian Guckian
Non-Executive Director
Brian worked at SEB, rising to head of equities. Currently, Guckian is involved with numerous start-ups through his work at Appital and advisory positions, as well as being an investor in a range of start-ups. His specialisms include business development and fundraising, both of which he looks forward to bringing to docStribute®.
Sarah Ronald
Advisory Board
Sarah Ronald is an award-winning entrepreneur, founder of strategic design firm Nile, founding partner of two tech companies (Pawprint and Exizent) and an investor in numerous early-stage companies. She has been involved in redesigning the currency banknotes for two countries, launched the first emergency cash service in Europe, and the digitisation of the world’s largest insurance marketplace.
Her background is in human-computer interaction and behavioural psychology, and her interests lie in working within regulated environments as these are often the most challenging spaces to create new products, services and changes in human behaviour. She has served as a digital adviser to the UK Government and is an advisory board member for the Scottish Government’s Technology Ecosystem review, which is chaired by Cabinet Minister Kate Forbes.
Sarah is married with two big kids, two little kids and a stubborn French bulldog. She’s a keen skier and many moons ago played touch rugby for Scotland
Keith MacDonald
Advisory Board
Having led EY’s Wealth Management and Private Banking business for over 10 years, Keith is now advising a range of fintechs and scaleups on strategy, distribution, partnerships and funding. He is also a trustee and adviser to several philanthropic and charity bodies.
With EY he advised many UK and international clients and boards on strategy, mergers and acquisitions, ecosystems, infrastructure and technology, and led major award winning programmes of thought leadership and business development, including how firms support philanthropy, social investing and ESG. At EY, Keith is currently a Senior Adviser within the Wealth Management team, helping to develop their brand and business. He has also been a partner at Capco and CapGemini.
Keith is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, and the Chartered Institute of Marketing, and holds an MBA from Strathclyde University, and BA from Sheffield University. Keith is married with two daughters, is a keen theatre and concert goer, a squash player and occasional mountain climber, and a Manchester City and Saracens fan.
Dag Lee
Advisory Board
Dag Lee has held global leadership positions across banking and finance, industry, distributed retail and service chains, healthcare and fitness. In many of these, he worked on service challenges, aligning propositions, culture, and operational delivery, often within a private equity setting. Dag is also an active venture investor and board member/adviser.
Dag speaks five languages, has business degrees from three universities in the UK, the US and the Middle east, and is currently chair and director at strategic design firm Nile; co-founder and chair of global management consultant DBI; an adviser to FSN Capital, and chair of InTouch Tech Inc.
Agobakwe M. Hvamstad
Business Development
Ago is a financial services professional with a wealth of experience within business relationship management, client on-boarding, fraud investigations and business development. Ago is co-founder of Jagca Capital and has previously worked at Barclays Bank, Botswana Life and Carltone.
Victoria Odfjell
SoME & Marketing
Victoria has an Economics degree from University of Surrey, prior to graduating Victoria completed a 10-month Placement Year at Jagca Capital Ltd. where she was seconded into docStribute®, as a Business Analyst. Vicky has a strong passion for sustainability and the technology industry and now drives awareness with her role as a Social Media and Marketing Manager at docStribute® .
