Newsletter, 20th ed.

Welcome to the 20th Edition of Perspective, by i3strategies®️.

Thank you to everyone who reads and subscribes to our newsletter.

If you are new to this newsletter, here is a quick introduction:

i3strategies®️ is a market research and strategy consulting firm with expertise in Financial Crime Risk and Compliance, spanning Cybercrime, Fraud, Money Laundering, Corruption/Bribery, and Sanctions.

Our commercial focus is on Finance, Tech, Professional Services, Private Equity, and Venture Capital clients.

This newsletter covers the business and strategy sides of Financial Crime Risk and Compliance. Enjoy the read, and thank you!

Investments, Mergers and Acquisitions

In June 2024, we tracked four (4) investments and one (1) acquisition. Here are the deals that were announced:

HYPR / $30M Venture Round

https://blog.hypr.com/press-releases/hypr-secures-funding-to-combat-generative-ai-attack?_ga=2.179718884.1308928107.1717685134-649185065.1698166890

SpyCloud / $35M Growth Financing

https://www.innovationbanking.cibc.com/press-releases-detail?p_p_id=com_cibc_ib_detail_CibcIbFeedDetailPortlet&p_p_lifecycle=0&feedId=66dcb3fa-11c9-cc30-1840-34f1275a59c3&languageId=1&prname=1031315

Hawk / Undisclosed Series B Extension

https://hawk.ai/news-press/hawk-extends-series-b-funding-rabobank-joins-existing-investors-fuel-global-banking

TrackLight / $3M Seed Round

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240624035579/en/TrackLight-Raises-3M-in-Funding-to-Empower-Government-Agencies-and-Enterprises-with-an-AI-Driven-Fraud-Prevention-Solution-Launches-AI-Co-Pilot-Ray-the-Parrot

Market News

Here are recent rebranding, partnerships, product releases, and innovations happening across the Financial Crime Risk and Compliance solutions landscape.

Award-Winning Decision Intelligence Firm Quantexa Accelerates Global Momentum, Announces Strong FY24 Business Results

https://www.quantexa.com/press/award-winning-decision-intelligence-firm-quantexa-accelerates-global-momentum-announces-strong-fy24-business-results/?utm_campaign=Global+Campaign+%7C+Brand+%7C+Decision+Intelligence&utm_medium=organic_social&utm_source=LinkedIn

Sumsub Joins Mastercard Engage Partner Program to Enhance User Verification and Fraud Prevention

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sumsub-joins-mastercard-engage-partner-program-to-enhance-user-verification-and-fraud-prevention-302164129.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Oscilar and SentiLink Join Forces to Revolutionize Fraud Prevention and Enhance Digital Identity Security

https://oscilar.com/blog/oscilar-sentilink-partnership

One Copilot for All: Introducing Luci's System-Agnostic Plugin

https://lucinity.com/blog/one-copilot-for-all?utm_source=LI&utm_medium=GKblog&utm_campaign=CMPN-Luci-Copilot-Plugin

Summer ‘24 Product Update: Currency Transaction Reports (CTRs), AI File Summarization, Slack & Microsoft Teams Apps, And More

https://www.hummingbird.co/resources/2024-summer-product-release?utm_content=296436765&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin&hss_channel=lcp-11071212

Oscilar's AI-Powered ACH Fraud Detection: Safeguarding the Modern Financial Ecosystem

https://oscilar.com/blog/ai-ach-fraud-detection

zkMe Partners with Okto to Enhance Web3 Identity Verification

https://blog.zk.me/zkme-partners-with-okto-to-enhance-web3-identity-verification/

AgeChecked Launches Identity Verification and Risk Monitoring Solutions Brand, GlobalCheck

https://www.agechecked.com/blog/agechecked-launches-identity-verification-and-risk-monitoring-solutions-brand-globalcheck/

Sphere Collaborates with Chainalysis to Enhance Compliance

https://medium.com/@spherepay/sphere-collaborates-with-chainalysis-to-enhance-compliance-b5db5099af72

AtData Partners with Dodgeball to Elevate Digital Fraud Protection

https://www.prweb.com/releases/atdata-partners-with-dodgeball-to-elevate-digital-fraud-protection-302176849.html

Discai and Harmoney join forces to fight financial crime

https://ibsintelligence.com/ibsi-news/discai-harmoney-join-forces-to-fight-financial-crime/

Quantifind Unveils a Transformative Payments Risk Intelligence Solution Built to Handle Massive Payment Scales with Superior Speed and Accuracy

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/quantifind-unveils-a-transformative-payments-risk-intelligence-solution-built-to-handle-massive-payment-scales-with-superior-speed-and-accuracy-302183687.html

Lynx Launches Money Mule Account Detection Tool to Stop Organised Crime in its Tracks

https://lynxtech.com/resources/news/

(Substack Article) The Role of the Analyst in Financial Crime Risk and Compliance

While Analyst is the most common term used to describe the largest part of the financial crime risk and compliance industry’s workforce — we have set titles like Compliance Analyst, Compliance Officer, Investigative Analyst, Financial Intelligence Analyst, Financial Crime Analyst, BSA/AML Analyst, Fraud Analyst, Investigator, and the list goes on for this vital component of what I would call the world’s largest network of analytic cells (teams going through information/data for intelligence purposes).

For this article, I focus on the term Analyst and the role of the Analyst across the four (4) primary functional elements of financial crime risk and compliance operations; Currency and Suspicious Activity Reporting, Due Diligence, and Watchlist Screening.

https://vicmaculaitis.substack.com/p/the-role-of-the-analyst-in-financial

(LinkedIn Post/Substack Note)

Most boardrooms view financial crime risk as regulatory risk, a compliance issue. Lawyers, consultants, vendors, (some) BSA Officers, and the regulators themselves promulgate this idea.

Modern boards will focus on efficiency + effectiveness + how managing financial crime risk enables the business.

Supervision is nothing more than a guardrail.

https://substack.com/@vicmaculaitis/note/c-60220473

(Podcast / Guest Series: Anthony Quinn)

In this episode of The Perspective Podcast guest series, Vic Maculaitis welcomes Anthony Quinn. Anthony is the Founder/CEO of Arctic Intelligence, a RegTech business based in Australia.

We cover the nuances of risk assessments; the stages of maturing risk assessment processes; and how Arctic Intelligence supports the modernization of FinCrime risk assessments.

https://vicmaculaitis.substack.com/p/guest-anthony-quinn

Subscribe to Perspective, by Vic Maculaitis on Substack for more posts, articles, and podcast episodes.